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A critical discussion is given of the Kelvin method of measuring work functions and surface potentials. There is a short description of the theory and a review of the technical development of the method. The practical limits to its precision are discussed in turn: these are noise, the effects of stray capacitance, and variations in the work function of the reference surface. Suggestions are made for a new technical variation of the method, and for a new type of reference surface that should have advantages for measuring the surface potentials of gases on metals.
Surplice et al. (Wed,) studied this question.