MAGNETIC TUBES 
■I, 
x. 5] 
147 
It is tempting to suppose that it corresponds to the frequency 
of a state of spin or vorticity appropriate to that tube. 
*■ war current, 
7 e /pianti® mi, 
^ Q0DS ’ wticiiE 
resuits cbg 
; ends over a cena; 
nd assuming tiie^- 
№t take tie fa 
way, we »et 
J# = W . . 1, 
lit is to assume^- 
a of the integersai 
at means riattile: 
1 *i/f. 
pdAenÉpi 
• ■MJ 
hJÏ • • ,: l 
, may lie 
le that the intep- 
i so tile energy e 
+fj. . • I!: ' 
;r2y oi tie tuie - 
uè 1 is tie tal® 
)r aicaily a nnfr- 
,is a frequency 
under cousit 
5. Application to the Theory of Spectral Series 
It may be remarked that a prominent feature of Bohr’s 
theory of spectral series is the fact that frequency plays the 
part of an additive quantity as it does in this expression for the 
energy of a quantum tube. 
The kinematical significance of Bohr’s equation hv r = W’ — W 
may be realized by expressing W in the form \rihv. The fre 
quency of the radiation emitted is then given by 
hv T = \n'hv' — \nhv . . . . 10:45 
This relation can be interpreted by taking the frequency v T 
of the emitted radiation as identical with a definite frequency 
associated with a quantum tube or tubes of magnetic induction, 
such frequency being one characteristic feature of the system, 
both in its initial and in its final state. 
It has been shown that the integer n in the expression 
W = \nhv may be interpreted as the total number of quantum 
tubes linked with the orbit of the electron, whether the orbit 
be a circle or an ellipse. Consequently, when, in Bohr’s theory, 
a change takes place from one stationary state to another and 
n changes to n', there is an integral change in the total number 
of tubes linked with the orbit. When radiation is emitted there 
is a diminution in the number of these tubes equal to n — n'. 
But it is assumed in the theory that, whatever may be the value 
of n — n', only one quantum of radiation is emitted. On the 
view now suggested it is natural to suppose that the radiated 
energy is the energy associated with a single quantum tube, the 
emission of radiation being a process consisting in, or consequent 
upon, the liberation of one quantum tube from the atomic sys 
tem. It is, however, only when the electron passes between 
neighbouring orbits that the diminution in the number of tubes, 
n — n', is equal to unity. In general, the decrease in the num 
ber of tubes linked with the orbit is more than sufficient to 
account for the single tube we have supposed separated from 
the system. If, then, we regard magnetic tubes as entities which 
can change in form, but cannot be created or destroyed (so long, 
at least, as they are associated with an atomic system), we are 
forced to the conclusion that there must be some part of the 
system which can serve as a receptacle for the surplus tubes. 
Such a receptacle may be described as a “ magneton,” using 
that term in the wide sense advocated elsewhere * to denote 
* H. S. Allen, Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin., xlii., p. 213 (1922). 
11