Abstract
MR. E. J. EVANS has described recently some interesting experiments on the “4686” and Pickering series, which were obtained from vacuum tubes containing helium from which hydrogen was apparently completely eliminated. Stark has also observed the âœ4686âline in a vacuum tube showing no trace of the hydrogen lines. The experimental evidence of a helium origin of the lines in question would thus appear to be strong, and Prof. Fowler, from analogy with the enhanced line series of the alkaline earths, has also concluded that the lines are due to helium. According to Dr. Bohr, who first suggested that the lines were due to helium, the series in question owe their origin to the binding of an electron by a helium atom from which two electrons have been removed. Dr. Bohr's theory involves a modified value of Rydberg's constant for these lines, and Prof. J. W. Nicholson, in a letter to NATURE of February 11, has pointed out that it can be put to the test by an accurate measurement of the lines of the “4686” series, from which the value of the constant can be calculated.
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MERTON, T. The Spectra of Hydrogen and Helium. Nature 95, 65 (1915). https://doi.org/10.1038/095065a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/095065a0
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