Abstract
IN the Chemical News for March 29 last (vol. Ixxi. p. 151), I published the results of measurements of the wave-lengths of the more prominent lines seen in the spectrum of the gas from clèveite, now identified with helium. The gas had been given to me by the discoverer, Prof. Ramsay; and being from the first batch prepared, it contained other gases as impurities, such as nitrogen and aqueous vapour, both of which gave spectra interfering with the purity of the true helium spectrum. I have since, thanks to the kindness of Profs. Ramsay and J. Norman Lockyer, had an opportunity of examining samples of helium from different minerals and of considerable purity as far as known contamination is concerned. These samples of gas were sealed in tubes of various kinds and exhausted to the most luminous point for spectrum observations. In most cases no internal electrodes were used, but the rarefied gas was illuminated solely by induction, metallic terminals being attached to the outside of the tube.1 For photographic purposes a quartz window was attached to the end of the tube, so that the spectrum of the gas could be taken “end on.”
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CROOKES, W. The Spectrum of Helium1. Nature 52, 428–430 (1895). https://doi.org/10.1038/052428a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/052428a0