Absorption of helium and other gases under the electric discharge

Berthelot announced in 1896 that he had succeeded in observing an absorption of argon, and later of helium, when these gases were submitted to the silent electric discharge, in the presence of either benzene or bisulphide of carbon: further, that the gases could be extracted by heat from the solid substances deposited on the walls of the vessel. The experiments were regarded as proving that argon and helium were after all capable of entering into chemical combination. I shall confine discussion to the supposed interaction of helium and carbon bisulphide. Berthelot obtained more definite results with this reagent than with benzene. At the time they were published, these accepted, and, so far as I have been able to learn, they have not been more favourably regarded since. Berthelot, however, adhered to them in his ‘Traité Pratique de l’Analyse des Gaz,’ published in 1906, about the time of his death, and other experimenters have not produced definite evidence against them. The subject cannot be considered unimportant, and I have long felt that the experiments ought to be repeated. This has now been done, with results altogether negative.