greater the intensity of the rays. The point at which condensation begins is very marked, and a slight variation of the amount of expansion causes either a dense cloud or no cloud at all.
It now remains to be shown that the formation of a cloud by the action of the rays is due to the productions of ions in the gas. If the expansion vessel is provided with two parallel plates between which an electric field can be applied, it is seen that the number of drops, formed by the expansion with the rays acting, decreases with increase of the electric field. The stronger the field the smaller the number of drops formed. This result is to be expected if the ions are the centres of condensation; for in a strong electric field the ions are carried at once to the electrodes, and thus disappear from the gas. If no electric field is acting, a cloud can be produced some time after the rays have been cut off; but if a strong electric field is applied, under the same conditions, no cloud is formed. This is in agreement with experiments showing the time required for the ions to disappear by recombination. In addition it can be shown that each one of the fine drops carries an electric charge and can be made to move in a strong uniform electric field.
The small number of drops produced without the action of the rays when v_{2}/v_{1} > 1·25 is due to a very slight natural ionization of the gas. That this ionization exists has been clearly shown by electrical methods (section 218).
The evidence is thus complete that the ions themselves serve as centres for the condensation of water around them. These experiments show conclusively that the passage of electricity through a gas is due to the presence of charged ions distributed throughout the volume of the gas, and verify in a remarkable way the hypothesis of the discontinuous structure of the electric charges carried by matter.
This property of the ions of acting as nuclei of condensation gives a very delicate method of detecting the presence of ions in the gas. If only an ion or two is present per c.c., their presence after expansion is at once observed by the drops formed. In this way the ionization due to a small quantity of uranium held a yard away from the condensation vessel is at once made manifest.
