Electrons, Or, the Nature and Properties of Negative Electricity (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1910 edition. Excerpt: ... ratio m/e. Indeed, Professor Zeeman, with considerable skill, had made a rough determination of this kind at a very early stage, when he only saw the effect as a slight broadening of the sodium lines; and had come to the conclusion that the electrochemical equivalent was quite different from that appropriate to electrolysis, being some thousand times smaller. He found, in fact, that the ratio e/m had in this case also the notable value already suspected in connection with cathode rays, viz., the value 107 c.g.s. See Proc Roy. Soc, vol. 60, pp. 466,513, and vol. 61, p. 413, or Nature, vol. 56, p. 237; also several articles by Lodge in The Electrician, for 1897, vol. 38. The whole matter is elucidated by Zeeman, aided by Lorentz, on the basis of theory illustrated by a picture or model of an orbitally revolving electron, which, though crude, was adequate as a guide: the small mass of the revolving particle being thereby deduced, and being in general conformity with J. J. Thomson's direct determinations of the mass of an electron some months previously. With higher experimental power greater precision was reached, and an unexpected development appeared in the tripling of each line, a result which was suggested by the model, but could not have been predicted from it alone. Other lines were found to divide into more than three components, in a very suggestive but still imperfectly understood manner. More recent measurements have confirmed this estimate, and shown that the ratio of charge to matter in the Zeeman case is practically identical with the ratio of charge to matter in the cathode ray case; in other words, that whatever is flying in the cathode rays is vibrating in a source of radiation; and that if the cathode rays consist of moving...