Charged particle counters in the pre-modern period

Abstract

The history of nuclear particle and radiation counting techniques divides itself naturally into three epochs that may be labeled ; Early, Pre-Modern, and Modem. Figs . 1 and 2 are facsimile reproductions of figures from two of the seminal papers of the Early period. With this division the Modern era dates from the advent of photomultiglier-scintillation counters using anthracenet°) and thallium activated sodium iodide crystals'') followed in 1958-63 by practical solid-state ionization counters using crystals of silicon or germanium. And with this division we then designate the PreModern era as the period starting in the 1930's during which the several types of gas-ionization counters of the Early period were perfected Ind coupled to vacuum tube circuits and recording apparatus . As a young graduate student starting research in 1940 1 found the gas counter field in a developed state and one which has changed but little since. Neher's famous chapter on Geiger and Geiger-Mueller counters had appeared in Strong's Procedures in experimental physics, published in 1938. Fig. 3 is a reproduction of one of the artistic drawings from this chapter . Various recipes for making reliable GM counters were well known, although there was controversy on the reasons for