Geiger counter Townsend discharge Maligning atoms Commentary

John Sealy Townsend, Hans Geiger, Walther Müller physics

Geiger counter

• You can’t see them shooting,
• but you can hear them miss
• with the Geiger counter that you carry.
• Alpha particle, beta particle, gamma ray
• zips through the tube where it ionizes an atom
• to free electrons and ions in an electric avalanche.
• *
• The Russians might drop an atom bomb
• on the school in your town,
• so you have learned to duck and cover.
• Now you know your nation must be ready.
• Assess, prepare, assemble
• its own tools, its own threats, its own fears.
• An avalanche, a cascade, a chain reaction.
• Pretty soon there’s a missile silo
• on every farm, a nuclear sub in every sea.

Townsend discharge

• A gas conducts electricity
• in a strong electric field
• when a radioactive particle
• ionizes an atom of the gas
• to free other electrons
• cascading toward the anode
• and to free other ions
• cascading toward the cathode.

Maligning atoms

• Atoms are all around us;
• we breathe them and we eat them.
• You’d like to think they were our friends.
• You’d like to think they were hard
• little nuts, not easy to crack.
• So it took a while to realize
• the dangers of atomic emissions
• and that people should not watch
• test explosions of atomic bombs.
• Today, Madame Curie’s papers
• are kept in lead-lined boxes, too dangerous
• to handle without protective clothing.