Luminous Discharge in Gases at Low Pressures

Abstract

IF the Lecher circuit previously employed for generating a luminous discharge in electrodeless tubes by electric oscillations of high frequency—20,000 kilocycles or more—(NATURE, 123, p. 346; 1929), is exchanged for short coils, the luminosity can be much increased. By the same means it is possible to make the discharge pass through narrow quartz capillaries less than a millimetre in width, thus realising a source of light which has the linear shape suitable for spectrography, and moreover requires a very minute quantity of the gas to be examined.