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In Wilson's original cloud chamber the air inside the sealed device was saturated with water vapor, then a diaphragm is used to expand the air inside the chamber. This cools the air and water vapor starts to condense. When an ionizing particle passes through the chamber the water vapor condenses on the resulting Ions, the trail of the particle is visible in the vapor cloud.
Wilson, along with Arthur Compton, received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1927 for his work on the cloud chamber.