Particle sensing based on condensational growth has long been the basis for robust nanoparticle measurement. Increasingly cloud chamber devices offer the potential for low-cost and portable measurement when operated semi-continuously with relatively small system volumes. Models based on isentropic and isenthalpic expansion are derived to predict the time evolution of temperature, saturation ratio, particle growth, and resultant light extinction in cloud chambers. A laboratory cloud chamber is fabricated and experiments using NaCl aerosol particles as the condensation nucleus are conducted to verify the models. The isentropic model, suggests that the temperature drops 0.6 ℃ within 40 ms, and accordingly, the saturation ratio reaches 1.04. For an aerosol with lognormal distribution, the predicted geometric mean diameter grows more than 5 times while the distribution narrows due to ∝1/𝑑p growth in the continuum regime. The performance of the cloud chamber agrees with the system physics and reference instruments, with relative error in measured extinction coefficient and signal intensities of ±5%. Detailed error propagation shows that the measured number concentrations agree well with reference instruments and the underlying theory. The lower limit of detection (~4×10^6 cm^-3) for the device is suitable for fire detection and emissions characterization.