‘Active’ Nitrogen

Abstract

IN all the work, both theoretical and experimental, which has so far heen done with regard to active nitrogen, it has at least tacitly been assumed (a) that active nitrogen is homogeneous and (b) that the after glow and chemical activity are necessarily co-existent, although from Saha and Sur's theory of the nature of active nitrogen (Phil. May., 118, 421; 1924), it follows that nitrogen may be active and yet show no luminosity. Dr. H. W. B. Skinner has recently suggested to the author that in view of the production of H atoms, excited H₂, and H₃ by the discharge in hydrogen, it does not necessarily follow that the form of nitrogen which is responsible for the afterglow is that which is chemically active. Experimental evidence completely in support of this theory has now been obtained.