Constructing the Electric Eye: Situating the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Wisconsin Collection of Photoelectric Detectors in Historical Context

Abstract

Between 2017 and 2019, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum acquired a collection of photoelectric tubes used in the earliest program of astronomical photoelectric photometry at the University of Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Collection of Photoelectric Detectors represents a unique look inside the development of a pioneering research project and a fledgling technology. The process by which techniques and technologies related to photoelectric photometry developed in the early twentieth century involved a variety of academic disciplines and commercial actors, and this process is reflected in the variety and specific features of the tubes in the collection. This paper attempts to situate the Wisconsin Collection within the wider development of photoelectric tubes as a technology, the development of observation techniques at Wisconsin, and their contributions to astronomical knowledge.