Noble gas in the United States alone. For large-scale use, helium is extracted by fractional distillation from natural gas, which can contain up to 7% helium. Neon, argon, krypton, and xenon are obtained from air using the methods of liquefaction of gases, to convert elements to a liquid state, and fractional distillation, to separate mixtures into component parts. Helium is typically produced by separating it from natural gas, and radon is isolated from the radioactive decay of radium compounds. The prices of the noble gases are influenced by their natural abundance, with argon being the cheapest and xenon the most expensive. As
An Experimental Enquiry Concerning the Source of the Heat which is Excited by Friction An Experimental Enquiry Concerning the Source of the Heat which is Excited by Friction "An Experimental Enquiry Concerning the Source of the Heat which is Excited by Friction" (1798), which was published in the "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society", is a scientific paper by Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford that provided a substantial challenge to established theories of heat and began the 19th century revolution in thermodynamics. Rumford was an opponent of the caloric theory of heat which held that heat was a fluid that could be neither created nor destroyed. He had further developed the view that all gases