054 



NATURE 



[February 13, 1913 



duct the current, or to the oxygen used in the later 

 stages to get rid of the hydrogen, or to neon being 

 dissolved in the glass? Prof. Collie described the 

 experiments undertaken to exclude the possibility of 

 there being any such origin for the gas, and also the 

 attempt made with a negative result to see whether the 

 neon could have leaked through the heated glass tube. 



At this stage, Mr. Patterson continued the paper, 

 showing the point of view from which he had under- 

 taken the research. He had been interested, he said, 

 in the pure physics of the electron. He described the 

 formulae on which he had built up a hypothesis, and 

 announced that he had thought it conceivable that by 

 doubling the electrical charge on the hydrogen atom it 

 might be possible to convert this into an a particle, 

 and so into helium. He did not, he said, regard the 

 result of the experiment as proving the hypothesis, 

 but he thought that perhaps his hypothesis provided an 

 explanation. 



Prof. Collie then resumed his reading of the paper. 

 He had, he said, criticised Mr. Patterson's method of 

 preparing hydrogen by electrolysis of barium hydrate 

 solution, and to avoid this possibility of error Mr. 

 Patterson had filled his barium hydrate apparatus with 

 pure oxygen, so as to avoid the presence of dissolved 

 air in the barium hydrate solution, but he still obtained 

 neon. Another possibility had then suggested itself. 

 While neon did not enter glass under ordinary condi- 

 tions, might it not do so under the influence of the 

 X-ray discharge? To make certain on this point the 

 experiment tube was surrounded with another tube 

 containing neon, and about the same result was ob- 

 tained as before. Several experiments were made 

 with helium in the outer tube ; in the inner tube neon 

 was found. Lastly, since sending in his paper the 

 previous week, he had used the outside vessel as a 

 vacuum (a higher than an X-ray vacuum), and still 

 the neon appeared, the quantity thus obtained being 

 comparable with that present in about two cubic centi- 

 metres of air. The previous Friday and Saturday he 

 had performed the experiment twice with the experi- 

 ment tube surrounded by a vacuum. He had then asked 

 himself whether there was anything else he could test. 

 He decided to try whether there was anything in the 

 outer chamber. He let a cubic centimetre of pure 

 oxygen into the outer chamber ; having pumped out 

 this oxygen he passed a spark through it, and there 

 was a slight explosion, due to hydrogen. He absorbed 

 the o.xygen in the usual way with carbon cooled with 

 liquid air, but there was still some gas left, which he 

 regarded as rather a nuisance. He repeated the process 

 of absorption, but the gas still remained, in relatively 

 large amount. He decided to test it and turned on 

 the coil. The sight he then saw astounded him, for 

 the tube was a blaze of helium, with some neon 

 mixed. He communicated with Mr. Patterson, who 

 repeated the experiment. Mr. Patterson at first found 

 the same. Then he put oxygen into the outer tube, 

 and he found, instead of helium in excess, what 

 appeared to be the neon in e.xcess, the equation being 

 suggested that helium {4) plus oxygen (16) equals 

 neon (20). H the helium had sufficient velocity, when 

 produced in the inner tube, to traverse it, it was 

 quite possible for a new element to be produced. For 

 his own part he was quite satisfied provided neon and 

 helium had been produced from substances in which 

 they were previouslv not present. There were various 

 possibilities. It might be that the elements of the 

 tube or the electrodes gave neon or helium under the 

 influence of the discharge. This gave them ten or a 

 dozen elements to choose from as the source. Again, 

 there was the chance that the hydrogen was the 

 source or mercury vapour. Or it was possible that 

 they were dealing with a primordial form of matter, 

 the primordial atom which, when produced, had all 



NO. 2259, VOL', go] 



the energy necessary for forming the universe. By 

 the combination of these "atoms" the atoms of the 

 elements would be formed. Helium, and possibly 

 hydrogen, were present in the hottest stars, and they 

 were present in the experimental tube. Perhaps the 

 electric current was a directed flow of these 

 atoms, and with the phenomena of heat and 

 light the elements came into existence. At 

 any rate one thing seemed certain. Tlie elements 

 could be changed, and they could be changed in a 

 way very different from the way that radium was 

 changed. In its case the process could neither be 

 hastened nor retarded. But the present phenomenon 

 was artificial, and, further, the process was occurring 

 at the other end of the system of the atoms, producing 

 elements of low atomic weight. The old idea of the 

 transmutation of elements had to be altered. We 

 were coming now to know more of subatomic matter, 

 and it had to be realised that — 



The old order changelh, yjelHing pl.ice lo new, 



And O d fulfils Hiipself in many \va>s 



Lest one good custo n -should corrupt the world. 



Prof. Collie then showed two illustrations of the 

 effect of sparking ' neon, the gas when absolutely 

 pure blazing out into a pillar of perfect flame-red. 

 He added, in conclusion, that he had broken the 

 experiment tube, heated it, and found under the 

 microscope that it was full of bubbles of gas that 

 had been ca.ught in their passage through the tube. 



Prof. Smithells, in opening the discussion, said 

 that, without venturing to express any opinion upon 

 the facts or the hypothesis brought forward, it was 

 evident that if the conclusions were substantiated it 

 would be difficult to speak of their importance in 

 language of exaggeration. 



Sir William Ramsay expressed his great gratifica- 

 tion at other researchers iiaving taken up the inves- 

 tigation. With radium there had been no chance of 

 repetition, but the present experiments on transmuta- 

 tion could be reproduced by anyone with a coil and a 

 battery. He was extremely gratified that the theory 

 of transmutation now no longer rested on his 

 ipsissima verba. 



Various expressions of opinion by men of 

 science upon the experiments and conclusions 

 described above have been published in the daily 

 papers. Mr. F. Soddy has, we learn from The 

 Westminster Gazette, given his views as follows : 



The results as regards the apparent formation of 

 helium and neon in vacuum tubes under the influence 

 of the kathode rays have been noticed by previous 

 investigators. A paper published by myself in the 

 Proceedings of the Royal Society, igoS (p. 94), states 

 that the source of what might be termed the miracu- 

 lous appearance of helium in a vacuum tube was 

 traced to the power of aluminium electrodes of absorb- 

 ing these gases during previous use. Baron von 

 Hirsch, of Munich, in 1907 came to this laboratory 

 to investigate a case he had noticed in which he 

 supposed that helium was produced by the kathode 

 ray discharge in a vacuum tube. This we succeeded 

 in completely disproving. These observations show 

 that other workers have investigated the kathode rays 

 in vacuum tubes, and have even thought that helium 

 and other rare gases were produced. It is impossible 

 to say anything about the new experiments of Sir 

 William Ramsay, Prof. Collie, and Mr. Patterson 

 until full publication is available. There is nothing 

 in the paper which leads one to suppose that there 

 is any special new condition to which the production 

 could be ascribed, and, of course, some such condition 

 may account for the results. All that can be said is 

 that other workers have not got helium in experi- 

 ments which seem to be similar. 



