VI. The effect of hydrogen on the discharge of negative electricity from hot platinum

The effect of hydrogen on the discharge of negative electricity from hot platinum was examined by the writer in 1903 (‘Phil. Trans.,’ A, 352, vol. 202, 1903); it was found to produce a very large increase in the current carried by the discharge. At pressures below 0·1 millim. of mercury the leak was found to increase with the pressure and to fall when the pressure was reduced. The experiments in the paper just referred to were all done with nearly new platinum wires which had not been heated in the gas for any great length of time, because it was known that long continued heating caused the wire to disintegrate, its surface becoming covered with a network of cracks. The present paper contains an account of a series of experiments in which wires were heated for long periods in hydrogen, so that any gradual changes in the effect of the hydrogen could be observed. It appears that continued heating in hydrogen alters the character of the effects observed, so that the behaviour of an old wire may be very different from that of a new one. In the previous paper I suggested that the effect of hydrogen was due to the presence of hydrogen in the surface layer of the platinum, and this view appeared to be supported by the facts. Professor O. W. Richardson (‘Phil. Trans.,’ A, 413, vol. 207, 1906) puts forward a different theory, viz., that the hydrogen alters the state of the platinum, so that the effect may remain even after the removal of all the hydrogen.