Recent Papers

ELECTRIC DISCHARGES IN GASES \*

The Current State of Relativistic Cosmology

PHOTOIONIZATION OF GASES

This article provides a review of the available material. The first part presents results obtained with alkali metal vapors, while the second presents the limited data on photoionization of molecules.

ON THE NATURE OF COSMIC RADIATION

Static Method for Measuring the Acceleration of Gravity

MODEL EXPERIMENTS ON STÖRMER’S THEORY OF THE AURORA BOREALIS AND THE “ECHO OF OUTER SPACE”\*

Sugar Losses of Frozen Sugar Beet During Water Transport

This study examines sugar losses during hydraulic transport of sugar beet frozen for prolonged periods under Siberian winter conditions, a problem relevant to the design and operation of emerging Siberian sugar factories. Because factory trials were not available, the authors constructed a laborator…

Effect of the Drying Temperature of Sugar Beet Cossettes on the Degree of Transfer of Non-Sugar Substances from Them into Juice

This study examines how drying temperature affects the transfer of non-sugar substances from sugar beet cossettes into diffusion juice during processing of dried beet. Using beet samples dried at 65, 75, 80, 85, and 95 to 97°C, the authors measured sugar extraction and several impurity groups, inclu…

Heat of Thawing of Sugar Beet

This study examines the heat required to thaw sugar beet frozen under Siberian winter conditions, a problem relevant to the operation of new sugar factories processing beet stored in a frozen state. Because theoretical calculation is complicated by variable beet composition, supercooling, capillary …

Thawing Frozen Beets with Steam

This study examines whether frozen sugar beet cossettes stored under Siberian winter conditions can be thawed before diffusion by brief scalding with low-pressure steam. Using frozen Altai beets, the authors compare storage conditions, construct a laboratory steam-scalding apparatus, and measure cha…

Biological Changes in Sugar Beet

This study examines structural and biological changes in sugar-beet roots stored under prolonged freezing conditions characteristic of Siberian winters, a problem relevant to proposed frozen storage methods for Siberian sugar production. Using macroscopic inspection, plasmolysis tests, tissue darken…

On Changes in Frozen Clamp-Stored Beet during Winter Storage

This study examines whether sugar beet frozen during winter storage under Siberian conditions remains suitable for sugar-factory processing. Using beet lots sent from the Barnaul region during the 1928 to 1929 season, the work compares external condition, weight change, sucrose, invert sugar, juice …

Opportunities and Prospects of the Sugar Industry in the Minusinsk District

This study examines the feasibility and prospects of developing a sugar industry in the Minusinsk District, using the history of the Gusev sugar factory, beet quality and yield data, regional agronomic conditions, and transport cost comparisons. It argues that the failure of the earlier factory resu…

Rate of Oxidation of Amines by Potassium Permanganate under Various Conditions

This study examines the oxidation rates of a range of aliphatic, cyclic, aromatic, and alkaloid amines by potassium permanganate under weakly acidic, nearly neutral, aqueous, and strongly alkaline conditions. Equimolecular amine and permanganate solutions were reacted at 18 to 20 degrees, and rates …

Rate of Oxidation of Polyhydric Alcohols by Potassium Permanganate

This study examines the oxidation rates of a series of polyhydric alcohols and sucrose by potassium permanganate in neutral and alkaline media. The reactions were followed by titrating residual oxidant at timed intervals under varied concentrations and temperatures, and apparent rate values were com…

Rate of Oxidation of Aliphatic Hydroxy Acids by Potassium Permanganate

This study measures the oxidation rates of ten aliphatic hydroxy acids and one keto acid by potassium permanganate in acid, neutral, and alkaline media. Purified acids and equimolar permanganate solutions were reacted at about 17 to 19 degrees, and consumption of active oxygen was followed by titrat…

Types of Bond Cleavage in Molecules of Organic Compounds

This paper reviews and critiques contemporary approaches to classifying bond cleavage in organic compounds, focusing on bond strength, affinity capacity, and migratory aptitude of organic radicals. Drawing on published reaction series for ketone cleavage, ether decomposition, cyanogen bromide reacti…

Rate of Oxidation of Aliphatic and Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Halogenated Hydrocarbons by Acetic-Chromic Anhydride

This study examines the relative oxidation rates of aliphatic, alicyclic, aromatic, halogenated hydrocarbons, and thiophene in acetic anhydride solutions of chromic anhydride, chiefly at 1 percent concentration and at low or room temperature. Reaction progress was followed by titration of residual o…

On the Mechanism of the Cannizzaro Reaction

This paper reviews proposed mechanisms for the Cannizzaro reaction and evaluates them against reported reactions of aldehydes under alkaline, alcoholate, and related catalytic conditions. After discussing hydration, redox, addition-product, benzoin-intermediate, and ester-formation interpretations, …

Experience in the Catalytic Oxidation of Anthracene with Atmospheric Oxygen

This paper reports experimental trials on producing anthraquinone by catalytic oxidation of technical anthracene vapor with atmospheric oxygen at ordinary pressure. Anthracene was carried with air and superheated steam through a heated glass reaction tube containing pumice-supported metal oxide cata…

Application of a Mercury-Oil Thermoregulator at High Temperatures

This paper describes a simple mercury and oil thermoregulator designed to stabilize gas heated furnaces used for long organic chemistry experiments at approximately 100 to 400 degrees C. The apparatus uses a mercury valve controlled by the expansion of thoroughly dried high boiling lubricating oil, …

Activity of halogens in some of the simplest halogenated hydrocarbons as a function of the position of the halogens in the molecule

This study examines how the position of halogen atoms in simple saturated halogenated hydrocarbons affects carbon halogen bond reactivity. Twenty two chloro, bromo, and iodo derivatives with three to five carbon atoms were reacted at room temperature with pyridine, piperidine, and sodium methylate, …

Investigation of the Reaction Products of Esters of Mineral Acids with Tertiary Amines

This study examines the interaction of mineral acid esters with tertiary amines in order to clarify whether these reactions involve decomposition or salt formation. A series of sulfuric, sulfonic, nitric, and nitrous acid esters were reacted with tertiary amines including triethylamine, pyridine, di…

Reaction Rate of Certain Esters of Mineral Acids with Pyridine

This study examines whether cleavage of ester oxygen bonds by pyridine can be used to compare the mobility of hydrocarbon radicals and acid residues in esters, focusing on esters of strong mineral acids after less reactive organic and weak inorganic esters proved unsuitable. The authors followed the…

Effect of Neutral Salts on the Rate of Oxidation of Organic Compounds by Permanganate

This paper examines whether permanganate oxidizes organic compounds more effectively as neutral potassium permanganate molecules or as permanganate ions, using alkaline oxidation of ethyl alcohol as the test reaction. The authors varied the degree of dissociation by adding neutral salts, including c…

On the Mechanism of Nitration and Other Substitution Reactions in the Benzene Ring

This paper examines proposed mechanisms for nitration and related substitution reactions in the benzene ring, criticizing addition schemes in which nitric acid or nitric anhydride first adds across an aromatic double bond. Drawing on kinetic observations, reactions of nitrogen dioxide and nitric anh…

On the Mineral Nutrition of Yeasts in Grain Mashes in Yeast Production

This study examines mineral nutrition as a means of increasing yeast yields in highly diluted, strongly aerated grain worts for pressed yeast production. It reviews compositional imbalances between wort extract and yeast biomass, then reports fermentation experiments in which ammonium sulfate and su…

Some Applications of X-Rays\*

GAS EXPLOSIONS AND THE THEORY OF CHAIN REACTIONS\*

Report at the VII Physicochemical Conference in Leningrad, September 25, 1930.

P. A. M. DIRAC. *Principles of Quantum Mechanics* (Oxford University Press, 1930).

Book review: R. A. M. Dirac. Principles of Quantum Mechanics.

Typographical Errors Noted in Issue 2

DETERMINATION OF THE ABSOLUTE VALUES OF X-RAY WAVELENGTHS

A. HAAS. *Atomic Theory.

Review: Arthur Haas. Atomtheorie.

MECHANISM OF FORMATION OF THE LATENT AND VISIBLE PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGE

The major advances of recent years in the field of physicochemical disciplines could not but be reflected in the development of photography; indeed, during this time significant progress has been made in theoretical terms; it concerns primarily the most important issue in photography—the theory of p…

ARTHUR HAAS. _Foundations of Quantum Chemistry._ Translated from the German by P. V. Roman, edited by Prof. Ya. I. Frenkel. 90 pp., price 25 kopecks. Gosizdat, 1930 (series “The Ne

Arthur Haas. Foundations of Quantum Chemistry.

W. Heisenberg. Die physikalischen Prinzipien der Quantentheorie. VIII + 117. Verlag S. Hirzel. Leipzig. 1930. RM. 8.

Book review: W. Heisenberg. The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory.

Chain Reactions

Several decades ago, through the concerted work of physicists and chemists, as a result of applying the theories of classical physics to chemistry, the principal branch of physical chemistry was created—the doctrine of equilibria, which achieved such brilliant theoretical and practical results. The …

THE STRUCTURE OF CELLULOSE IN LIGHT OF X-RAY ANALYSIS[^1]

Lecture delivered at the Royal Institution in London on January 24, 1930.

On Two Modifications of Hydrogen

On Causal and Statistical Regularity in Physics[^1]

Report at the Fifth Congress of Physicists and Mathematicians in Prague, September 16, 1929.

PHYSICS AND METALLURGY[^1]

Speech delivered at the congress of the German Society for Metallurgy in Düsseldorf on September 7, 1929.

METALLIC CRYSTAL[^1]

O. D. Khvolson. _Physics of Our Time._ Second edition, GIZ, Moscow–Leningrad, 1929, 382 pp., price in binding 4 rubles 10 kopecks.

Book Review: O. D. Khvolson. Physics of Our Days.

STATISTICAL THEORIES OF MATTER, RADIATION, AND ELECTRICITY[^1]

THE LIGHT QUANTUM HYPOTHESIS

On the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the Light Quantum Hypothesis (1905–1930).

Physiological Optics

Book review: A. König. Physiologische Optik.

Distillation in Vacuum

Cosmic Rays

Book review: L. V. Mysovsky. Cosmic Rays. “The Latest Trends in Scientific Thought” series.

Optical Spectra and the Periodic System of Elements

DISCUSSION ON MOLECULAR SPECTRA AND MOLECULAR STRUCTURE

In September 1929, the Faraday Society organized a conference on molecular spectra and molecular structure. The conference was held on September 24 and 25 at the Physics Institute of the University of Bristol under the chairmanship of Prof. T. Lowry.