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Krypton is colorless, odorless, and tasteless element. It is a noble,
or inert gas (one that will usually not combine with other elements).
Krypton exists in the air to the extent of one part in one million
by volume. The fission, or splitting, of atoms produces Uranium-235.
Its discoverers gave Krypton (Greek for "hidden") the name to it,
who were British scientists, Sir William Ramsay and Morris Travers,
in 1898. Krypton gives a brilliant, fog-piercing light in lamps used
for airport runways. It is also used in high-speed photographic lamps,
and is mixed with Argon to fill fluorescent lamps. |
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Carbon filaments were employed in the first practical incandescent lamps, but modem lamps are universally made with filaments of fine tungsten wire. The filament must be enclosed in either a vacuum or an inert atmosphere. Using an inert gas instead or a vacuum in incandescent lamps has the advantage of slowing evaporation of the filament, thus making the life of the incandescent lamp longer. Most modem incandescent lamps today are filled with a mixture of Argon or Krypton and a small amount of Nitrogen. Of light energy to heat energy radiated by the filament rises as the temperature.
One of the founders, Sir William Ramsay, who was best known for his work in the isolation of elemental gases from the atmosphere, lived from 1852-1916. Sir William Ramsay was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and was educated at the universities of Glasgow and Tubingen. He served as professor of Chemistry at the University of Bristol from 1880 to 1887 and at the University of London from 1887 until 1913. He was awarded the 1904 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In 1895 he became the first to isolate Helium successfully from terrestrial sources. Ramsay also discovered Argon, Neon, and Xenon, and he contributed to the discovery that Helium is a product of the atomic disintegration of radium.
