The spark chamber at the UB Department of Physics has been created by Prof. Gary Nickard. It is presently not on permanent display due to construction.

A spark chamber is a device used to detect particles flying into Earth's atmosphere from outside the galaxy, called cosmic rays. The chamber consists of metal plates inside a sealed box that is filled with a gas, such as helium. As charged particles travel through the detector, they ionize the gas between the plates and trigger a high voltage to oppositely charge the neighboring plates. This creates a spark in the chamber which travels along the path of the particle.