Abstract
AN interesting paper on the occurrence of helium in the air of Naples and in minerals from Vesuvius is published by Prof. A. Piutti in the Rendiconto of the Royal Society of Naples (third series, vol. xv., p. 203). It is well known that in 1881 Prof. Palmieri read a paper before the same academy in which he claimed to have recognised the characteristic line D3 of helium in the flame spectrum obtained by heating in a Bunsen flame βan amorphous, buttery substance of a yellow colour which was found as a sublimate on the edge of a fumarole near the mouth of Vesuvius.β This is generally accepted as the first discovery of terrestrial helium, although Nasini and Anderlini in 1906, on examining the flame spectrum of a large number of volcanic incrustations, failed to recognise the presence of helium in any of the specimens they examined under the conditions described by Palmieri.
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Helium in Air and Minerals . Nature 83, 172 (1910). https://doi.org/10.1038/083172b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/083172b0