Education Commons^™

The Inert Gases, R. W. Getchell

Science Bulletin

Nitrogen gas is lazy. A chemical revolution may enlist and lead away nearly every other element and compound in the air, but nitrogen will stay at home and refuse to become excited. Less than forty years ago, Lord Rayleigh in England made use of this characteristic by removing the other components of the air and collecting the remaining supposedly pure nitrogen in order to study it.