Abstract
LORD RAYLEIGH has reported recently1 the results of a new experimental determination of the duration of the emission of hydrogen Balmer lines, Hα, Hβ and Hγ. Hydrogen (pressure 0·2 mm. mercury) was excited by an electrodeless discharge in a tube having the form of a square ring connected with a side tube, through which it was exhausted. Each discharge (of very short duration) produced a luminous jet squirting out of the discharge space, along the tube. The light emitted by the jet contained the Balmer lines in question. From the measurements of the speed of the jet (by means of a revolving mirror) and of the decay of luminosity at various distances along the tube, the durations of these lines were determined. In some conditions they appeared to be roughly one thousand times greater than the values calculated theoretically as well as those given by previous experiments. As Lord Rayleigh states, the difference of behaviour of the lines is not very marked, and not always noticeable.
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References
Rayleigh, Proc. Roy. Soc., A, 183, 26 (1944); cf. also Nature, 155, 84 (1945).
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JABLOŃSKI, A. Long Duration of the Balmer Spectrum in Excited Hydrogen. Nature 155, 397 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/155397b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/155397b0
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