210 TROWBRIDGE. — ITIGH ELECTROMOTIVE EORCE. 
differed from the one obtained by the same amount of energy with lower voltage. 
The high voltage ranged from 100,000 volts to 3,000,000. 
The broadening of metallic lines seems to indicate an oxidization. One can con- 
ceive of a loading of the metallic molecule by various degrees of oxidization which 
leads to a broadening toward the red end of the spectrum; or, in other words, to 
longer wave-lengths, and an unloading due to dissociation, which leaves the mole- 
cule free to emit shorter wave-lengths. That an oxidization results from a discharge 
of electricity in glass or quartz tubes, filled even with apparently pure hydrogen, 
seems to me to be evident from my experiments. The unavoidable presence of water- 
vapor in glass and, I may add, in quartz tubes, lends color to the oxidization theory ; 
this vnpor is dissociated by the electric current, the oxygen set free combines with 
the molecules of the metals, or with the molecules of silica and its metallic 
impurities. 
The following experiment illustrates this oxidization. A Geissler tube (Figure C), 
with ;m internal diameter of one inch, was provided with an inner capillary, one end 
of which was blown to the walls of the larger tube ; the 
other end was free inside this larger tube. An electric 
discharge passed between two ring electrodes A and B, 
which were placed in the larger tube. The d 
o 
Figure c. therefore started, so to speak, in the larger tube, passed 
through the narrow channel of the capillary, and emerged 
to the cathode. The tube was filled with pure hydrogen, dried by phosphoric pent- 
oxide. Under the effect of powerful condenser discharges, the four-line spectrum was 
much enfeebled in the capillary ; the red color, characteristic of condenser dis- 
hydrogen, gave place to a brilliant white light, and when the 
wed end on, a continuous spectrum 
Voni the capillary, a b 
7 
'} 
When, however, the discharg 
around the end of the capi] 
- 
much enhanced four-line spectrum. The temp 
ide the capillary was sufficient to volatilize the walls of the capillary, and therefo 
petent to decompose the 
side the capillary the temperature fell to the point of recombi 
xygen and hydrogen. Just out- 
vapor, and the enhancing of the red hydrogen line which is always observed 
vapor 
In another experiment the Geissler tube (G, Figured) was placed between 
nanometer gauges, and was exhausted to such a degree that the electric disch 
t0 "* ° ne eni1 of the G**, tube, that nearest to the pump, was sin 
off 
on of these gases to 
i 
