306 
CHEMISTRY: NO YES AND WILSON Proc. N. A. S. 
of the salt ; thus it is the same for the chloride and carbonate of any given 
alkali element. This is in accord with the assumption that these salts are 
completely decomposed in the way expressed by the chemical equations 
2 MCI = 2 M + CI2, or M2CO3 = 2 M + CO2 + V2 O2, and that the 
conductance is due to ionization of the metallic element M which is common 
to its various salts. 
2. The conductance changes with the concentration of any given salt 
and in mixtures of salts in the way required by equations (1) and (2), 
showing that the ions result from an ionization process in which one mole- 
cule dissociates into two others, as is the case in the reaction M = M"*" 
+ E~, where E~ denotes electron gas. 
3. There is present in the flames both positive and negative carriers, but 
the mobility of the latter has been shown to be roughly 2500 times as 
great as that of the former, clearly indicating that the negative carriers 
are electrons and that substantially the whole conductance is due to 
them. 
From the way in which the conductance changes with the concentration 
it was found possible by a mathematical process that need not be here de- 
scribed to calculate under the above stated assumptions relati\^e values of 
the ionization constants K of the five alkali elements whose salts were in- 
vestigated by H. A. Wilson. These relative values could then be compared 
with the absolute values calculated from the ionization-potentials by the 
thermodynamic equation (equation 5 given above). The results are 
reproduced in the following table. 
TABLE 1 
Values oi^ the Ionization-Constant (lO^^ x) at 2000° Absolute 
Cs Rb K Na Li 
From flame conductances 3500 780 430 5.6 0.8 
From ionization-potentials 8200 1600 620 6.2 1.4 
It will be seen that the ratios of the values for the successive elements run 
closely parallel to each other in the two series. Especially noteworthy is 
the very large change in both series in passing from sodium to potassium, 
and the much smaller differences between the other elements. 
As stated above, the flame conductance data lead only to relative values 
of the ionization-constants ; and the values given in the preceding table 
would contain an arbitrary multiplying factor if they were based on those 
data alone. It was found possible, however, by combining with the con- 
ductance data the results of previous rough determinations of the mobility 
of the electrons^ and of the number of them per cubic centimeter^ in entirely 
similar flames free from salt, to obtain absolute values of the ionization 
constants; and these are the numbers that are recorded in the first row 
of the above table. Although they afford an estimate only of the order 
