The Discovery of Argon

Lord Rayleigh (Royal Institution, London) investigations of the densities of the most important gases and for the discovery of argon in connection with these studies. P. Lenard (Kiel) work on cathode rays. 

Strutt was the fourth Baron Rayleigh, son of John William Strutt, the third Baron Rayleigh, with whom Ramsay had collaborated on the discovery of argon. He, like Thomson, ran independent experiments that undermined Ramsay, Collie, and Patterson s results ... 

Professor of physics at Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge. He made elaborate investigations of the electrochemical equivalent of silver and of the combining volumes and compressibilities of gases. His observation that nitrogen prepared from the atmosphere is heavier than nitrogen prepared from ammonia led to the discovery of argon, the first noble gas. He also contributed to optics and acoustics. 

Soon after hearing of the discovery of argon, Lecoq de Boisbaudran predicted that it might belong to a family of absolutely inert elements all of which were then unknown, and that their atomic weights would be 20.0945, 36.40 0.08, 84.01 0.20, and 132.71 0.15. He also predicted that the first two of these elements would be more abundant than the others (33, 34). 

Life of John William Strutt, Third Baron Raleigh The Discovery of Argon (p. 222)... 

The Discovery of the Noble Gases. The story of the discovery of argon provides an interesting illustration of the importance of attention to minor discrepancies in scientific investigations. 

Cavendish s experiments and other early developments in noble gas chemistry have been described inE. N. Hiebert, Historical Remarks on the Discovery of Argon The First Noble Gas , in H, H. Hyman, ed., Noble Gas Compounds, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1963, pp. 3-20. 

The discovery of argon created a problem for chemists. It was the first noble gas to be discovered. Where should it go in the periodic table ... 

Lord Rayleigh and Ramsay both won Nobel Prizes in 1904 for the discovery of argon. Lord Rayleigh received the prize in physics and Ramsay s award was in chemistry. 

Giunta, Carmen J. (1996). The Discovery of Argon A Case Study in Scientific Method. Available from . 

There is another amazing aspect in the discovery of argon beyond its total chemical inertness. Rayleigh and Ramsay reported measurements of the speed of sound in argon that indicated that the ratio of its heat capacity at constant pressure to that at constant volume (Cp/Cy) was too high for a diatomic molecule. The only other similar observation was for monatomic mercury (vapor) whose atomic weight was known since it forms compounds. At constant volume, heat added to a diatomic molecule such as N2 goes into both movement of the molecule (translation) as well as vibration of the bond. In a monatomic substance there is no bond vibration and, thus, less capacity to absorb heat. 

The discoveries of argon and the rest of the rare gases are conveyed on a very personal level by Morris W. Travers, who, three decades earlier, was a young graduate student of Ramsay s at Bristol. 1 see an ironical aspect noted early in Travers book. He quotes Van t Hoff, the first chemistry Nobel laureate, from a contemporary Dutch review as follows ... 

University. His work in this laboratory included the discovery of Rayleigh scattering. He also worked in acoustics, electricity, and optics, as well as collaborating with William Ramsay on the discovery of argon. He was awarded the 1904 Nobel Prize for phyacs. 

Ramsay s most important work was the discovery of argon in collaboration with Lord Rayleigh, and of the other inert gases. 

The discovery of argon and helium suggested a new group of elements of zero valency in the periodic table, and this group was completed by the... 

Much time had passed before the many problems presented by the discovery of argon were solved. A certain role was played here by the discovery of helium, which also turned out to be an inert and monatomic gas. The argon-helium pair... 

The discoveries of argon and helium are remarkable also in that they set the chemists thinking not only about the nature of chemical inertness (the phenomenon was understood only about a quarter of a century later) but about the... 

---