The scattering of hydrogen positive rays, and the existence of a powerful field of force in the hydrogen molecule

Abstract

In view of the extremely important results obtained by Sir E. Rutherford and others from a study of the scattering of α -rays, it seemed worth while to investigate the scattering of particles moving with smaller velocities such as occur in the positive rays. The most interesting, because the simplest, are the rays of positively charged hydrogen atoms, which presumably consist simply of a nuclear particle, or proton. The experiments described in this paper were made in some cases with these rays, in others with the positively charged hydrogen molecules, systems consisting of two protons and one electron. The scattering medium was in all cases hydrogen gas. This was chosen largely for convenience, as the experimental arrangement is considerably simplified if the same gas is used to produce the rays and to scatter them, and also because, with the exception of helium, the molecule of hydrogen is the simplest known, and there seemed more hope of obtaining results which could be given a definite theoretical interpretation. The general scheme of experiment was to produce the rays in a discharge tube, analyse them by magnetic and electric fields in the ordinary way, cut off all except those of the kind required by a slotted diaphragm, pass the remainder through a chamber containing the scattering gas, and receive them in a Faraday cylinder arranged behind a slit of variable width. The experiment consisted in finding how the charge received by the Faraday cylinder varied with the width of the slit, when this was made wider than the geometrical “shadow” of the slot in the diaphragm. Any rays lying outside this “shadow” must have been scattered.