C. Barus — Decay of Ionized Nuclei. 



423 



ing infinite when n = 0. This is precisely what the above 

 experiments have brought out. The value of b does not appear 

 except when n is very lai-ge. Since b is of the order of 10 -6 , 

 ifo is of the order of 3 X 10" 2 (as will presently appear), c/n 

 will not be a predominating quantity when n is oi the order of 

 10 6 or c/w=3xl0" 8 ; but it will rapidly become so as n 



10 SO dO 4t SO SO 



10 10 10 40 so eo 10 £0 JO 40 SO 60 



approaches the order of 10 4 orc/w = 3X lO" 6 , which again 

 is closely verified by the above data. 



_ Again, if ~dn / 'dt = - a + en + bn% the conditions of equi- 

 librium are modified and become, since dn / dt = 0, 



a — en + bn 2 



where a measures the intensity of radiation. It no longer 

 varies as n 2 < for 



^ = ^r(l + Vl+4a6/c 2 ). 



6. Absorption of phosphorus nuclei in tubes. — The method 

 of the preceding paragraph, applied to the data obtained in 

 the given paper with phosphorus nuclei, leads to striking 

 results. It shows the possibility of computing nucleation by 

 passing a current of highly ionized air through 'tubes of known 

 length and section (absorption tubes) into the steam jet appa- 

 ratus there developed. But there is no room for these results 

 here. 



7. Further data and residts. — Experiments with special 

 reference to the views just given were made at some length. 

 Their general character is shown in figures 1, 2, 3, where the 

 abscissas are the times elapsed since radiation was cut off and 

 the ordinates the number of nuclei caught in thousands per 



