An instrument for the measurement of absolute dissociative electron attachment cross sections was constructed and applied to two prototype molecules, acetylene (C₂H₂) and deuterated acetylene (C₂D₂). The isotope effect at the first dissociative electron attachment band at 3 eV was determined-the cross section for C₂D⁻/C₂D₂ is 14.4 times smaller than that for C₂H⁻/C₂H₂. The...