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THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN ELECTRON
[Illustration: A WELL-KNOWN PHENOMENON PRODUCED BY ELECTRONS
_Photo_
_The Fleet Agency_
A sudden discharge of electrons from cloud to cloud, or from cloud to
the earth, constitutes what we call "lightning."]
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN ELECTRON.
Wherein the Scientific Ideas of the Present
Time Are Explained in an Interesting
and Novel Fashion
by
CHARLES R. GIBSON, F.R.S.E.
Author of "Scientific Ideas of To-Day," "Electricity of To-Day"
"The Romance of Modern Electricity," _&c. &c._
Illustrated
Philadelphia
J. B. Lippincott Company
London: Seeley & Co. Limited
1911
PREFACE
Although text-books of science may appear to the general reader to be
"very dry" material, there is no doubt that, when scientific facts and
theories are put into everyday language, the general reader is genuinely
interested. The reception accorded to the present author's _Scientific
Ideas of To-day_ bears out this fact. While that volume explains, in
non-technical language, the latest scientific theories, it aims at
giving a fairly full account, which, of course, necessitates going into
a great deal of detail. That the book has been appreciated by very
varied classes of readers is evident from the large numbers of
appreciative letters received from different quarters. But the author
believes that if the story of modern science were told in a still more
popular style, it would serve a further useful purpose. For there are
readers who do not care to go into details, and yet would like to take
an intelligent interest in the scientific progress of the present day.
Some of those readers do not wish to trouble about names and dates,
while the mere mention of rates of vibration and such-like is a worry to
them. They wish a book which they may read with the same ease as an
interesting novel. Hence the form of the present volume.
* * * * *
The author is indebted to Professor James Muir, M.A., D.Sc., of the
Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College, and to H. Stanley Allen,
M.A., D.Sc., Senior Lecturer in Physics at King's College, University of
London, for very kindly reading the proof-sheets. The author is indebted
further to Professor Muir in connection with some of the illustrations,
and for others to Dixon and Corbitt and R. S. Newall, Ltd., Glasgow;
Siemens Schuckert Werke, Berlin.
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I
WHAT THE STORY IS ABOUT
The Scribe introduces the Electron to the reader. He has something
to say also about the mysterious aether which pervades all
space. He emphasises the fact that the electron is a real
existing thing 21