An attempt to cause helium or argon to pass through redhot palladium, platinum, or iron

Abstract

To chronicle experiments which produce no result is a necessity, although not entirely an agreeable one. Whatever the reason of the passage of hydrogen through red-hot iron, and through moderately heated palladium, and platinum— whether it be due to the solubility of the gas in the metal, or to the formation of an easily decomposable compound—neither argon nor helium is able to pass through any one of these metals, even at a fairly high temperature. This would imply their inability to form any compound, however unstable, with these metals, or to dissolve in them at a red heat.