Ions, electrometers, and physical constants: Paul Langevin's laboratory work on gas discharges, 1896-1903

Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences

Volumn 36, Issue 1, 2005, Pages 93-130

  Lelong, Benoit ^a  

^a REHSEIS ^*  (France)

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EID: 33747336487     PISSN: 08909997     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1525/hsps.2005.36.1.93     Document Type: Article

References (233)

1. Paul Langevin, Notice sur les travaux scientifiques de M. Langevin (Paris, 1909), 13-18
2. Notice sur les travaux scientifiques de M. Paul Langevin (Paris, 1934), 23-30
3. Louis de Broglie, Notice sur la vie et l'oeuvre de Paul Langevin (Paris, 1947)
4. Pierre Bicquard, Paul Langevin, scientifique, éducateur, citoyen (Paris, 1969), 20-24
5. André Langevin, Paul Langevin, mon père (Paris, 1971)
6. A.R. Weill-Brunschwicg, "Paul Langevin," in G.C. Gillispie, ed., Dictionary of scientific biography (14 vols., New York, 1970-1976), 8, 9-14, on 9-10.
7. H. Ledeboer, "Nouveaux électromètres à quadrants apériodiques," La lumière électrique, 22 (1886), 17-20, 57-62, 145-151.
8. On the electrometer of Blondlot and Curie, see Henri Pellat, Leçons sur l'électricité (Paris, 1890), 208-211.
9. Bicquard (ref. 1), 12
10. André Langevin, "Paul Langevin et Pierre Curie," La pensée, 160 (1971), 3-19, on 4.
11. Notebook, organic chemistry. Langevin Papers, box 1, file 2.
12. Mary-Jo Nye, Molecular reality: A perspective on the scientific work of Jean Perrin (London, 1972), 60, 62-64.
13. Langevin's notebook entitled "Brillouin. Conférences de physique. 1896-97," LP, L123/05.
14. See also "Brillouin. Elasticité et acoustique. 96-97," LP, L123/04.
15. "Discours de M. Langevin," 8 typewritten pages, n. d., LP, L88/15. quote 7.
16. On the early contacts between Perrin and Langevin, see Nye (ref. 5), 59-60.
17. Perrin, "Nouvelle propriété des rayons cathodiques," CRAS, 121 (1895), 1130.
18. Perrin, Notice sur les titres et travaux de M. Jean Perrin (Paris, 1918), 16.
19. Perrin, "Quelques propriétés des rayons de Röntgen," CRAS, 122 (1896), 186-188
20. "Origine des rayons de Röntgen," ibid., 716.
21. Langevin, "La physique au Collège de France," in Quatrième centenaire du Collège de France (Paris, 1931), 69.
22. Perrin, "Mécanisme de la décharge des corps électrisés par les rayons de Röntgen," EE, 7 (1896), 455-545, on 545.
23. Perrin (ref. 10), 17.
24. Benoist and Hurmuzescu, "Nouvelles propriétés des rayons X," CRAS, 122 (1896), 235
25. "Nouvelles recherches sur les rayons X," ibid., 379.
26. Benoist and Hurmuzescu, "Action des rayons X sur les corps électrisés," CRAS, 122 (1896), 926
27. JP, 5 (1896), 358.
28. BSFP (1896), 261.
29. Perrin, "Décharge par les rayons de Röntgen. Rôle des surfaces frappées," CRAS, 124 (1897), 455-459
30. Perrin, "Décharge par les rayons Röntgen. Effet métal," BSFP (1897), 37-44.
31. Benoist, "Remarque au sujet de la communication de M. Jean Perrin," BSFP (1897), 23.
32. Perrin, "Mécanisme de la décharge des corps électrisés par les rayons de Röntgen," JP, 5 (1896), 350-357, on 356-357.
33. Perrin, "Décharge par les rayons de Röntgen: Influence de la pression et de la température," CRAS, 123 (1896), 878-880.
34. Violle to Thomson, 31 Jul 1897, CUL, Add 7654, V8.
35. Perrin to Thomson, n.d. (enveloped dated 28 Oct 1897), CUL, uncatalogued item. I owe this reference to Isobel Falconer and David Thomson.
36. Isobel Falconer, "J.J. Thomson and Cavendish physics," in Frank James, ed., The development of the laboratory. Essays on the place of experiment in industrial civilization (London, 1989), 104-117.
37. Quoted in J. Fudano, Early x-ray research at physical laboratories in the United States of America circa 1900: A reappraisal of American physics (unpub. doctoral thesis, University of Oklahoma, 1990), 455.
38. A history of the Cavendish Laboratory 1871-1910 (London, 1910), 97.
39. Langevin wrote on notebooks and sheets (LP, boxes 124 and 126). Langevin's papers also contain one notebook for physics exercises (dated Jan-Feb-Mar 1898) and one for French-English vocabulary (box 126).
40. J.J. Thomson, "On the discharge of electricity produced by the Röntgen rays, and the effects produced by these rays on dielectrics through which they pass," Royal Society, Proceedings, 59 (1896), 274-276.
41. J.J. Thomson and Ernest Rutherford, "On the passage of electricity through gases exposed to Röntgen rays," PM, 42 (1896), 392-407.
42. Rutherford, "The velocity and rate of recombination of the ions of gases exposed to Röntgen radiations," PM, 44 (1897), 422-440.
43. John Zeleny, "On the ratio of the velocities of the two ions produced in gases by Röntgen rays; and on some related phenomena," PM, 46 (1898), 120-154.
44. C.T.R. Wilson, "On the action of uranium rays on the condensation of water vapour," PCPS, 9 (1897), 333-338.
45. Rutherford, "The discharge of electrification by ultra-violet light," PCPS, 9 (1898), 401-417.
46. John McClelland, "On the conductivity of hot gases from flames," PM, 46 (1898), 29-42.
47. John Townsend, "Electrical properties of newly-prepared gases," PM, 45 (1898), 125-151.
48. Thomson and Rutherford (ref. 34), 406-407.
49. The method of Thomson and Rutherford is described in Isobel Falconer, Theory and experiment in J.J. Thomson's work on gazeous discharge (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Bath, 1985), 238.
50. Perrin, "Rayons cathodiques et rayons de Röntgen," ACP, 11 (1897), 496-554, on 528, 535, 538, 541.
51. Rutherford (ref. 31), 435.
52. In 1918, Perrin wrote: "J.-J. Thomson (and Rutherford, his student at that time), ignored that the influence of walls hit by rays on discharge can reach or exceed that due only to the gas; they took no care to separate both effects. And they ascribed to the gas alone the sum of both effects. Yet their statements happened to be qualitatively exact." Perrin (ref. 12), 23.
53. Notebook L 126/06, 2-4.
54. Ibid., 4.
55. Langevin, "Recombinaison et mobilité des ions dans les gaz," ACP, 28 (1903), 483-530, on 521-524.
56. Langevin's notebook records several measurements for the graphic representation of the gas effect alone, and calculations where this phenomena is substracted from the mixed effect. See for example 19, 38, 40.
57. Notebook L126/06, 3, 35-48.
58. Ibid., 5.
59. Ibid., 5-7.
60. Ibid., 19, 21-24, 55-67, 75-87.
61. The historiography of Cavendish physics has much benefitted from case studies on the borrowings between different local or national traditions. See Olivier Darrigol, "Aux confins de l'électrodynamique maxwellienne: Ions et electrons vers 1897," Revue d'histoire des sciences, 51:1 (1998), 5-34
62. Peter Galison and Alexi Assmus, "Artificial clouds, real particles," in D. Gooding, T. Pinch, S. Schaffer, eds., The uses of experiment. Studies in the natural sciences (Cambridge, 1989), 225-274
63. Andrew Warwick, "Cambridge mathematics and Cavendish physics: Cunningham, Campbell and Einstein's relativity, 1905-1911," SHPS, 23:4 (1992), 625-656 and 24:1 (1993), 1-25.
64. Ibid., 8.
65. Ibid., 9.
66. J.J. Thomson, "A theory of the connexion between cathode and Röntgen rays," PM, 45 (1898), 172-183, on 183.
67. History (ref. 27), 175.
68. Notebook L126/06, 82.
69. See also Langevin (ref. 43), 524.
70. Notebook L126/06, 31
71. Ibid., 66
72. Rutherford (ref. 31).
73. Georges Sagnac, "Sur la transformation des rayons x par les métaux," CRAS. 125 (1897), 230.
74. Sagnac, "Sur la transformation des rayons x par les métaux," CRAS, 125 (1897), 942.
75. Sagnac, De l'optique des rayons de Röntgen et des rayons secondaires qui en dérivent (Paris, 1900). Emphasis added.
76. Langevin (ref. 1), 13.
77. Langevin (ref. 43), 517-518.
78. Sagnac, "Sur la transformation des rayons x par les métaux," BSFP (1897), 72-73.
79. Perrin, "Décharge par les rayons de Röntgen, Effet secondaire," CRAS, 126 (1898), 243.
80. Nye (ref. 5), 69-70.
81. Perrin (ref. 10), 25.
82. Perrin to Langevin, n. d., LP, L75/26. Perrin's emphasis.
83. Perrin to Langevin, n. d., LP, L75/25.
84. J.J. Thomson, "On the charge of electricity carried by the ions produced by Röntgen rays," PM, 46 (1898), 528-545, on 535-536.
85. JJ. Thomson, "On the connexion between the chemical composition of a gas and the ionisation produced in it by Röntgen rays," PCPS, 10 (1898), 10-14, on 11.
86. In 1918, Perrin would comment this work thus: "Later, warned by my work of the necessity to avoid the action of the walls, J.J. Thomson found that the ionization of a molecule-gramme is the sum of terms relating to the various atoms of the molecule." Perrin (ref. 10), 23.
87. Notebook L126/06, 93. Langevin's emphasis.
88. Langevin (ref. 43), 445-451.
89. Experiments on the modifications of the field by ions would be performed in Cambridge by Child, Zeleny and Rutherford. See Langevin (ref. 43), 451.
90. Notebook L126/06, 16.
91. Langevin (ref. 1), 3.
92. Rutherford to Langevin, 3 Sep 1898, LP, L76/40.
93. H.A. Wilson, "On the electrical conductivity of flames containing salt vapours," PT, 192 (1899), 499-528
94. John McClelland, "On the conductivity of gases from an arc and from incandescent metals," PCPS, 10 (1898-1900), 241-257.
95. Townsend to Perrin, n.d., LP, L76/77.
96. Townsend, "Secondary Röntgen rays," PCPS, 10 (1898-1900), 217-226.
97. J.J. Thomson (ref. 69), 528, 543-544.
98. See also Nadia Robotti, "J.J. Thomson at the Cavendish laboratory: The history of an electric charge measurement," Annals of science, 52 (1995), 265-284.
99. Townsend, "The diffusion of ions into gases," PT, A, 193 (1899), 129-158, on 151, 157.
100. See also Townsend, "Application of diffusion to conducting gases," PM, 45 (1898), 469-480.
101. Zeleny, "On the velocity of ions produced in gases by Röntgen rays," PT, 195 (1900), 193-234, on 193, 233.
102. J.J. Thomson, "On the theory of the conduction of electricity through gases by charged ions," PM, 47 (1899), 253-268, on 252.
103. René Dongier, "Quelques dispositifs utilisés au laboratoire de Physique (Enseignement) de la Sorbonne," BSFP (1907), 58-59.
104. Cards describing experiments for students (physics teaching laboratory of the Sorbonne). Langevin papers, box 129, files 1 to 4.
105. For instance, "Mesure des longueurs d'onde par les réseaux "(L129/ 46), "Loi des anneaux de Newton "(L129/42), "Diffraction" (L129/49).
106. For instance, "Etude de la torsion" (L129/21), "Poids spécifique des solides" (L129/23), "Chaleur de fusion de la glace "(L129/32).
107. For instance, "Etude d'un galvanomètre to cadre mobile "(L129/11), "Mesure de la résistance intérieure d'une pile ou d'un accumulateur" (L129/07).
108. Edmond Bouty, "Les gaz raréfiés possèdent-ils la conductivité électrolytique?," CRAS, 129 (1899), 152-155, on 155. Bouty's emphasis.
109. Sagnac, "Emission de différents rayons inégalement aborbables dans la transformation des rayons x par un même corps," CRAS, 128 (1899), 300
110. "Sur la transformation des rayons x par les différents corps," ibid., 546
111. "Sur la transformation des rayons X pardifférents métaux," EE, 19 (1899), 201-208
112. Curie and Sagnac, "Electrisation négative des rayons secondaires produits au moyen des rayons Röntgen," CRAS, 130 (1900), 1013-1016.
113. Benoit Lelong, "X-rays and the discharge of electricity through gases in Cambridge and Paris, 1896-1898: A comparative study of experimental practice and laboratory culture," in Dieter Hoffmann, Fabio Bevilacqua and Roger Stuewer, eds., The emergence of modern physics (Pavia, 1996), 267
114. "Paul Villard, J.J. Thomson and the composition of cathode rays," in Jed Buchwald and Andrew Warwick, eds., Histories of the electron: The birth of microphysics (Cambridge, 2001), 135-167.
115. Langevin, "Sur l'ionisation des gaz," BSFP (1900), 39
116. Langevin, "Les ions dans les gaz," BSIE, 17 (1900), 203-222.
117. Ibid., 203.
118. Langevin, "ionization" (ref. 93), 39.
119. Marcel Brillouin, Paul Langevin par Marcel Brillouin, Transcript of a speech at the Académie des Sciences in 1935, Archives de l'Académie des Sciences. I owe this reference to Charlotte Bigg.
120. J.J. Thomson, "On the evidence as to the constitution of matter afforded by recent researches on the discharge of electricity through gases," manuscript, LP, L2/02
121. Thomson, "Indications relatives à la constitution de la matière," Congrès international de physique. Rapports (4 vols., Paris, 1900), 3, 138
122. Thomson would thank Langevin "for the exceedingly able manner in which you translated my paper," Thomson to Langevin, 8 Jan 1901, LP, L76/59.
123. Anne Rasmussen, "Jalons pour une histoire des congrès internationaux au XIX° siècle: Régulation scientifique et propagande intellectuelle," Relations internationales, 62 (1990), 115-133.
124. Notebook L126/06, 86
125. Langevin, Recherches sur les gaz ionisés (Paris, 1902).
126. LP, L131/06, on 122.
127. Notebook L127/03, 2.
128. Pellat, Cours d'électricité (3 vols., Paris, 1901-1908), 1, 16-20.
129. Notebook L126/06, 31.
130. Notebook L127/03, 4-6.
131. Ibid., 8-9.
132. Ibid., 12-16.
133. Ibid., 22-3.
134. See also Langevin (ref. 43), 471.
135. Townsend, "The conductivity produced in gases by the motion of negatively charged ions," Nature, 62 (1900), 340.
136. On Townsend's research group in Oxford and on international work on collisions, see Lelong, "Translating ion physics from Cambridge to Oxford: John Townsend and the electrical laboratory, 1900-1924," in Robert Fox and Graeme Gooday, eds., Physics in Oxford, 1839-1939. Laboratories, learning, and college life (Oxford, 2005), 209-232.
137. Thomson to Langevin, 8 Jan 1901, LP, L76/59.
138. Langevin to Thomson, 8 Feb 1901, CUL, Add 7654, L14
139. Thomson to Langevin, 11 Feb 1901, LP, L76/61.
140. Townsend to Langevin, 5 Mar 1901, LP, L76/72.
141. Thomson, "The genesis of ions in the discharge of electricity through gases," PM, 50 (1900), 278-283, on 278-279.
142. Townsend "The conductivity produced in gases by the motion of negatively charged ions," PM, 1 (1901), 198-227.
143. Townsend and Kirkby, "Conductivity produced in hydrogen and carbonic acid gas by the motion of negatively charged ions," PM, 1 (1901), 630-642.
144. Thomson and Rutherford (ref. 30).
145. For the theoretical calculus of the number of collisions and ε, see Langevin (ref. 43), 438-443.
146. Ibid., 468.
147. Ibid., 468-470. Sensitivity is increased on measuring charges, but not on measuring potentials.
148. Townsend to Langevin, 14 June 1901, LP, L76/73.
149. Mc Lennan to Langevin, 11 Dec 1901, LP, L76/01.
150. Rutherford to Langevin, 7 Oct 1905, LP, L76/42
151. Rutherford to Langevin, 20 Dec 1905, LP, L76/43.
152. H. Thirkill to Langevin, 16 Aug 1910, LP, L76/57
153. Thomson to Langevin, 24 Jan 1909, LP, L76/66
154. Townsend to Langevin, n. d., LP, L76/76
155. Bragg to Langevin, 15 Mar 1913, LP, L74/24.
156. Notebook L127/03, 29.
157. Langevin (ref. 43), 470-471.
158. Soraya Boudia, "The Curie laboratory: Radioactivity and metrology," History and technology, 13 (1997), 249-265. In 1905 Ebert from Munich asked Langevin details about the Curie electrometer, which he did not know before reading Langevin's thesis, and on which he had found no documentation.
159. Ebert to Langevin, 19 Aug 1905, LP, L75/06.
160. On the relations between Curie and Langevin, see Langevin, "Notice sur les travaux de Pierre Curie," Annuaire de l'association des anciens élèves de L'Ecole de Physique et de Chimie de la ville de Paris, 1904, 2-36
161. Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, Langevin. Science et vigilance (Paris, 1987), 23-24 and 30-32.
162. Notebook L 127/03, 30.
163. Ibid., 36, 37-38.
164. Ibid., 39-42.
165. Ibid., 42-44.
166. Langevin (ref. 43), 475.
167. For instance, Langevin had mentioned the "first deviation" on 13 Dec 1900. Notebook L127/03, 17.
168. Pellat (ref. 2), 193-208.
169. Langevin (ref. 43), 472-475.
170. Notebook L127/03, 50.
171. Matthias Dörries, "Balances, spectroscopes, and the reflexive nature of experiment," SHPS, 25:1 (1994), 1-36.
172. Langevin (ref. 43), 461-462.
173. Notebook L127/03, 52.
174. Langevin (ref. 43), 475.
175. Ibid., 457-459.
176. Notebook L127, 60-62.
177. See also Langevin (ref. 43), 468-470.
178. Ibid, 516.
179. Notebook L127/03, 69.
180. Notebook L127/03, 71-74.
181. Ibid., 76-80.
182. Langevin (ref. 43), 482.
183. Notebook L127/03, 80-82, 85-90, 91-96, 110-116.
184. Ibid., 94.
185. Langevin, "Recherches sur les gaz ionisés," CRAS, 134 (1902), 414-417
186. "Sur la recombinaison des ions dans les gaz," ibid, 533-536
187. "Sur la mobilité des ions dans les gaz," ibid., 646-649
188. Langevin, "Recherches sur les gaz ionisés," BSFP (1902), 45-47, 49-51.
189. Quotations from Langevin (ibid.)
190. "recombinaison" (ref. 147)
191. BSFP (ref. 147), 49-50.
192. Robert K. Mc Clung, "The rate of recombination of ions in gases under different pressures," PM, 3 (1902), 283-305, on 283-284.
193. Nye (ref. 5)
194. Perrin, "Les hypothèses moléculaires," Revue scientifique, 15 (1901), 449-461.
195. Langevin (ref. 100).
196. Langevin, "L'ionisation des gaz," ACP, 28 (1903), 299-389
197. Langevin (ref. 43).
198. Ibid., 483, 514.
199. Ibid., 481-482, 456.
200. Ibid., 488-491, 517.
201. Ibid., 484, 437.
202. Thomson to Langevin, 31 Dec 1902, LP, L76/62.
203. C.T.R. Wilson to Langevin, 6 Apr 1903, LP, L76/95
204. Child to Langevin, 25 Apr 1903, LP, L74/33
205. Durack to Langevin, 5 Aug 1903, LP, L75/05
206. Cunningham to Langevin, 10 Nov 1903, LP, L74/36
207. J.H. Jeans to Langevin, 28 Jan 1904, LP, L75/21
208. Bensaude-Vincent (ref. 125), 22, 27.
209. Thomson, Conduction of electricity through gases (Cambridge, 1903), 547-549.
210. Langevin, "Sur la loi de recombinaison des ions," CRAS, 137 (1903), 177-179.
211. Langevin (ref. 1), 29.
212. Owen W. Richardson, "The rate of recombination of ions in gases," PM, 10 (1905), 242.
213. Langevin, "L'oeuvrede E. Mascart," Revue du mois, 46 (1909), 385-406
214. Langevin, "E. Mascart," Annuaire du Collège de France (1909), 25, LP, L88/16
215. Langevin, Notice (ref. 1).
216. Bloch, Notice sur les travaux de M. Eugène Bloch (Paris, 1926), 13.
217. Bloch, "Sur l'émanation du phosphore," CRAS, 135 (1902), 1324
218. "Sur l'ionisation par le phosphore," CRAS, 137 (1903), 1040, on 1042.
219. Bloch, "Sur l'ionisation par le phosphore," BSFP (1904), 8-9.
220. Bloch, "Recherches sur la conductibilité électrique de l'air produite par le phosphore et sur les gaz récemment préparés," ACP, 4 (1905), 25-144, on 110.
221. Ibid., 105.
222. Langevin and Bloch, "Sur la conductibilité des gaz issus d'une flamme," CRAS, 139 (1904), 792-794.
223. Ibid.
224. Michael Fonton and Benoit Lelong, "Measurement and surveillance: Mascart's and Langevin's electrometers between physicists, meteorologists and the military" (unpub. paper).
225. Langevin, "Sur les ions de l'atmosphère," CRAS, 140 (1905), 232-234
226. Langevin (ref. 2), 11
227. Ebert to Langevin, 25 Nov 1905, LP, L75/07
228. Maurice de Broglie and L. Brizard, "Contribution à l'étude de l'ionisation des gaz en présence de réactions chimiques," LR (1910), 164.
229. Langevin and Moulin, "Sur un enregistreur des ions de l'atmosphère," CRAS, 140 (1905), 305-307.
230. Napier's measurements are reported in Langevin, "Sur la recombinaison des ions dans les diélectriques," CRAS, 146 (1908), 1011-1017
231. T. Bialobjeski, "Recherches sur l'ionisation dans les diélectriques solides et liquides," LR, 7 (1910), 48-56 and 76-80
232. "L'ionisation des carbures d'hydrogène liquides," LR, 8 (1911), 293.
233. Nye (ref. 5).