Manchester Memoirs, Vol. xlvi. (1902), No. 14. 



XIV. On the Atomic Weights and Classification of 

 the Elementary Gases, Neon, Argon, Krypton, 

 and Xenon. 



By Henry Wilde, D.Sc, F.R.S. 



Received and read April ijlh, jgo2. 



In a note which I presented to the French Academy 

 of Sciences in 1897 [Coinptes Rendus, Tome 125, pp. 649, 

 707), the position of argon in my classification and Table 

 of the elements,* was the next higher member of the 

 series H7n to nitrogen, with an atomic weight equal to 21. 

 Helium was also shown to be the typical element at the 

 head of the positive series H2n, with an atomic weight 

 equal to 2. This number is now adopted in the Table of 

 atomic weights published in the Anmiaire du Bureau des 

 Longitudes, as also the experimental atomic weight of 

 argon equal to 20 — these values being more rational than 

 the double numbers, 4 and 40, which have been proposed 

 for helium and argon respectively. 



The recently discovered elements, neon, krypton and 

 xenon, fully confirm the position and atomic weight of 

 argon in my Table, and the more recent determinations 

 of the densities of the new gases by Professor Ramsay 

 and Dr. Traversf prove conclusively that they also belong 

 to the same series H7n. 



* " On the Origin of Elementary Substances, and on some new 

 Relations of their Atomic Weights," Proc. Lit. and Phil. Soc. Manchester, 

 Vol. xvii., p. 218, 1878 ; Manchester Memoirs, Vol. 30, p. 144, 1887. Ibid., 

 Vol. 39, p. 84, 1895 ; Cheiu. News, Vol. 38 (1878), pp. 66, 96, 107. 



\ Phil. Traits., Vol. 197, p. 82, 1901. 



May roth, igo2. 



