APPENDIX B LXV 



It has been shown by Nutting {Electrician, March, 1912) that 

 Geissler tubes filled with helium are eminently suitable, under certain 

 conditions, for light standards in spectrophotometry, but the amount 

 of the gas which could be used in this way is very small. 



In spectroscopy, especially for investigations in the ultraviolet 

 region, helium is invaluable. Doubtless its use in this field will be 

 rapidly extended. The use of the gas in physical laboratories gener- 

 ally, and especially where certain investigations on the properties 

 of matter are carried out, will also be greatly increased. 



It has recently been proposed to use helium in place of oil 

 for surrounding the switches and circuit-breakers of high-tension 

 electric transmission lines and for building certain types of trans- 

 formers. If the gas should prove suitable for this purpose large 

 quantities could be utilized, but it has yet to be demonstrated (and 

 it is not clear that it can be) that in this field helium possesses any 

 advantage over the oils now used. 



It is probable, however, that in the field of low temperature 

 research helium will immediately find its widest application. For 

 this work helium is unique in that, when liquefied and possibly 

 solidified, it enables one to reach the lowest temperatures atta^inable. 

 Every effort should be directed towards the exploitation of its use in 

 this direction. 



One point that is important and should not be overlooked is that 

 the supplies of natural gas from which helium can be extracted are 

 being rapidly used up. When our natural gas fields are depleted it 

 would appear that our main source of supply of helium will have 

 disappeared. Careful consideration should, therefore, be given to 

 the problem of producing helium in large quantities while it is still 

 available, ajid of storing it up for future use. As already stated it 

 nay be that in the future it will be of paramount importance to 

 have even a moderate supply of the gas available. 



A Cryogenic Laboratory 



To chemists and physicists especially the discovery that helium 

 can be produced in quantity at a moderate cost opens up a vista 

 in the realm of low temperature research of surpassing interest. By 

 means of liquid oxygen the properties of substances can be studied 

 down to a temperature of 182.5°. Liquid nitrogen provides us with 

 a temperature of —193.5°, and hydrogen, which was originally 

 liquefied in 1898 by Sir James Dewar, enables us to reach —252.8°. 

 It is but a few years since Onnes, after prolonged effort, secured 

 sufficient helium to enable him to liquefy this gas too. In a brilliantly 



