Open AccessOn the sparking potentials of discharge tubes containing carefully purified electrodes
Publication year - 1927
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.1927.0026
Subject(s) - electrode , neon , flashing , gas filled tube , helium , tube (container) , materials science , electric discharge , atomic physics , mechanics , chemistry , metallurgy , composite material , physics , argon
The present paper describes the results obtained in a continuation of some earlier work carried out on the electrode surface phenomena of discharge tubes in their relation to the sparking potential function. The discharge tubes used previously contained a filling-gas of neon-helium mixture, and the electrodes were of nickel or iron. It was found that there was an increase of the sparking potential with “ flashing ” or discharge. This increase was termed “polarisation.” In certain cases relatively large polarisations were observed. Polarisation could be reduced or eliminated in many cases by passing a discharge in the reverse direction through a polarised tube,or by resting it for a few hours.