Open AccessThe spectrum of radium emanation
Author(s) -
H E Watson
Publication year - 1909
Publication title -
proceedings of the royal society of london. series a, containing papers of a mathematical and physical character
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2053-9150
pISSN - 0950-1207
DOI - 10.1098/rspa.1909.0072
Subject(s) - addendum , spectrograph , spectrum (functional analysis) , physics , grating , spectral line , optics , philosophy , astronomy , quantum mechanics , linguistics
The spectrum of radium emanation was first measured visually by Sir William Ramsay and Prof. Collie in 1904. In 1908 a list wave-lengths deduced from four photograph was published by Sir William Ramsay and Mr. Cameron, together with an addendum in which the wave-lengths of a number of extra lines were given. About the same time, measurements of 73 lines were published by Prof. Rutherford and Mr. Royds, many of these measurements being afterwards confirmed by Mr. Royds with the aid of a grating spectrograph. In the meantime, however, it was observed by Mr. Royds that the lines given by Cameron and Ramsay in the above-mentioned addendum appeared spectra being too marked to be accidental. At the same time the spectrum as given by Cameron and Ramsay was not very dissimilar to that of Rutherford and Royds, and so, although the values of the latter authors were afterwards fully confirmed by their grating measurements, yet it seemed advisable to have independent of the emanation spectrum have been taken and compared with Cameron and Ramsay's original negative with a view to accounting for the discrepancy between the results previously obtained, and the results of this investigation form the subject matter of the present communication.