Frequency of the Electrons in the Neon Atom. 339 



and temperature excess. The tendency of the curve appears 

 to be, at its upper extremity, towards the form 



H/£ «■ (0d 8 /i/ 2 ) , (11) 



and at its other end towards 



H/£ = constant (12) 



Equation (11) would imply that for large bodies the heat 

 loss per unit area is independent of the size, and (12) that 

 for very fine wires the heat loss per unit length is independent 

 of the diameter. Equation (12) would also imply that the 

 convective cooling of wires, very fine and very slightly 

 heated, is a measure of the conductivity of the fluid, at any 

 rate for fluids of such similar molecular constitution that 

 ev\k is the same. 



May 1921. 



XXXII. The Frequency of the Electrons in the Neon Atom. 

 By Laueence St. 0. Broughall *. 



MANY attempts have been made to arrange the electrons 

 in the atoms ot the inert gases, but it has been found 

 that no stable arrangements can be obtained if only electro- 

 static forces are present. We are thus obliged to search for 

 some other force, and the most reasonable assumption is that 

 the electrons are in motion in circular orbits and so have an 

 acceleration towards their axis of rotation. The main 

 objection to this theory is that the electron since it rotates 

 should radiate energy, and the diameter of its orbit should 

 gradually diminish. Experimental evidence shows, however, 

 that this is not the case, and so if we are to allow the 

 electrons to rotate then we must assume that they radiate no 

 energy. This assumption made by Bohr has met with great 

 success in the case ot: hydrogen, where he assumes that the 

 electrons radiate energy only when dropping suddenly into 

 a different orbit. In consequence of this we have assumed 

 throughout this paper that no energy is radiated by the 

 electrons in the neon atom under normal conditions. 



The number of electrons in the neon atom is ten, and 

 Langmuir has shown that the most satisfactory arrangement 

 of these ten electrons is to place eight of them at the corners 

 -of a cube and to place the other two within the cube. He 



* Communicated by the Author. 



Z2 



