"Science, Faculty of"@en . "Physics and Astronomy, Department of"@en . "DSpace"@en . "UBCV"@en . "Tregidga, Angus C."@en . "2011-10-31T21:42:57Z"@en . "1935"@en . "Master of Arts - MA"@en . "University of British Columbia"@en . "[No abstract available]"@en . "https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/38491?expand=metadata"@en . "U . B . C . LIBRARY ] CAT NO. h\u00C2\u00A3ll2d^MS^ ^ee. N O ; _JLZ__U~--A SPECTROSCOPIC INVESTIGATION OP THE FORMATION OP ACTIVE NITROGEN -00000000----by Angus G. Tregidga __\u00C2\u00BBoo0oo--~ A Thesis submitted i n p a r t i a l f u l f i l l m e n t of the requirements f o r the degree of Baster of A r t s , U n i v e r s i t y of B r i t i s h Columbia, 1935. INDEX Page I n t r o d u c t i o n 1 The Discovery of A c t i v e Nitrogen 1 E a r l i e r Researches 1 More Recent I n v e s t i g a t i o n s 4 The Present Research Object 10 P u r i f i c a t i o n of the Nitrogen 10 The Discharge Tube 12 E l e c t r i c a l Connections 12 Design of Commutator 13 O p t i c a l Arrangements 14 Cooli n g System 15 Experimental Procedure 16 Comparison of the P l a t e s 17 The Microphotometer* 17 I n t e r p r e t a t i o n of the Records 20 Conclusion 23 ooooOoooo (1) Introduction The s u b j e c t of the i n v e s t i g a t i o n covered by t h i s t h e s i s i s the a l l o t r o p i c m o d i f i c a t i o n of n i t r o g e n which i s known as a c t i v e nitogen on account of i t s g r e a t e r readiness to form chemical combinations. i A theory has been presented to account f o r t h i s m o d i f i c a t i o n , which i s g e n e r a l l y accepted as g i v i n g a true p i c t u r e o f the r e a c t i o n process, and i t was d e s i r e d to o b t a i n f u r t h e r evidence i n i t s favour. The d i s c o v e r y of a c t i v e n i t r o g e n A c t i v e n i t r o g e n was dis c o v e r e d i n the year 1900 by Lewis who found i t s presence to be accompanied by a yellow glow which p e r s i s t e d a f t e r the e x c i t i n g cause was removed. This glow gave a band spectrum g wit h bands i n the red, yellow and green, and a few much f a i n t e r bands i n the v i o l e t . E a r l i e r Researches The r e s e a r c h on t h i s new a l l o t r o p e of n i t r o g e n may be d i v i d e d roughly i n t o two p e r i o d s . In the f i r s t p e r i o d previous to 1923, the e f f o r t s of the i n v e s t i g a t o r s were mainly devoted to studying 1. P.Lewis Astrophys. J . 12 - p.8 1900 2. \" \" J . 20 - p.49 (1904) (2) the e f f e c t s produced by a c t i v e n i t r o g e n ; w h i l s t i n the p e r i o d subsequent to that date i t was the o r i g i n and c o n s t i t u t i o n of the m o d i f i c a t i o n which drew t h e i r a t t e n t i o n . Nitrogen i s not the only gas to possess an afterglow, f o r a white glow may be obtained w i t h z carbon and oxygen, a blue one w i t h sulphur and oxygen, or a yellow one with n i t r o g e n and oxygen. R a y l e i g h ^ d i s t i n g u i s h e d the glow of mixtures of N and 0 from that of pure n i t r o g e n , f o r the former i s u s u a l l y yellow-green due to MG and ozone. Lewis thought that a t r a c e of oxygen was necessary f o r the formation of a c t i v e n i t r o g e n , but R a y l e i g h 2 produced i t i n pure H with a condensed spark. In a l a t e r paper ^ he showed that 1% of oxygen weakened the glow, while 5% k i l l e d i t e n t i r e l y . and he. F o w l e r ^ i n three papers 4 g g determined i t s spectrum and those o f other elements when e x c i t e d by a c t i v e n i t r o g e n . He found the spectrum of a c t i v e n i t r o g e n to c o n s i s t of three groups of bands, which he c a l l e d -JZ ,^andy\". JL. i s part of Deslandres' 1st p o s i t i v e group, ^ i s an NO group, 1. R . J . S t r u t t Proc. Phys. Soc. Lond. 23 p.1 (1910) 2. \" Proc. Roy. Soc. A 85. p.219 (1911) 3. \" II \" \" \" \" A 86 p. 56 (1911) 4. R . J . S t r u t t and.A. Fowler. II Proc. Roy. Soc. A 86 p.105 (1912) 5. R . J . S t r u t t I I I Proc. Roy. Soc. A 86 p'. 262 .(1912) 6. \" IV \" \" \" A 87 p.179 (1912) (3) Yis the t h i r d positive group which also belongs to NO. Many investigations were carried out to study the spectra of mixtures of active nitrogen with other substances, which were parmt band spectra and part l i n e spectra. Lewis , Found that under certain special conditions the to N plus 0. Since only the two bands are l e f t , he thought i t questionable that active nitrogen was pure nitrogen. While not asserting that a trace of oxygen is necessary for the formation of active nitrogen, he Inclined to the view that i t i s . Rayleigh p found* the glowing gas to be strongly conducting, although i n an e a r l i e r paper 3 he had reported that the active portion was uncharged. The Intensity of the glow i s affected by temperature changes, growing weaker as the temperature rises and stronger \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 a a i & a m as i t f a l l s . Pressure changes also have an effect. Compression increases the glow, but on releas-ing the pressure the luminescence dissappears. He found that the creation of active nitrogen i s speeded up by traces of other substances, such as 0, GSg, HgS, steam, mercury, chlorine etc.. They must not be i n greater concentration than \u00E2\u0080\u00A21% or they tend to retard i t s formation. 1. E.P.Lewis Phys. Rev. (2) 1. p.469 (1913) 2. R.J.Strutt II Proc. Roy. Soc. A 86. p. 56 (1911) 3. \" Proc. Roy. Soc. A 85 p.219(1911) absent, and he attributed them ( 4 ) Oxygen was found ^ g to be necessary f o r the appearance of the jZ and bands, but not f o r the ^bands. He a l s o showed t h a t the glow may i i l a s t as long as 30 minutesg. More Recent I n v e s t i g a t i o n s . The study of the e f f e c t s produced by a c t i v e n i t r o g e n having been f a i r l y thoroughly covered by the year 1923, the a t t e n t i o n of i n v e s t i g a t o r s i n t h i s f i e l d was then turned more p a r t i c u l a r l y to the s t r u c t u r e of the m o d i f i c a t i o n and the mechanism of i t s formation. Wien 4 claimed that the "Thesis/Dissertation"@en . "10.14288/1.0103731"@en . "eng"@en . "Physics"@en . "Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library"@en . "University of British Columbia"@en . "For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use."@en . "Graduate"@en . "A spectroscopic investigation of the formation of active nitrogen"@en . "Text"@en . "http://hdl.handle.net/2429/38491"@en .