Proficient in the fields of chemistry and physics, Crookes is best remembered for his invention of the Crookes tube, a cathode-ray tube that was the precursor to modern television and video tubes.

Crookes was born in London in 1832, the oldest of 16 children of a wealthy tailor and real estate investor. At age 16 he entered the Royal College of Chemistry in the hopes of studying organic chemistry. While there he became the assistant to August Wilhelm von Hofmann, a position which allowed him to attend meetings at the Royal Institution. It was at one such meeting that Crookes met the eminent physicist Michael Faraday who convinced him to change his area of concentration from chemistry to physics, and particularly to optics.

After graduation from the Royal College of Chemistry, Crookes briefly attempted two positions in academia: superintendent of the meteorological department at the Radcliffe Observatory in 1854, and Lecturer in...