Abstract
By means of a time of flight method the electron drift velocity ν _ in argon, helium, nitrogen, and hydrogen was determined as function of E/p [V/Torr cm] at room temperature and for high pressure up to 42 at, at which no measurements were as yet available. In He and H2 E/p was decreased to that range where the electrons are in thermal equilibrium with thet gas. In N2 measurements were extended nearly to this range, and in Ar measurements were carried out for E/p well above this range of thermal equilibrium. The accuracy from 1% to 1.5% in the available pressure range enabled an examination of the similarity rule. For the diatomic gases N2 and H2 the measurements show that for constant E/p, in the range E/p < 1, the drift velocities decrease with increasing pressure. This effect was not found in Ar. In He no effect was found in the pressure range up to 8400 Torr (or it lies within the limits of error).