Negative charge

“ Since an atom is electrically neutral, the negative charge carried by the exterior distribution of electrons in the structure of the atom must be equal and opposite to the resultant positive charge carried by the nucleus. The electrical charge is most conveniently expressed in terms of the number of the fundamental units of charge in the nucleus. Since the charge carried by the electron is one unit, the charge on the nucleus of the atom may be expressed numerically by the number of electrons exterior to the nucleus. ”

“ Association of Positive and Negative Electricities.—The third leading fact in electrostatics is that positive and negative electricity are always created in equal quantities, and that for every charge, say, of positive electricity on one conductor there must exist on some other bodies an equal total charge of negative electricity. ”

“ When, for instance, a positively electrified body was found to induce upon another insulated conductor a charge of negative electricity on the side nearest to it, and a charge of positive electricity on the side farthest from it, this was explained by saying that the particles of each of the two electric fluids repelled one another but attracted those of the positive fluid. Hence the operation of the positive charge upon the neutral fluid was to draw towards the positive the negative constituent of the neutral charge and repel to the distant parts of the conductor the positive constituent. ”

“ If the positive centres, as we know, ought not to be represented as free electrons, it seems, however, necessary to admit the presence of probable electrons which cause the neutralization of the negative charges in the atomic structure, but which for some reason come out of this structure with extreme difficulty, contrary to what is the case for the negative centres. ”

“ In our black box, we've been breaking up the atoms of lead into positive and negative charges. We've been using the positive, and then just turning the negative loose. This thing will make use of both, and give us a swell new weapon all at once.
“Look—the negative charges will do for our gravity beam just as well as the positive. They will create an excess of negative electrons instead of an excess of positive protons in the object we hit, and cause atomic disintegration. It's a gravity process just the same, but a different one. Now that gives us something else to do with the positives. ”

“ If we regard the forces which keep the atoms together as electrical in their origin, the question naturally arises, are the two atoms in a molecule of hydrogen, for example, charged one with positive the other with negative electricity; or in a molecule of hydrochloric acid gas is the hydrogen atom positively charged, the chlorine negatively, or in a compound like ammonia NH3 does the nitrogen atom carry three negative charges and each of the hydrogen atoms one positive one ? ”

“ Since the energy associated with a given charge is greater the smaller the body on which the charge is concentrated, the energy stored up in the negative corpuscles will be far greater than that stored up by the positive. ”

“ For while the two possess the same charge, the inertia or mass which, so far as we know, is inseparably associated with a positive unit is that of a hydrogen atom, while that inseparably associated with the negative unit is 1/1.760th as much. The negative units, furthermore, or electrons, are so small in volume and are separated from one another within the atom by so large spaces, that one of them can shoot through hundreds and thousands of atoms without hitting anything or doing anything whatever to these atoms. ”

“ Electro-chemical phenomena teach us to associate a definite amount of electricity with each atom of matter; but these recent researches indicate that under certain circumstances a much larger quantity of negative electricity may be conveyed by the atom, or else that the negative electrical charge resides on a small detachable portion of the "atom," which alone is concerned in the experiments. The positive charge seems to be distributed over the whole mass of the atom.
The merits of two methods of clarifying sewage—by dilution and by bacterial action—are discussed by Mr. ”

“ Suppose, for simplicity, the body is charged to a positive potential. On account of the greater conductivity of the gas on the side facing the charged body, it will rapidly acquire a positive charge, and the potential of the vane will reach a higher value than existed at that place before the vane was introduced. ”

“ Now as one kind of electricity cannot be given out without the other, the developement of the positive electricity is stopped as well as that of the negative, and the conductor therefore cannot receive a succession of charges. ”

“ Our knowledge seems rather to point to the substances upon which the charges are collected. The self-repellent nature of electricity compels it to manifest itself at the more prominent parts of the surface, the level being forsaken for the point. The tension of the charge, or its tendency to fly off, is proportionately increased. And if at a given moment the tension attains a certain intensity, the discharge follows, emanating from the surface which offers the greatest facilities for escape. ”

“ The reason is, that when we once charge a body by contact with either kind, it repels that kind, and attracts the opposite; if we charge it from the glass, i.e., with vitreous electricity, it refuses to have more, and is attracted to the sealing-wax; and if we charge it from the sealing-wax, i.e., with resinous electricity, it refuses to have more, and is attracted to the glass-rod; only it is to be observed that, till the body is charged by either, it has an equal attraction for both. ”

“ At the end of a discharge it is a common thing for the plates to be standing in 25% acid, while inside the pores the acid may not exceed 8% or 10%. If the discharge be stopped, we have conditions somewhat like fig. 12, and the e.m.f. begins to rise. In one minute it has gone up by about 0·08 volt, &c.
Charge and Discharge.—The most important practical questions concerning an accumulator are:—its maximum rate of working; its capacity at various discharge rates; its efficiency; and its length of life. ”

“ If we conclude from the facts that every unit of affinity of every atom is charged always with one equivalent, either of positive or of negative electricity, they can form compounds, being electrically neutral, only if every unit charged positively unites under the influence of a mighty electric attraction with another unit charged negatively. You see that this ought to produce compounds in which every unit of affinity of every atom is connected with one and only with one other unit of another atom. ”

“ The questions that occur when we consider the relation between matter and the electrical charge carried by it—such as the state of the matter when carrying the charge, and the effect produced on this state when the sign of the charge is changed—are regarded as among the most important in the whole range of physics. ”

“ The investigations made on the unit of positive electricity show that it is of quite a different kind from the unit of negative; the mass of the negative unit is exceedingly small compared with any atom; the only positive units that up to the present have been detected are quite comparable in mass with the mass of an atom of hydrogen ”

“ To take a definite case, let us suppose that the negatively charged hydrogen atom owes its charge to having been in chemical combination with an atom of carbon before it passed through the cathode, the molecule of the compound being positively charged when in the discharge tube and acquiring a high velocity under the electric field. After passing through the cathode the molecule gets neutralized and then dissociates into a positively charged carbon atom and a negatively charged hydrogen one. ”

“ There are two kinds of electricity, positive and negative; and these have a pugnacious tendency. A, a student, goes up to the College positive he shall pass; B, an examiner, thinks his abilities negative, and flummuxes him accordingly. A afterwards meets B alone, in a retired spot, where there is no policeman, and, to use his own expression, “takes out the change” upon B. In this case, which receives the greatest shock—A’s “grinder,” at hearing his pupil was plucked, or B for doing it?
The more crowded an assembly is, the greater quantity of carbonic acid is evolved by its component members. ”

“ Experiments similar to the above were carried out with an arsenic receiver. From the curve given below (fig. 31) it is seen that the reaction of a negative substance is in every respect opposite to that of a positive substance. It will be noticed that in confirmation of theory, heating or tapping produces restoration of sensitiveness in the first class by an increase, and in the second by a decrease of resistance. ”

“ Our knowledge of the structure of positive charges is much less advanced than for the negative. Two important cases show us the existence of positively charged particles, besides the positive ions in conducting gases, which at ordinary temperatures consist of an agglomeration of neutral molecules around a charged centre: these are the Kanalstrahlen of Goldstein, an efflux of positive charges toward the cathode, the electric and magnetic deviations of which lead to values for the ratio of e/m varying between wide limits, but always several thousand times smaller than for the cathode rays. ”

“ When we have enumerated these laws of behaviour, there is nothing more to be said about electricity, unless we can discover further laws, or simplify and unify the statement of the laws already known. When I say that an electron has a certain amount of negative electricity, I mean merely that it behaves in a certain way. ”

“ Charges of an explosive compound of uniform strength produce effects that vary as the weight of those charges, that is, a double charge will move a double mass. And, as homogeneous masses vary as the cube of any similar line within them, the general rule is established that charges of powder capable of producing the same effects are to each other as the cubes of the lines of least resistance. ”

“ Double all the electrical forces exerted by this conductor on a point charged with unit quantity, that is, double the quantity at each point, or what is the same thing, double the total charge. Plainly, equilibrium still subsists. But carry, now, the positive electrostatic unit towards the conductor. Everywhere we shall have to overcome double the force of repulsion we did before, everywhere we shall have to expend double the work. By doubling the charge of the conductor a double potential has been produced. Charge and potential go hand in hand, are proportional. ”

“ There is another interesting thing about charge, a very strange thing for which we have no real explanation today. It has nothing to do with the conservation law and is independent of it. Charge always comes in units. When we have a charged particle it has one charge or two charges, or minus one or minus two. Returning to our table, although this has nothing to do with the conservation of charge, I must write down that the thing that is conserved comes in units. ”

“ The other case in which I have observed a negatively charged molecule is that of oxygen; the negatively charged oxygen atom produces what in many cases is the strongest line on the negative side: the negatively charged oxygen molecule is only met with in exceptional cases. The causes which determine its appearance have not yet been made out: it probably depends on the presence in the tube of some special type of carbon compound. It does not seem to occur in very carefully purified oxygen, I have found it most frequently in oxygen containing a little hydrogen. ”

“ In every case, without a single exception, the initial charge placed upon the drop by the frictional process, and all of the dozen or more charges which have resulted from the capture by the drop of a larger or smaller number of ions, have been found to be exact multiples of the smallest charge caught from the air. ”

“ It represents the work which would have to be done to bring a unit of positive electricity, against the electrical repulsion of the distribution, up to the point P from a point35 at an infinite distance from every part of the distribution; or, in other words, what we now call the potential energy of a charge q situated at P is qV. The excess of the potential at P, over the potential at any other point Q in the field, is the work which must be spent in carrying a positive unit from Q to P against electrical repulsion. ”

“ In fact in every case in which the transport of negative electricity through gas at a low pressure (i. e., when the corpuscles have nothing to stick to) has been examined, it has been found that the carriers of the negative electricity are these corpuscles of invariable mass.
A very different state of things holds for the positive electricity. ”

“ When the negative is neutralized by the discharge, the freed positive is no longer confined to a particular region, but tends to dissipate itself, and a shock may be felt more or less severely by any person within the region. ”

“ Now it is difficult to conceive how and could be different, for this would imply that the notion of electric charge is in need of essential modification. In fact, if the charged body is moving, the notion of charge would be indefinite in meaning until we had assigned the direction along which such charge is to be measured. ”

“ Since the effect of negative electricity is exactly equal and opposite to that of positive electricity, each of the positive units in will attract each of the negative units in with the same force , making a total effect equal to . ”

“ Enlarged negatives are very easily made with the apparatus described. A contact positive can be made, preferably on carbon transparency tissue, and from this the enlargement made, or an enlarged positive made first, and from this a contact negative. ”

“ We ought rather to be able to reduce this greatest common divisor to electrical terms by finding the proportionality factor between speed and charge, and, that done, we should, of course, expect to find that the charge came out a universal constant independent of the size or kind of drop experimented upon. ”