Ionization potentials of mercury, cadmium, and zinc, and the single- and many-lined spectra of these elements

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1915
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 70 KB
• Volume: 180
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0016-0032
• DOI: 10.1016/s0016-0032(15)90312-5

✦ Synopsis

The apparatus employed is similar in construction to a piledriver on a small scale. This is provided with one stationary and one movable wire grip or chuck. This " forge effect" and velocity can be varied independently by a separate adjustment of the length of drop and mass of the moving parts. The electric energy is supplied from a direct-current generator through an electrolytic condenser. At the instant of contact the condenser is discharged and the energy thus concentrated at the point of contact is sufficiently great to produce a perfect weld between the wires. The generation of heat is so localized, so sudden, and so intense that there is no time for an unequal heat conduction through the shanks of the wire, and the ends will be melted and even vaporized, whether the melting-point of the metal is high or low. All combinations of metals or alloys that have been tried will weld together, but the joints will not be permanent for such combinations as aluminum and tin or lead and iron.