A new type of -particle bench monitor

Abstract

The development of a Rosenblum type of spark counter as a bench monitor for α-particles is described. Twenty-two such counters are arranged in parallel and the overall efficiency is found to be about 22%. The monitor exhibits a plateau of length about 250 V with a slope of 0.06%/V or better. The background counting rate is usually about 2 counts/min. The properties of this instrument are compared with those of previously reported air counters whose mode of action differs from that of the present counter.