RankingsPrimerArbiterPhysicistMathematicianContrarianQESites logClaimsSourcesResearch notes

Sites log: SchusterAndHemsalech

Run 1: 2026-10-04 (Investigator, Step I, first run; no earlier sites.md). Chrome used throughout; two archive.org full texts read via their djvu text layer. Web time used: about 3.5 minutes by date +%s (start 1791137911), within the 10-minute cap. Nothing saved to research/files/: downloading files needs the owner's explicit permission in this session, so free-to-view PDFs are listed by URL instead.

Site URL First checked Last checked Queries tried Result Recheck? Notes
Google (Chrome) https://www.google.com 2026-10-04 2026-10-04 13 queries, see Keywords positive yes Leads to all sites below; listings in research/2026-10-04-google-and-other.md
Royal Society Publishing https://royalsocietypublishing.org 2026-10-04 2026-10-04 Q1, Q4, Q11; DOIs 10.1098/rsta.1900.0006, 10.1098/rsta.1908.0023, 10.1098/rspa.1913.0013 positive yes Full paper Phil. Trans. A 193 (1900) 189-213; Royds 1908 Phil. Trans. A 208 333-347 (p.333 read); Strutt 1913 page failed to load
Royal Society Science in the Making (archive) https://makingscience.royalsociety.org 2026-10-04 2026-10-04 Q2; items RR/14/229, RR/14/230, RR/14/231 positive yes Referee reports by Crookes (13 Feb 1899) and Abney (Mar 1899); images not yet transcribed
Internet Archive https://archive.org 2026-10-04 2026-10-04 Q3, Q8, Q10 positive yes Hull 1906 Proc RS A 78 p.80 (Doppler limit 150 m/s); Hemsalech 1901 thesis (full text read in parts); Royds 1910 Phil. Mag. not opened
Wikisource (1911 Britannica, Conduction/Gases) https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Conduction,_Electric/Gases 2026-10-04 2026-10-04 Q5 (via), find "Schuster and Hemsalech" partial yes Section "Constitution of the Electric Spark" located; paragraph text not extracted
NASA ADS (Astrophys. J. scans) https://adsabs.harvard.edu — — (listing via Q5, Q9) not reached (time/choice) yes Schaeffer 1908 ApJ 28 121; Schenck 1901 ApJ 14 116; King 1913 ApJ 38 315
HAL / Journal de Physique archive https://hal.science — — (listing via Q13) not reached yes Hemsalech "Sur les spectres des décharges oscillantes (suite)" J. Phys. 1900; J. Phys. (3) 8 652 (1899)
Gallica (BnF), Comptes rendus https://gallica.bnf.fr — — — not reached yes C. R. 129, 285 (1899); 130, 898; 132, 917; 142 (1906) positive-electrode result
Dolnośląska Biblioteka Cyfrowa (Nature vols) https://dbc.wroc.pl — — (listing via Q5, Q7) not reached yes Nature 1908 note on Hemsalech 1906 "projected solely from the positive electrode"; de Gramont
JSTOR https://www.jstor.org — — (listing via Q1) not reached yes Same Royal Society papers; Strutt 1913
Univ. of Manchester Library Special Collections https://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/rylands/ 2026-10-04 2026-10-04 Q12 negative (listing only) no No Schuster correspondence catalogue surfaced by Q12; search the catalogue directly next run
IEEE Xplore (Beilis 2018) https://ieeexplore.ieee.org — — (listing via Q7) not reached yes Modern history of cathode-spot vapour expansion citing Schuster-Hemsalech

Keywords tried

  1. "Schuster" "Hemsalech" "constitution of the electric spark"
  2. makingscience.royalsociety.org "constitution of the electric spark" Hemsalech referee
  3. "Further experiments on the constitution of the electric spark"
  4. Royds 1908 "constitution of the electric spark" velocity Schuster Hemsalech Schenck
  5. Hemsalech self-induction spark spectra "Comptes rendus" 1899 air lines disappear
  6. "Gustave Hemsalech" OR "Gustav Hemsalech" spectroscopist biography
  7. "Schuster and Hemsalech" metal vapour velocity spark jets electrode
  8. "Schuster and Hemsalech for individual spectral lines"
  9. Schenck 1901 Astrophysical Journal 14 116 spark "metallic vapor" velocity moving film
  10. Hemsalech "Recherches expérimentales sur les spectres d'étincelles" thèse 1901 gallica OR archive.org
  11. "Duration of luminosity of electric discharge in gases and vapours" 1913
  12. Arthur Schuster papers archive correspondence Hemsalech Manchester OR "Royal Society" catalogue
  13. Hemsalech "décharges oscillantes" Comptes rendus 1899 spectres self-induction

Not yet tried (next run): Feddersen 1862 rotating mirror spark Poggendorff; "Dixon" explosive wave moving film; "Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company" rotating film disc 1898; Wimshurst "H. C. Wimshurst" twelve-plate machine; "Hemsalech" "de Watteville" flame spectra; Hemsalech obituary (Nature / Paris); Schuster obituary (Obit. Notices FRS 1935, Simpson); "metal vapour jets" spark streak spectroscopy velocity modern; "Milner" Phil. Trans. spark luminosity; "Berndt" self-induction ultraviolet spark spectra; Lockyer long and short lines; German: "Schuster Hemsalech Funken Metalldampf Geschwindigkeit"; Kayser Handbuch der Spectroscopie (HathiTrust) section on moving-film sparks.

Leads for review

1. The inventors' own work

  • Full paper, Phil. Trans. A 193 (1900) 189-213, DOI 10.1098/rsta.1900.0006 (free scan). The project holds only the 6-page abstract; the full paper carries all tables (other metals), the photographs, and observations not in the abstract (Royds reports calcium H and K lines starting at gap centre and propagating to the electrodes). Bears on all claims 1-5. [web] https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsta/article/doi/10.1098/rsta.1900.0006/108275/VI-On-the-constitution-of-the-electric-spark
  • Hemsalech 1901 thesis "Recherches expérimentales sur les spectres d'étincelles" (Paris, Hermann; dedicated to Schuster). Calls the self-induction effect "la découverte faite par M. Schuster et moi"; retells the 1899 sequence (initial air discharge, then metal-vapour "auréole" carrying the oscillations); extends to 14 metals in two groups (Fe, Mn, Co, Ni strengthened by self-induction; Cd, Zn, Mg, Al, Sb, Sn, Bi, Pb, Cu, Ag weakened); argues spark vapour temperature is near arc temperature. Bears on claims 3 and 4. [web] https://archive.org/details/recherchesexpri01hemsgoog
  • Hemsalech, Comptes rendus 129, 285 (1899); 130, 898; 132, 917; 142 (1906); J. de Phys. (3) 8, 652 (1899) and 1900 "suite": the self-induction work the abstract says was in progress; the 1906 note reportedly showed metal vapour "projected solely from the positive electrode" (as summarised in Nature 1908). Bears on claims 1 and 3. Not yet read.

2. Supporting information by others (and contemporary assessment)

  • Royal Society referee reports, RR/14/229-231: Crookes (13 Feb 1899): "The paper marks an important step in understanding the electric spark"; asked for spectral annotations and more on metal purification. Abney (Mar 1899): recommended for Phil. Trans.; photographs to be reproduced phototypographically. (Archivist's catalogue summaries.) [web] https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/rr_14_230 ; https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/rr_14_231
  • Royds 1908 (Phil. Trans. A 208, 333-347) and 1910 (Phil. Mag. (6) 19, 285-290): repeated the moving-film method in Schuster's Manchester laboratory, with a velocity table by metal and line. Royds summarises the 1899 result as "the lighter metals had a greater velocity than the heavier metals" (compare claims.md item 5, "no simple law"). Bears on claims 1, 2, 5. [web] https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsta.1908.0023
  • Schaeffer 1908 (ApJ 28, 121) credits Schuster and Hemsalech with first finding that "sufficient self-induction in the discharge circuit causes the air lines to disappear". Bears on claim 3. Also Schenck 1901 (ApJ 14, 116) and Milner (Phil. Trans.), moving-film follow-ups, not yet read.
  • 1911 Britannica (J. J. Thomson) treats the work as the standard account of spark constitution. Partial read.
  • Hull 1906 (Proc. R. Soc. A 78, 80): Doppler measurement with Cd/Hg amalgam electrodes found no shift above 0.002 Angstrom, so luminous particles move along the discharge at no more than 150 m/s; Hull concludes the curvature seen by Feddersen and by Schuster and Hemsalech "appears to be due not so much to motion of luminous particles as to the propagation along those particles of a condition of luminosity". Evidence against the moving-vapour reading of claims 1, 2, 4; conditions differ from the 1899 spark and the counter-streaming geometry needs checking. [web] https://archive.org/stream/proceedingsroya02britgoog/proceedingsroya02britgoog_djvu.txt
  • Royds 1908 point (2): Schuster and Hemsalech "did not discuss any possibilities of the propagation of luminosity through vapour which may be, as a whole, stationary." The same alternative, raised from Schuster's own lab.
  • Strutt 1913 (Proc. R. Soc. A 88, 110-117): duration of afterglow in spark and arc vapours, citing Schuster-Hemsalech, Schenck and Milner. Bears on how line slope should be read (claims 1, 2).
  • Electrode question: Hemsalech 1906 (positive electrode only) vs Schaeffer 1908 (negative pole/cathode disintegration) vs the 1899 abstract (curves from both poles). Three different statements to set side by side.
  • Modern lineage: Beilis 2018 (IEEE, vacuum-arc cathode spot history: "investigated macroscopic expansion of electrode vapor into air"); Monnin 2022 HAL thesis on discharge-plasma expansion; Kerr-cell time-resolved spectroscopy "since the time of Schuster and Hemsalech" (Springer, Applied Spectroscopy). De Gramont's spark analytical spectroscopy built on the self-induction result.

4. Historical record

  • The paper's path is documented: received 24 Jan 1899, read 2 Feb 1899, refereed by Crookes and Abney (Feb-Mar 1899), published Phil. Trans. A 193 (1900). Followed by Hemsalech's 1901 Paris thesis and Royds' 1908/1910 Manchester work. The record does not go silent: the work was continued, cited in the 1911 Britannica and still cited in 2018-2022 plasma literature.
  • Biographical records of Hemsalech (later career in Paris) not yet found; Schuster papers catalogue not located by Q12.