Richard Harrison wrote:
Richard Clark wrote:
"The week is up and your (Art`s) search reveals you have gone off into
the ditch."

Look for the answer to how electrons escape a material on page 172 of
Terman`s 1955 opus. On page 173 Terman writes:
"It can be considered as an evaporation of electrons in which the energy
the electron must give up in escaping corresponds to the latent heat of
vaporization of the liquid."

Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZI

And he then goes on to say,

"The properties of matter are such that thermionic emission of electrons
does not become appreciable until temperatures of the order of 1000
degrees K or higher are reached."

The quotes are from the "Thermionic Emission of Electrons" section.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL