caesiumn.
/ˈsiːzɪəm/, U.S. /ˈsiziəm/ Chemistry. Also (U.S.)
One of the elementary bodies; a rare alkali-metal discovered by spectrum-analysis in 1860–61 by Bunsen and Kirchhoff; so called from two distinctive lines in the spectrum given by its compounds. Symbol Cs. Used attributively, as in caesium compounds; caesium cell n. (see quot. 1940).
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the world > matter > chemistry > elements and compounds > metals > specific elements > caesium > [noun]
caesium1861
Cs1861
the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electricity > voltage > photovoltaics > [noun] > photocell > specific types of cells
phototube1930
caesium cell1931
1861 London, Edinb., & Dublin Philos. Mag. 4th Ser. 21 86 A faint blue line not due to strontium or potassium or to the lately discovered cæsium.
1862 Timbs Year-bk. of Facts 188 Cæsium and Rubidium. The new alkaline metals..described..in the Philosophical Magazine.
1864 Lyell Inaug. Addr. in Reader 17 Sept. 358 It was necessary to evaporate fifty tons of water to obtain 200 grains of what proved to be two new metals..He (Professor Bunsen) named the first cæsium, from the bluish-grey lines which it presented in the spectrum.
1868 H. B. Jones & H. Watts Fownes's Man. Elem. Chem. (ed. 10) 356 Caesium carbonate is soluble in absolute alcohol.
1931 Engineering 16 Jan. 87/1 The new Osram monatomic caesium cell being the most suitable for white light.
1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 125/2 Caesium cell, a photo-electric cell having a cathode consisting of a thin layer of caesium deposited on minute globules of silver; it is particularly sensitive to infra-red radiation.
1955 Sci. News Let. 27 Aug. 131/1 Cesium is a heavier and more active relative of sodium and potassium.
1958 C. C. Adams et al. Space Flight xiv. 346 Both rubidium and cesium have been considered as the propellant for the ion drive.
1958 Times Rev. Industry July 25/2 Machines now in service are stated to be equivalent in power to Cobalt 60 sources of well over 100,000 curies, and, in the isotope Caesium 137, of about 500,000 curies.
1960 Gloss. Atomic Terms (H.M.S.O.) 9 Caesium (137),..a long-lived (30 yr. half life) gamma-emitting radioactive isotope (caesium 137) is found in fission products, the ‘ash’ of nuclear reactors, and is used for cancer therapy in some hospitals..and for industrial radiography.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1888; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1861