The experiment is too lengthy for me to repeat it here, so I shall not attempt it; but I have on the table the results for examination.
The identity of action of silver and aluminum in the first case, and the non-projection of silver in this second instance, are in themselves sufficient to condemn Dr. Puluj's hypotheses, since they prove that phosphorescence is independent of the material of the negative electrode. In front of me is a set of tubes that to my mind puts the matter wholly beyond doubt. The tubes contain no inside electrodes with the residual gaseous molecules; and with them I will proceed to give some of the most striking radiant-matter experiments without any inner metallic poles at all.
In all these tubes the electrodes, which are of silver, are on the outside, the current acting through the body of the glass. The first tube contains gas only slightly rarefied and at the stratification stage. It is simply a closed glass cylinder, with a coat of silver deposited outside at each end, and exhausted to a pressure of 2 millimeters. The outline of the tube is shown in Fig. 17. I pass a current, and, as you see, the stratifications, though faint, are perfectly formed.
The next tube, seen in outline in Fig. 18, shows the dark space. Like the first it is a closed cylinder of glass, with a central indentation forming a kind of hanging pocket and almost dividing the tube into two compartments. This pocket, silvered on the air side, forms a hollow glass diaphragm that can be connected electrically from the outside, forming the negative pole, A; the two ends of the tube, also outwardly silvered, form the positive poles, B B. I pass the current, and you will see the dark space distinctly visible. The pressure here is 0.076 millimeter, or 100 M. The next stage, dealing with more rarefied matter, is that of phosphorescence. Here is an egg-shaped bulb, shown in Fig 19, containing some pure yttria and a few rough rubies. The positive electrode, B, is on the bottom of the tube under the phosphorescent material; the negative, A, is on the upper part of the tube. See how well the rubies and yttria phosphorescence shows under molecular bombardment, at an internal pressure of 0.00068 millimeter, or 0.9 M.
A shadow of an object inside a bulb can also be projected on to the opposite wall of the bulb by means of an outside pole. A mica cross is supported in the middle of the bulb (Fig. 20), and on connecting a small silvered patch, A, on one side of the bulb with the negative pole of the induction coil, and putting the positive pole to another patch of silver, B, at the top, the opposite side of the bulb glows with a phosphorescent light, on which the black shadow of the cross seems sharply cut out. Here the internal pressure is 0.00068 millimeter, or 0.9 M.
