20 Professor J. Norman Collie [Fel.. 12, 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, Febraary 1:^>, 1914. 



SiE Ja:mes Crichtox-Browne, J.P. M.D. LL.D. D.Sc. F.R.S., 

 Treasurer and Vice-President, in the Chair. 



Professor J. Nori^iax Collie, Ph.D. LL.D. D.Sc. F.Pt.S. 

 The Production of Neon and Helium by the Electric Discharge. 



The starting point of the following experiments by the author was 

 due to a number of observations on gases that are evolved when 

 many minerals are bombarded by the cathode rays in vacuum tubes. 

 Amongst the minerals experimented on, fluor spar was found to give 

 off a considerable amount of gas ; on the suggestion of Sir William 

 Ramsay this gas was examined for helium and neon, with the result 

 that a small amount of neon was found. This observation led the 

 author to a long series of experiments, the interest of which lay in 

 the fact that helium often as well as neon made their appearance in 

 various tubes through which the electric discharge had been passed 

 in a high vacuum. 



From the beginning, however, it had been always obvious that as 

 air contained both helium and neon great care must therefore be 

 taken, firstly, to entirely get rid of all the air in the experimental 

 tube by pumping it out and subsequent washing out with some pure 

 gas, oxygen or hydrogen : secondly, to be sure that no air leaked 

 into the apparatus during the experiment. 



About four months after the author had noticed the occurrence 

 of neon in the gases given off from fluor spar when bombarded by 

 the cathode rays, he heard that Mr. H. S. Patterson, who was working 

 at the University of Leeds, liad obtained similar results ; since then 

 they had worked together, and later on Mr. Masson, of L^niversity 

 College, London, had joined in the research. The idea of Mr. 

 Patterson that had led him to his experiments was that if it were 

 possible by means of the electric discharge to impart to hydrogen 

 atoms an extra electric charge, these hydrogen atoms might po-sibly 

 be converted into helium atoms. 



In the joint work of the author with Mr. Patterson and Mr. 

 Masson a large number of different forms of apparatus were employed, 

 designed to test in every way conceivable what were the best con- 

 ditions for the production of the gases, and at the same time exclude 

 the possibility that the gases were occluded in the glass of the tubes 



