440 
DK. HAROLD A. WILSON ON THE 
The loss of weio'ht of the LiCl Ijead was found to Ije 7 millio-rammes in 10 minutes 
O O 
in one experiment, and G milligrammes in 10 minutes in another experiment. This 
gives for the numl^er of milligrammes of salt passing through the platinum tube per 
second when a solution containing 1 gramme in a litre is being sprayed— 
(ro 
000 X 40 
= 27 X 10-*. 
Taking the amount of hydrogen liberated in electrolysis by 1 ampere in 1 second 
as 1‘04 X ] 0~’ gramme, we can now calculate a theoretical value for the product EC 
given in the above taldes of results. For solutions of n grammes in a litre 
-T X 
" 1-04 X 10-2 X 5-2 X 10-fi 
= 5n X 10^. 
This agrees extremely well with the observed values of EC, viz., 
5H X 10^ when n = 10, 
and 5‘14 X 10® when n — 1. 
It is evident that these results ],)rove that Faradaa^’s laws for the passage ol 
electricity through licpiids apply also to alkali salts in the state of vapour. This 
must be regarded as very conclusive evidence in favour of the theory that the 
})assage of electricity through salt vapours is a process very analogous to the electro¬ 
lysis of salt solutions. 
In a dilute solution of sucli a salt as KCl each molecule of the salt is believed to 
dissociate into tw(^ ions, -f-K and —Cl. According to the corpuscular theory of 
electricity, if we denote a coipuscle hy a then these ions are K — a and Cl + a. 
The results described in this paper prove that the amount of electricity which can 
be transported by salt in the form of vapour is ec[ual to the amount required to 
electrolyse the same amount of salt in a solution. 
This can be explained on the coi-puscular theory in two ways, the first of which 
involves electrolysis of the salt, whereas the second does not. According to the first, 
the molecules of the salt vapour dissociate into ions, K — a and Cl a, exactly as in 
a solution. These ions then move to the electrodes and give up their charges, so 
becoming K and Cl, the K belag at the negative electrode and the Cl at the positive 
electrode. 
According to the other explanation a molec\de of the salt vapour merely loses a 
cor]mscle, thus forming two ions 
KCl — a and a. 
Tlien the KCl goes to the negative electrode and only corpuscles go to the positive 
