Gaseous combustion in electric discharges. Part V.─A spectrographic examination of the cathodic combustion of carbonic oxide

Abstract

The view previously put forward in parts III and IV of this series, whilst affording a reasonable explanation of the known facts relating to the cathodic combustion of carbonic oxide “detonating gas,” involved a sequence of collisions which must on kinetic grounds be rare, as Prof. S. Chapman, F. R. S., has since pointed out to us. This objection would no longer hold if charged atomic oxygen only be supposed to take part in the reaction. The question then arose as to whether oxygen atoms are, in fact, present within the cathode zone, and, also, whether oxygen atoms and carbonic oxide do actually become ionised under the conditions of our previous experiments. The following spectrographic examination was therefore carried out in order to throw light on these matters. The examinations shows, amongst other results, that singly ionised oxygen molecules and atoms and neutral oxygen atoms are present within the discharge, but that carbonic oxide molecules, though strongly excited, are not ionised. These facts indicate the need of a complete revision of the view of the mechanism of the combustion of CO put forward previously in Parts III and IV of this series.