VII. The diffusion of ions produced in air by the action of a radio-active substance, ultra-violet light and point discharges

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Abstract
A general method of finding the rate of diffusion of ions into a gas has been described in a previous paper, and an account was there given of the results obtained with ions produced by Röntgen rays. The present paper gives the results obtained with ions produced by a radio-active substance, by point discharges, and by ultra-violet light. The principle of the method consists in calculating the rate of diffusion from observations on the loss of conductivity of a gas as it passes along metal tubing. The experiments were arranged so that the loss due to diffusion should be much greater than the loss due to other causes. In order to ensure this, there are two effects which must be considered in fixing the dimensions of the tubing: the recombination which occurs when there are both positive and negative ions present in the gas; and the effect due to the mutual repulsion of the ions which takes place when most of the ions are charged with electricity of the same sign. It is therefore necessary either to correct for these sources of error or to arrange the conditions of the experiments so that the loss of conductivity due to these causes is negligible.

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