Absorption of Ultra High-Frequency Radio Waves in Organic Liquids

THE anomalous absorption of radio waves of wave-lengths lying between 50 cm. and 1 metre was observed long ago by Drude1, Romanoff2 and others. Romanoff studied the absorption in some alcohols at about 16 C. in the region λ= 57-88 cm., and observed some absorption peaks in this region in each case. Later on, Mizushima3 studied the absorption of continuous radio waves of wave-length λ = 6.1 metres by glycerine, a few alcohols, ether and acetone at different temperatures, and observed absorption peaks at low temperatures in all cases except in the latter two liquids, which did not show any absorption even at - 69° C. The results thus tend to show that the phenomenon is not necessarily exhibited by liquids having polar molecules.