Electron

“ From the smallest atom of all--the atom of hydrogen--which consists of one electron, rotating round a positively charged nucleus, to a heavy complicated atom, such as the atom of gold, constituted of many electrons and a complex nucleus, _we have only to do with positive and negative units of electricity_. The electron and its nucleus are particles of electricity. All Matter, therefore, is nothing but a manifestation of electricity. The atoms of matter, as we saw, combine and form molecules. Atoms and molecules are the bricks out of which nature has built up everything ”

“ Electricity is not like red paint, a substance which can be put on to the electron and taken off again; it is merely a convenient name for certain physical laws.
All electrons, whatever kind of atom they may belong to, and also if they are not attached to any atom, are exactly alike—so far, at least, as the most delicate tests can discover. Any two electrons [Pg 26] have exactly the same amount of negative electricity, the smallest amount that can exist. They all have the same mass. ”

“ As we travel up the periodic table, the first element in each period, which is an alkali, has only one electron in the outermost ring; accordingly we might expect this one electron to move more or less as the hydrogen electron does, since the positive charge on the nucleus exceeds the negative charges on the inner electrons by just the amount of the charge on an electron or a hydrogen nucleus, and the inner electrons may be expected to be never very near the outer electron, as distances go within an atom. ”

“ The electron and the positive charge produce an electric field all round them, and an electric field is probably a very complicated piece of mechanism. We may picture it in this case as consisting of a large number of lines of force, with one end on the electron and the other on the positive charge, spreading out into the space round the atom, and we may also suppose that these lines of force may move about even though their ends are at rest, and thus vibrate independently of the electrons. ”

“ The Theory of Ionization and the Electron Theory of Electricity and of Matter.66—According to the views held by many leading physicists at the present time, negative electricity consists of ultimate particles of matter called electrons or corpuscles. The mass of an electron is about 1 / 1000 the mass of an atom of hydrogen, and the electric charge of the electron is equal to that carried by a chloride ion in solution.67 The atoms of the elements are considered to consist of aggregations of large numbers of electrons in a kind of "shell" or "body" of positive electricity. ”

“ On the contrary, we know that each atom consists of particles of positive and negative electricity. The negative electrons arrange themselves about a positive electron for a nucleus and, rotating about it as if it were a central sun with planets, constitute an atom. All matter reduced to the ultimate electron is precisely alike. The difference in matter is determined by the number of negative electrons that are attracted and held in place by the positive nucleus that is at the center of each atom of which a particular kind of matter is composed. ”

“ Thus the electric atom of the two has the greater claim to simplicity. When we speak of an electric atom disregarding for the time the matter associated with it, we call it, not an ion, but an electron. Evidence will later be given suggesting ways by which we may wrench a negative electron wholly free from matter, and experiment with it in its detached and pure state. ”

“ Here is the electron, the atom of electricity demanded by the theory of Lorentz.
But what of the positive electron? Search for this has often been made, but the mass of the positively charged particles has always proved to be comparable with that of an atom. There are some indications that positive electrons may be identical with positively charged atoms of hydrogen or of the gas helium whose atomic mass is four times that of hydrogen; but for the present we can say only that positive electricity is never found dissociated from matter of atomic dimensions. ”

“ This electronic hypothesis, therefore, affords a basis on which we can build up a theory affording an explanation of the nature of the intimate connection known to exist between ether, matter and electricity. The electron is the connecting link between them all, for it is in itself a center of convergent ether strain; isolated, it presents itself as electricity of the negative or resinous kind ”

“ Jimmy looked relieved.
“Now,” continued the doctor, “the theory is that all matter is composed of an infinite number of electrons. An electron is the smallest thing that can be conceived, smaller even than the atom which used to be thought of as the unit. There may be millions, billions, quadrillions of them in a thing as big as a hickory nut. And when these electrons get busy you can look out for things to happen.
“Every hot object sends out electrons. That’s the reason that the filament in the electric light tube sends them out.” ”

“ With 29 electrons it’s no wonder if sometimes one goes wandering off and finally gets into the game about some other nucleus. Of course, an electron from some other atom may come wandering along and take the place just left vacant, so that nucleus is satisfied.
We don’t know all we might about how the electrons wander around from atom to atom inside a copper wire but we do know that there are always a lot of them moving about in the spaces between 15the atoms. Some of them are going one way and some another. ”

“ For the energy , with which the electron is found by experiment to escape from the atom, must have come either from the energy stored up inside of the atom or else from the light. There is no third possibility. ”

“ It is the interchange of these few detachable electrons that causes one atom to attract another. In other words, it is the differently charged atoms which attract each other, just as man crowds a surplus of electrons on to one object and finds it attracted bodily towards another object having a deficiency of electrons.
It is this electrical attraction between the atoms which enables us to build up the particles, or molecules, of matter in such a variety of forms. First of all, we play the most important part within the atoms. ”

“ So an electron merely passes to the next atom, which sends on an electron to a third atom, and so on. In this case, however, the movement from atom to atom is so rapid that the ripple of movement, if we may call it so, may pass along at an enormous speed. We have seen how swiftly electrons travel. ”

“ The act of ionization by ether waves, i.e., by X-rays or light, seems to consist in the hurling out with an energy which may be very large, but which depends upon the frequency of the incident ether wave, of one single electron from an occasional molecule over which this wave passes.
3. The act of ionization by rapidly moving -particles consists generally in the shaking loose of one single electron from the atom through which it passes, though in the case of helium, two electrons are certainly sometimes removed at once. ”

“ Protons repel each other, and electrons repel each other, but an electron and a proton attract each other. Every atom is a structure consisting of electrons and protons. The hydrogen atom, which is the simplest, consists of one proton with one electron going round it as a planet goes round the sun. The electron may be lost, and the proton left alone; the atom is then positively electrified. But when it has its electron, it is, as a whole, electrically neutral, since the positive electricity of the proton is exactly balanced by the negative electricity of the electron. ”

“ I have given a form to the dynamics of the electron, which suits to explain the experiments of Kaufmann on a purely electromagnetic basis. Thereby I have, besides the general fundamental hypotheses of the electron theory, introduced the following special hypotheses:
E. The electromagnetic forces of the external field and the field excited by the electron itself, are in equilibrium at the electron in the sense of the mechanics of rigid bodies.
F. The Electron is not at all capable of any change of its shape. ”

“ The electron is nothing more than a form of electricity.
(2) Each electron weighs 1/770th of a fluid atom. Of an atom, that is, which, hitherto had been regarded as the smallest individual particle.
(3) A fluid atom consists of 770 electrons and is formed of electricity without any other material.
(4) The atoms of other elements, besides radium, are also composed of electrons and of nothing else.
The number of electrons varies in different elements; for instance, an atom of quicksilver is composed of 150,000 electrons. ”

“ By observing the behaviour of the electron under electric and magnetic forces, the values of its mass and electric charge—the quantities which determine its behaviour under specified conditions—have been measured; indeed, though the electron has only lately come under our notice, we know a good deal more about it than we do of many things which have been discovered centuries ago. ”

“ We are always on the move, performing a perpetual dance around the iron atoms, but the atoms arrange themselves in a higgledy-piggledy fashion, so that the electrons on one atom pull the æther in one direction while others pull the æther in an opposite direction. ”

“ When positive and negative electricity are present in equal amounts in a body, they neutralize each other from the point of view of the outside world, and the body appears as unelectrified. When a body appears as electrified, that is because there is a preponderance of one kind of electricity. The hydrogen atom, when it is unelectrified, consists simply of a hydrogen nucleus with one electron. ”

“ Each of these electrons is in incessant and terrific motion, moving at the rate of something like 180,000 miles a second, so placing it in position would be a difficult matter. Besides which, each electron is not a tiny bit of matter as we ordinarily conceive matter—something which we can touch and handle. It is a mere centre or nucleus of energy. Any placing of it in position by a super-gardener is therefore out of the question. ”

“ They have to undergo innumerable impacts, which throw them first in one direction and then in another. The passage of a current is a sort of flow of these electrons in a determined direction. This electric flow brings, however, no modification to the material medium traversed, since every electron which disappears at any point is replaced by another which appears at once, and in all metals the electrons are identical. ”

“ First, since we have found that electrons are constituents of all atoms and that mass is a property of an electrical charge, it is of course in the interests of simplicity to assume that all the mass of an atom is due to its contained electrical charges, rather than that there are two wholly different kinds of mass, one of electrical origin and the other of some other sort of an origin. ”

“ Falling in ground well prepared to receive it, in the ether of Faraday, Maxwell, and Hertz, the idea of the electron, an electrified movable centre which experiment to-day allows us to lay hold of individually, constitutes the tie between the ether and matter formed of a group of electrons. ”

“ Every increase in man’s knowledge of the way in which nature works must, in the long run, increase by just so much man’s ability to control nature and to turn [Pg 4] her hidden forces to his own account.
The purpose of this volume is to present the evidence for the atomic structure of electricity, to describe some of the most significant properties of the elementary electrical unit, the electron, and to discuss the bearing of these properties upon the two most important problems of modern physics: the structure of the atom and the nature of electromagnetic radiation. ”

“ Then there are our friends who are locked up within the atoms of matter—part and parcel of the atom. And now I am introducing you to those electrons who act as satellites to the atoms, revolving around them at a comparatively great distance, just as the moon revolves around the earth. These are the electrons which give rise to the magnetism in a piece of iron. There are other electrons which perform very rapid revolutions around all classes of atoms, but I shall introduce these friends later on. ”

“ Some time later another scientist was able to prove by experiment that these particles did exist.
This was done by means of the spectroscope, as will be related by the electron in a later chapter.
[Pg 61] From the little I have told you already of our experiences, you will see that men had been making many experiments in which we electrons took a very active part. It was disappointing that even although we had surprised man in so many different ways, he had never become suspicious of our presence. ”

“ It will be well to introduce the electron to the reader before leaving it to speak for itself. We have definite experimental proof of the existence of electrons, and yet it is very difficult to realise their existence, for two reasons. ”

“ In the second case, the electrons are not so firmly attached to their atoms, so that the incoming waves dislodge them, and they are knocked about from atom to atom, and in this way the energy of the waves is frittered away. Man speaks of the light having been absorbed by the substance upon which it fell. ”

“ The electron is thought by many reputable scientists of the present day to be the primordial thing out of which all matter is built up, so that from this point of view the different atoms of ordinary matter are merely different groupings of these fundamental electrical units. ”