Abstract
THE epoch-making results as to the disintegration of atomic nuclei recently obtained in the Cavendish Laboratory serve to recall the experiments of Prof. J. N. Collie and his fellow-workers made twenty years ago. In some of these experiments it was thought that helium and neon were produced by sending powerful electric discharges through exhausted tubes. Sir William Ramsay observed the presence of helium in an old X-ray tube. Little information is available in the published accounts as to the potential difference employed in the experiments or as to the previous history of the (aluminium) electrodes. It was generally supposed that the balance of evidence was against such transformations, but it is possible that the failure of other investigators to reproduce the results of Collie may have been due to the fact that the precautions which they took resulted in an insufficient supply of swift protons in the discharge tube.
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NATURE, 129, 674, May 7, 1932.
Phil. Mag., 49, 981; 1925.
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ALLEN, H. Disintegration of Atomic Nuclei. Nature 129, 830 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/129830a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/129830a0
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