New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-06-09

nor's Sons
Professor Thomson has lorg been famous for
his studies OF the behavior %: gases. greatly
rareded and confined, while under the excite
rnent OF electricity. His aim mas not been utiH-
tartan Ike that OF Tesla. Hewitt Moore and
other inventors OF vacuum tube lights IL Is
rh,losophical. rather and. hence akin TO the
purposes that inspired Crookes and Rontgen-
The Cambridge investigator. however, has gone
further than any one else in certain directions.
and within the last few years has been LED TO
the adoption Of revolutionary views concerning
the nature OF matter and of electricity While
the new theories have not been fully established,
they have attracted worldwide attention and
brought their author into peculiar prominence.
One OF many recoPnitions Of the place he now
holds in the realm Of science was the unsuccess-
ful effort Of Columbia University to persuade
him 10 make New-York his home. Another was
the invitation of Yale 10 deliver the lectures
here reproduced and setting forth the reasons
for me faith that is in him. 1t may be added
that though the wisest physicists feel obliged
20 suspend judgment upon some OF his conclu-
sions because of their far-reaching character.
his work has features which appeal to the popu-
lar mind 1t is Professor Thomson who first
announced the discovery Of particles much
smaller than the atom, and suggested that the
etom itself was a composite body-a theory
WHICH neS MIN ~ LliNeASA@AiAN IN 44i' so
behavior Of radium.
IN the textbooks on physics II has been GUS
fomary 70 distinguish sharply between force and
matter and electricity has been looked upon as
simply one form Of force. Phenomena have
beer observed. however. which indicate that
one kind Of electricity sometimes acts like mat
ter Reference is here made. not TO the currents
which flow along metallic conductors-a tele-
graph wire for instance-but to the sort which.
being impaired TO object remains stationary
on it's surface for time. The latter is called
static electricity When gas has been sub
5ected TO certain influences. its resistance TO
the passage # electricity through it is dinlin-
tshed il : non said TO be ionized An exceed
insly small " omit of 1t is supposed TO be
broken up into TWO kinds OF particles. one posi-
lively electrified and the other negatively. To
their presence Professor Thomson attributes the
temporary increase in the conductivity Of the
gas But II the gas is filtered through cotton
wool the property is lost or al least, dimin-
fshed Professor Thomson interprets this result
as meaning that the electric particles have been
removed exactly dust might be. His carriers
of small charges behave like bodies and remind
him OF an opinion expressed by Hemholtz,
Electricity is divided into elementary portions
which behave like atoms" II an object. like
brass ball in a laboratory is negatively charged,
the Cambridge expert would say that IL bore
on its surface excess OF negative particles.
whereas he thinks of a positively charged body
as one that has been deprived Of some OF its
negative particles. To these. for reasons about
TO be mentioned. he gives the distinctive name
''corpusces"
The way In which Professor Thomson and his
assistants estimate the size of such particles is
70 attempt TO measure the electric charges
which they bear. 1t is also necessary to make
Communication to their relative number. be-
cause an essential feature Of the calculation is
the division Of the total amount Of electricity
carried by the number of carriers. In this man
ner he is led to conclude that positively
charged particle is about big as an atom Of
hydrogen has been supposed to be, but that
the negatively charged particles are so much
more dminutive that at least thousand would
be required to equal atom in bulk. Whether
or not the disparity is quite great he imag
snes is open to doubt but other investigators are
satisfied that there is a remarkable difference in
size between the two The feasibility Of meas
uring the charges carried by these tiny objects
or. at least, of getting fair approximation Of
them by combining experiments with mathemat
ics is conceded by other instructors in physics
The old notion of atom was that it was
indvisible, and hence the smallest thing In ex-
.stence. Professor Thomson conceives Of 1t as
an association Of positively and negatively cleo
triled particles. AS the former are assumed to
be much bigger and numerous than the
latter. he constructs atom by putting sim
gle positive particle the outside Of the group,
like a shell, and disposing MS corpuscles in the
interior. In accordance with principles estab-
lshed long ago. the negative particles would
repel each other Chaving the same kind Of cleo
tricity on them) while they would all be attract
ed by the positive element which incloses them.
Two sets of electrical forces, repulsion and at
traction, would be at work and these would so
operate as to determine the relative positions
which the members of a single system would
occupy. Professor Thomson accepts Faraday IS
ideas in regard to the lines of force which
exist in electric fleld"-a region in which
the influence of the electricity residing the
surface OF a body is felt A similar condition
exists between the positive and negative poles
OF magnet. Faraday thought Of those lines as
curved. and composed of tubes in the ether.
The Cambridge scholar sees in imagination
those same lines of force and tubes of ether
reaching from the negative to the positive mem
bers of each atomic system Though he does
not here indicate the force which corresponds
TO cohesion-holding together the different atoms
Of any object-he makes electric attraction the
bond between the component parts of every
atom IN the universe Electricity, then, iS held
10 be present everywhere and co-existent with
matter.
We are further taught that corpuscles, whether
they come from the cathode OF vacuum tube OF
some other source. all alike. Apparently 4;
makes no difference from what substance they
are obtained. They are TO be thought of a:
fundamental. exactly the atom used to be
To account for the dissimiiarity in the eighty
odd chemical elements now on record. ii Is neces
sary TO conceive Of their atoms not being built