Abstract
During the course of the investigation of the secondary spectrum of hydrogen which is being carried out at King’s College, the present author had to take a number of spectrograms of a low potential and a low-pressure discharge of hydrogen known as the first-type discharge according to Prof. Richardson’s nomenclature. On measuring these first-type spectrum plates, it was found that each of them contained some eighty new lines not recorded in Merton and Barratt’s tables or in the table of additional lines recently published by Tanaka. At first it was suspected that these new lines might be due to some impurities in the discharge tube, but on carefully looking for impurities such as oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, mercury, barium, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, ammonia, water vapour, etc., it became evident that there were no impurity lines on our spectrum plates. It may be pointed out that before taking the first-type spectrogram of hydrogen, the discharge tube was being pumped out for a number of days, and it was then washed with hydrogen several times. The discharge tube was provided with a side tube containing coconut charcoal, which was surrounded by liquid air. This liquid-air trap was kept on during all exposures. Pure hydrogen was supplied by means of a palladium tube attached to the side of the discharge tube. This palladium tube was heated in a flame of commercial hydrogen.
Highlights
During the course of the investigation of the secondary spectrum of hydrogen which is being carried out at King’s College, the present author had to take a number of spectrograms of a low potential and a low-pressure discharge of hydrogen known as the first-type discharge according to Prof
At first it was suspected that these new lines might be due to some impurities in the discharge tube, but on carefully looking for impurities such as oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, mercury, barium, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, ammonia, water vapour, etc., it became evident that there were no impurity lines on our spectrum plates
It may be pointed out that before taking the first-type spectrogram of hydrogen, the discharge tube was being pumped out for a number of days, and it was washed with hydrogen several times
Summary
During the course of the investigation of the secondary spectrum of hydrogen which is being carried out at King’s College, the present author had to take a number of spectrograms of a low potential and a low-pressure discharge of hydrogen known as the first-type discharge according to Prof. The wave-lengths of these reference lines were taken from Merton and Barratt’s tables and in certain cases from Tanaka's tables. These measurements disclosed that in addition to all the lines given in Merton and Barratt’s tables and all the lines given by Tanaka in his long list of additional lines, there were 450 new lines not recorded by the previous observers These lines included all the lines which were first found on our first-type spectrum plates. On Merton's plate there were at least 100 extremely faint and broad lines in the region X3500-X3300 These were very difficult to locate accurately, and no attempt was made to measure them. The lines XX4928-62, 4886-40, 4391-88, 4106-22, 4031-60, 4021-63T and 3858-74, recorded by Merton and Barratt and Tanaka as single lines, are decidedly doublets They are not well resolved and no attempt was made to measure their components.
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Schedule a callMore From: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Containing Papers of a Mathematical and Physical Character
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