and the Constitution of the Atom. 259 



The assumption of 8 electrons in the third ring, however, 

 holds in this respect a somewhat stronger position. 



Fiff. 3. 



n 





-^ 

 3S 



^\ 



<=> « 



i I I \ 1 



: 20 3D i*o _^ jg 



Atomic Number 



f. Ow ?/i^ Origin of the other Principal L-lines. 



§ 10. In Paper I. I gave an explanation of the other 

 L-lines, which — with the exception of the /-spectrnm — can 

 be followed on the present assumption of recombination 

 between primaries. 



In accordance with Sommerfeld, we assumed that L a and Lp 

 were the two components of a doublet; and from the fact that 

 the difference of frequency between the two doublets was the 

 same as that between the frequencies of the absorption edges, 

 we concluded that in the normal atom the L-svsteni could 

 exist in two states — one circular giving, by the recombination 

 process. L a , ;md one elliptic giving Lg. 



We were thus led to the assumption of one fixed elliptic 

 state for si/stems of electrons. This, as we stated, involved a 

 kind of mutual connexion between the electrons belonging 

 to the same ring-system, because we had to assume that all 

 of them were thrown simultaneously into the elliptic state 

 where each electron followed an elliptic orbit of definite 

 shape, magnitude, and position. We may, e. g.. imagine 

 that the elliptic axes are arranged radially and with equal 

 angular intervals, and that all electrons are in the same 

 phase. Thus at any moment the electrons will be evenly 

 distributed on the circumference of a circle, the radius 

 of which undergoes periodic changes as time passes. 



Now we may expect the next doublet, L y L^ (Siegbahn 

 $2 7i)> to be produced by recombination from the ring 

 with quant-number 4 to the circular and elliptic state of 



