Appearance of Noble Gases in Vacuum Tube Discharges

Abstract

THE views expressed in the article by A. C. E. in NATURE of June 8, p. 879, on the appearance of helium in apparatus employed in attempts at atomic synthesis and disintegration are in good accord with results obtained at the Physical Laboratories of the University of Chicago and of Hiram College. A repetition of the work of R. W. Riding and E. C. C. Baly, reported in Proc. Roy. Soc., Series A, vol. 109, No. A 749, p. 186, has been undertaken by me under the direction of Prof. H. B. Lemon of the University of Chicago. The results have been inconclusive on the whole, but in all cases except one, helium has appeared in the observation tubes. The one exception occurred at the end of a very brief run in which in-sufficient time may have elapsed for diffusion to have provided enough helium to observe.