Abstract
Wiedemann's Annalen der Physik und Chemie, No. 5.—On the measurement of surface tension of water and mercury in capillary tubes, by G. Quincke. In accurate measurements of the surface tension of water by elevation in capillary tubes the marginal angle must be taken into account. It is different from zero, and generally increases with the age of the tubes. For the same kind of glass the surface tension of water at 18° is generally found to increase with the diameter of the capillary tube. For wide tubes of normal Jena glass or English flint glass the surface tension at 18° was 7˙846 and 7˙776 mgr.—On the magnetic deflection of cathode rays, by Philipp Lenard. The magnetic deflection is not aflected by the medium in which the rays are observed, but remains the same for a given species of cathode rays, whatever may be the gas, the intensity, and the pressure. But at different pressures within the generating apparatus different cathode rays are produced, showing varying amounts of deflection.—On a sodium-nitrogen compound, by L. Zehnder. Sodium mirrors deposited electrolytically in vacuum tubes gave rise to strong absorption and rapid fall of pressure, accompanied by the formation of a brown mirror during the glow discharge. A detailed investigation showed that this action takes place as soon as metallic sodium has been transferred to the cathode. The compound formed, probably NNa3, is not deposited on the cathode, but on the glass walls near the anode.—On the elliptic polarisation of reflected light, by K. E. F. Schmidt. In the case of glasses of equal refractive indices and different dispersive powers the glass with the higher dispersion shows the wider range of angle at which ellipticity is observed.—On the spectra of tin, lead, arsenic, antimony and bismuth, by H. Kayser and C. Runge. The authors have continued their efforts to find uniformities in the structure of the metallic line spectra through the periodic series of the elements. The above metals were taken as convenient representatives of the fourth and fifth rows. The spectrum of tin may be reconstructed by superimposing three;qual spectra differing by a constant oscillation frequency. The same law applies to the spectra of lead and arsenic. In the case of antimony, six such spectra are superposed, and in bismuth four.—Line spectra, by J. R. Rydberg. This is a comparison of the spectra of calcium and strontium.
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Scientific Serials. Nature 50, 118 (1894). https://doi.org/10.1038/050118b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/050118b0