Cosmic-Ray Meter

Victor Franz Hess, an Austrian physicist, discovered cosmic rays in 1912, and won a Nobel Prize for this work in 1936. Moreover, working with Günther & Tegetmeyer, an instrument firm in Braunschweig, Hess developed instruments for capturing these rays. This cosmic ray meter, used by scientists at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, has a tag that reads "Günther & Tegetmeyer Braunschweig No - 5658."

Hesswas a professor in Austria by 1931. However, his wife was Jewish, and in 1938 they immigrated to the United States to avoid persecution by the Nazis.

Ref: R. G. A. Fricke and K. Schlegel, “100th anniversary of the discovery of cosmic radiation: the role of Günther and Tegetmeyer in the development of the necessary instrumentation,” History of Geo- and Space Sciences 3 (2012): 151-158.