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



Table III. 



Air. 



Hydrogen. 



Press 



. 3 mm. 



Press. 2 # 5 mm. 



Press 



. 6 mm. 



Press. 15 mm. 



Field 



Neg. 



Field 



Neg. 



Pos. 



Field 



Neg. 



Field 



Neg. 



Pos. 



per cm. 



current. 



percm. 



current. 



current. 



percm. 



current. 



percm. 



current. 



current. 



800 



47 



800 



33 





960 



16 



800 



5 





880 



78 



840 



52 





1040 



35 



880 



10 





< 920 



143 



880 



85 



5 



1080 



48 



960 



44 



5 



960 



326 



920 



152 





1120 



75 



1000 



63 





980 



654 



960 



294 



5 



1160 



122 



1040 



106 



6 



1000 



1935 



1000 



570 



... 



1200 



203 



1080 



226 





1020 



2520 



1040 



1737 



5 



1240 



386 



1120 



1470 



8 



1040 



3180 



1060 



5237 



11 



1280 



1040 



1160 



7476 





1060 



9600 



1080 



19608 



14 



1300 



2100 



1180 



18564 









1100 





224 



1320 

 1340 



5670 



7686 



1140 

 1152 

 1156 



... 



90 



133 



1950 



Ihe Chances of a Negative Ion Cluster disintegrating and 

 of a Positive Ion producing New Ions by Collision. 



The study of the values in Table II. brings out further 

 interesting properties of the negative ion clusters and of the 

 positive ions. It was found that the current, when negative 

 ions were drawn through the gauze, suddenly increased 

 enormously for electric fields in the neighbourhood of the 

 point d, for which it will be seen the collision current for the 

 positive ions drawn through the gauze suddenly and rapidly 

 increases. This is evidently due to the positive ions made by 

 the negative ions becoming very efficient in the production of 

 further ions by collision. Since there is a sudden increase 

 in the current over the same region of fields whether positive 

 or negative ions are drawn through the gauze, the initial 

 positive ions must be largely of the same nature in both 

 cases. When negative ions are drawn through the gauze the 

 initial positive ions are in the elementary state, being pro- 

 duced by collision of the negative ions, but when positive 

 ions are drawn through the gauze these ions represent the 

 initial positive ions, and therefore probably consist of 

 elementary ions and clusters of various complexities. These 

 clusters are, however, probably easily disintegrated by the 

 electric field. The sudden increase of the current for the 

 negative ions in question cannot be due to a sudden increase 

 in disintegration of the negative clusters, because it appears 

 apart from the separation of the curves C and D. Compare 



