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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



rays is allowed to play upon the air between these two plates, it is 

 found that some of these neutral air molecules are split up by the X- 

 rays into electrically charged parts, which fly instanth^ one part to 

 plate M and the other part to plate N. This shows conclusively that 

 the ordinary neutral molecules of the air possess electrical constituents, 

 that is, that they contain equal quantities of positive and negative elec- 



FiG. 2. Aj arc light for illuminating droplet. H, chronograph for measuring 

 speeds of droplet. R, lens for making the beam from the arc parallel or slightly 

 convergent. I, shutter for intercepting altogether the light from the arc save when a 

 reading of a transit of an " oil star " over a cross-hair was to be taken. This was 

 used to insure entire stagnancy of the air between the plates M and N (Pig. 1). 

 E, high potential static voltmeter from measuring PD produced by B. P, mercury 

 pressure gauge or manometer for measuring the pressure of the air within C. C, air- 

 tight brass chamber containing the plates M and N of Fig. 1. W, pressure pump for 

 forcing a puff of air through the atomizer inside of C and above the plates M and N. 

 The same pump is also used for exhausting the cylinder C T, telescope for observing 

 illuminated droplet. S, switch for throwing on or off the electric field between the 

 plates. B, ten-thousand-volt storage battery. T, spot of light produced by the beam 

 after passing through the two windows of the chamber O. Q, opening in lead box 

 through which X-ray beam emerges on its way to chamber C, where it ionizes the 

 gas between plates M and N of Fig. 1. X, X-ray bulb. O, cylindrical glass trough 

 80 cm. long filled with water for absorbing the heat rays from the arc. 



tricity. Both ultra-violet light and the rays from radium possess, like 

 the X-rays, the power of thus ionizing a gas, and even when no external 

 ionizing agent whatever is at hand, it is found that out of the 27 billion 

 billion molecules which are present in each cubic centimeter of ordi- 

 nary air, from two tO twenty split up per second into ions. As will 

 presently be shown, this process of ionization consists in the detaching 

 from a neutral molecule of an exceedingly minute fraction of its con- 



