22 The Production of Neon and Helium. [Feb. 13, 



and neon appeared in the tubes after a powerful electric discharge 

 had been passed for some hours. 



In December 1913, Professor Strutt, in a note to the Royal 

 Society, stated that he had repeated the experiments of the authors, 

 and had failed to confirm them. He sug2:ested that pumping out 

 the gases and transference to another apparatus for the purpose of 

 testing for helium and neon, would favour leakage of small quan- 

 tities of air, quite sufficient to account for the helium and neon 

 obtained by the authors. He had therefore used a form of appara- 

 tus in which all the operations could be carried out without any 

 such transference. To account for Professor Strutt's failure to 

 obtain positive results was difficult, for, as had been already pointed 

 out, the authors found great difficulty often in repeating any par- 

 ticular experiment ; moreover, in several of the positive experiments 

 apparently helium but no neon appeared in the experimental tube. 



This fact cannot be explained by air leakage, for air contains four 

 or five times as much neon as helium. At present the investigation 

 was only begun ; many more experiments would have to be made, 

 for the source of the helium and neon was still obscure ; but if it 

 could be proved that these gases were produced from many metals 

 and other substances under the influence of the cathode discharge, it 

 it obvious that it would be a discovery of the most far-reaching 

 importance 



[J. N. C] 



