Abstract cooled to 2°K or lower. Rollin (1936) found that the thermal insulation of vessels containing liquid helium was much worse below than above the A point. He explained his observation by assuming the existence of a thin layer of liquid helium on the inside wall of the connecting tube, and thought it probable that the change in thermal conductivity of this film at the A point gave rise to the anomalous effects observed. As the result of more recent (unpublished) experiments Rollin and Simon* have put forward the other explanation that the film creeps up the tube and evaporates eventually. It is obvious that all these phenomena may have a common explanation and it was the object of the experiments described in this paper and the following paper to investigate the behaviour of He 11 in contact with solid surfaces systematically. The phenomena had to be investigated from various aspects and this made experiments necessary which varied in purpose and character to some extent. For simplicity’s sake we will therefore give, together with the description of each experiment, a short discussion and summarize at the end of the second paper all results in a general discussion on the whole phenomenon. All experiments were carried out in the same cryostat; and for different experiments only the experimental chamber and the experimental arrangement in it were altered.
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Daunt et al. (1979) studied this question.