The Thermal Conductivity of Rare Gases

The thermal conductivity of the rare gases is determined in absolute measure by a `hot wire' method at selected temperatures in the range -183° C to 306° C. The experimental values of the thermal conductivity are shown to be in good agreement with the values calculated according to the recent theory of Hirschfelder, Bird and Spotz in the above range of temperature The quantity = K/ηcv is shown to be independent of the temperature, but the value of increases slowly with the molecular weight from a value 2.43 for helium to a value 2.58 for xenon.