926 Dr. R. D. Kleeman on Disintegration of an Ion 



quantities -r an( ^ V f° r standard pressure are 10 ~ 2 and 10 6 



respectively. Similarly it can be shown that in the case of 

 C0 2 the orders of magnitude of these quantities are 10 -2 and 

 10 6 respectively. 



Cases in which Equation (2) may be used to Evaluate 

 the Quantities it contains. 



In a previous paper equation (2) was applied to calculate 

 the values of n and t x for the clusters in air. It was not 

 examined whether the electric field assisted in the breaking 

 up of the clusters. If this is done in a similar way as 

 described in this paper, it is found that the curves obtained 

 almost overlap, showing that the electric field assists to a 

 certain extent in the breaking up of the clusters. It was 

 therefore thought desirable to obtain data corresponding to 



lower values of — , and further experiments were therefore 



carried out with the present form of apparatus. When air 

 dried by being bubbled through strong sulphuric acid at a 

 pressure of 13 mm. of mercury was in the chamber, the leaks 

 13 and 30 were obtained corresponding to the electric fields 

 of 800 and 910 volts per cm. The corresponding values of 

 a are 1*3 and 3*0. An examination in the way described 

 shows that the disintegration of the clusters is principally 

 due to bombardment by neutral molecules. We obtain in 

 the same way as before the equations 



3-834 x 10 5 =^ + ^ 1-082 x 10 5 , 



4-241 x 10 5 = k 2V + h 2-841 x 10 5 . 



They show that the velocity of a cluster is proportional to 

 the field applied for the fields used in this case. The fore- 

 going equations may therefore be used to calculate k h and 

 give k x = *233. On putting the chamber to a positive potential 

 of 800 volts, a leak equal to 9 is obtained, which is approxi- 

 mately proportional to the total number of ions drawn 

 through the gauze. Therefore 9 = k 2 + k 1 = k 2 + '233, and 

 thus #2 = 8-77. About 2 per cent, of the total ions drawn 

 through the gauze are thus in the free state. From one of 

 the above equations we then deduce 77 = 4*08 X 10*. Since tj 

 is proportional to the pressure of the air, at standard pressure 

 we have tj = 2*385 x 10 6 . If the electric field does not assist 

 in the disintegration of the clusters, as we have seen is the 

 case, the period of life t x of a cluster under ordinary conditions 



