121 



The migTatioii speed is thereby propagated tlirougli the supercon- 

 ductor without the perfonnauce of work '). If tlie super-conducting 

 metal is converted into an ordinary conducting metal by heating 

 above the vanishing point, (if the point is not much exceeded it 

 will still be strongly conducting) then, according to this hypothesis 

 the Ohm resistance is due to the action of the vibrators (between 

 the atoms) which bring the atoms to a distance from each other such 

 that the electrons cannot jump from one atom to another without 

 doing work, but in traversing the space made by the vibrators 

 between the atoms give off some of the energy taken up by them. ^) The 

 representation given of the conduction in the super-conductors seems 

 thus to be most easily combined with the conduction theory developed 

 by Lj:nard. 



In my rough sketch (Comm. N°. 119} of the application of the 

 quanta-theory to the electron-theory of conductors,, in order to judge 



movement and if the moving electrons are the valency electrons, then our hypo- 

 thesis, although arrived at by a different road, may be regarded as an application 

 to the superconducting state of the hypothesis of Stark concerning the m.o vemen t 

 of the framework of the valency electrons along the shearing surfaces of the metal 

 crystals. It thus shows the usefulness of the fundamental idea of Stark. As in the 

 above hypothesis this idea is supplemented by the notion of the free moving elec- 

 trons of the original electron theory viz. the jumping across of the electrons, the 

 connection with the electron theories of the ordinary conducting state, especially 

 with that of Lbnard, is maintained. 



^) In so far as we may disregard real microresidual resistance. 



-) We will not discuss whether this happens through electrons with migration 

 speed being taken up and electrons without migration speed being given off or by 

 elastic collision of the electrons against the surface of the atoms between which 

 they move backwards and forwards : through energy of ordered motion being 

 transformed into energy of unordered motion. We must remark that for the expla- 

 nation of the super-conducting stale the assumption that in contrast to non elastic 

 collision in ordinary, only elastic collision takes place in the super-conducting state 

 is inadequate. As Lorenz has taught us (comp. Reinganum, Heidelb. Akad. 1911, 

 10 p. 7) even with elastic collision the above mentioned transformation must take 

 place and show itself as development of heat. 



By the transition from the super-conducting state to the ordinary in proportion 

 as the atoms begin to vibrate separately in larger numbers and room is made 

 for the movement of the electrons between the atoms, the mechanism develops 

 which leads to the approximate relations of Wiedemann and Franz and of Lorenz. 

 The communication of the movement of the electrons inside the atoms to each 

 other perhaps plays a chief part in the conduction of heath. The continuity of the 

 heat conduction above and below the vanishing point would then be explained by 

 the small change which the process undergoes when the peculiar connection 

 the atoms which makes super-conduction possible, is destroyed. 

 ■ The change of the distance between the atoms also clearly plays a part in 

 change of the resistance at the melting point. 



