A mass-spectrometric investigation was performed on sulfur vapor in equilibrium with the condensed phase at 120 to 210 gas-cooled C. It was found that, in this temperature range, equilibrium sulfur vapor contains appreciable quantities of S/sub 8/, S/sub 7/, S/sub 6/, and S/sub 5/ only. The sulfur vapor emanated as a small well-collimated molecular beam from a specially constructed source into an ionization chamber which was designed to exclude from analysis any sulfur vapor that had impinged on the walls or the hot electron filament. Essential identical ionization potentials were determined for S/sub 8/ , S/sub 7/, S/sub 6/, and S/sub 5/ of 9.8 0.4 ev. The heat of vaporizati on of S/sub 7/ was calculated to be approximately 2.5 kcal greater than that of S/ sub 8/. Upper limits for S/sub 8/ and S/sub 7/ composition in S vapor at 120 gas- cooled C were determined to be 86% and 14%, respectively. It is proposed thst S/sub 8/ is the vaporizing species, that S/sub 7/, S/sub 6/, and S/sub 5/ result from dissociation of S/sub 8/. and that all four molecules have a ring configuration. (auth)