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Discharge Tube.
The cylindrical tube of length 30 cm and diameter 4cm closed at both ends in which
electric discharge is studied.
Consists of two platinum electrodes near the ends of the tube.
The vacuum pump and manometer are also connected.
The potential difference across the electrodes is about 50kV.
Gaseous Discharge at different pressure.
At 10mm of Hg.
• Discharge starts.
• Luminous streak in between the electrodes.
• Violet irregular sparked called a blue streamer (single rope) arises.
• Produces craking sound.
At 5mm of Hg.
At 2mm of Hg.
• The positive column started from anode occupies the greater part of the tube.
• The positive column detaches from the cathode and moves towards the
anode.
• Luminous glow at cathode called negative glow.
• Space between the positive column and negative glow is called Faraday's dark
space.
At 0.4mm of Hg.
• Positive column shortens and breaks into alternative bright and dark disk-
like structures called striations.
• Faraday's dark space increases.
• Negative glow leaves cathode and another glow called cathode glow appears.
• Space between the cathode and -ve glow is Crookes dark space.
At 0.01mm of Hg.
At 10-4mm of Hg.
• No discharge passes through the tube as there are very few gas molecules for
conduction.
Cathode Rays.
When a discharge tube is exhausted to 0.01mm of Hg, the whole tube is filled with
Crooke's dark space and the wall to the tube starts to glow. It indicates that the thing
which comes from the cathode strikes the wall and causes the wall to glow.
This something from the cathode as a stream of visible rays is called cathode rays.
These fast-moving invisible particles are called electrons.
Properties of Cathode Rays.