The charges on ions in gases, and some effects that influence the motion of negative ions

• Published in: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Containing Papers of a Mathematical and Physical Character
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 1911
• Subjects: Carbonic acid
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspa.1911.0017; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspa.1911.0017

1. In two previous papers published in the ‘Proceedings of the Royal Society,' a method was described of finding directly the charges on positive and negative ions produced by secondary Röntgen rays in gases, in terms of the charge on a monovalent ion in a liquid electrolyte; and the results of some experiments made with air were given. A number of investigations have since been made with oxygen, hydrogen, and carbonic acid, which have taken a considerable time to complete, for although a determination of the charge can be made very accurately from a few simple observations, it requires a long time to investigate the effect produced by complete drying on the motion of the negative ions. This effect can be observed by means of the same kind of experiments as are necessary for determining the charges on the ions, and it is of considerable interest to find at what forces and pressures the negative ions in dry gases assume the corpuscular state and move under an electric force according to laws that are quite different from those which govern the motions of the positive ions.