Excerpt from The Effect of Temperature on the Ionization of a Gas: A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Ogden Graduate School of Science in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Physics)

The temperatures were varied from room temperature to about 615° C. The absolute temperature and therefore the mean kinetic energy of the molecules was increased to three times its value at room temperature. From the kinetic theory it may be shown that about 1 per cent of the molecules have a probable mean energy four times this mean. Hence the energy of agitation of 1 per cent of the molecules was probably about twelve times the mean energy at room temperature.

Readings were taken nearly 300° C. Above the temperature at which electrons are first driven from the metals by heating. Both hydrogen and air were experimented with, the latter furnish ing a desirable mixture of gases of different molecular weights.

The individual readings were in general constant to within per cent of the mean. In columns I', II', and III' (table II), which are mean readings for air, the greatest variation is a little over per cent.

The ionization of air by means of the gamma rays from radium is therefore independent of the temperature of the gas to within per cent up to about 600° C. For hydrogen the same independence is shown for temperatures up to about 430° C.

A variation of over 200 per cent in the absolute temperature of a gas does not affect the stability of the atom sufficiently to change the ionization by more than about per cent.

In conclusion the writer wishes to express his thanks for their assistance and encouragement to Professor Michelson and the staff of Ryerson Physical Laboratory, and especially to Professor Millikan, under whose direct supervision this experiment was undertaken.

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