ABSTRACT
The telegram states: 'After the flash Dr. Wendt found that atoms of tungsten decomposed into simpler atoms and the result was the change of metallic tungsten into gaseous helium'. The experiments were made to investigate that any atomic disintegration can be effected by such high temperature discharge, and apparently the author's believe that they have obtained positive results. During the last ten years many experiments have been recorded in which small traces of helium have been liberated in vacuum tubes in intense electric discharges, and it has been generally assumed that helium has been in some way occluded in the bombarded material. On modern views, the disintegration of a heavy atom into lighter atoms is accompanied by a large evolution of energy. Indeed, it is to be anticipated that the additional heating effect due to this liberated energy would be a much more definite and more delicate test of disintegration of heavy atoms into helium than the spectroscope.
