Discussion on “Vacua” (Whitney), Boston, Mass., June 25, 1912. (see poceedings for June, 1912)

A Member: Dr. Whitney refers to the gases which disappear from the incandescent lamp, and refers to the same phenomena in connection with the X-ray tube, and he calls attention to the fact that some of these old glasses from the old bulbs, either from the incandescent lamp or from the X-ray tube, bubble on being heated to the softening point. I hope that Dr. Whitney will clear up the claims of certain English physicists, and of German physicists, as to this matter. Dr. Robert Poole of the University of Berlin repeated some experiments made by an English physicist and he declares absolutely that the Englishman is mistaken; that an old glass does not give off this gas when it is under pressure in a vacuum so that the gas would be given off. Dr. Whitney refers to the fact that the glass when heated to a softening point will bubble, referring to the old glass, and I know a new glass does this as well, the conditions being that the old glass or new glass must be in a vacuum of something less than one millimeter actual pressure. I hope that Dr. Whitney will clear up this point, because the question of where the gas goes to is really a question that is important.