Open AccessLuminous vapours distilled from the arc, with applications to the study of spectum series and their origin.-I
Author(s) -
Robert John Strutt
Publication year - 1914
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.1914.0060
Subject(s) - vapours , mercury (programming language) , arc (geometry) , electric arc , electric field , gas filled tube , chemistry , electrode , mechanics , materials science , physics , mathematics , computer science , geometry , quantum mechanics , neuroscience , biology , programming language
In a paper entitled "Duration of Luminosity of Electric Discharge in Gases and Vapours," reference was made to a known phenomenon shown by the mercury arcin vacuo : when mercury is allowed to distil away from a mercury lamp into a lateral tube sealed on to it, the rapidly moving vapour carries its luminosity for a long distance out of the electric field. It was shown how effects not essentially different might be obtained with mercury, and other metals also, using not the arc, but the leyden jar spark between poles of the metal; but this method, owing to the intermittence of the sparks and the small scale of the effects, is far less satisfactory than the use of the arc. At the time of writing the paper cited, I thought that it would be very difficult to extend the use of the arc to metals less volatile than mercury, but the problem has proved more tractable than was expected 2.Method of Experimenting-Apparatus used . The vessel in which the arc is confined will be called, for convenience, a lamp, though it is not used directly as a source of light.