" But no progress was made in the
interpretation of this strange material. The Crookes tube became
one of the toys of science--and the lamp of other investigators.
In 1895 Rontgen drew closer attention to the Crookes tube by
discovering the rays which he called X-rays, but which now bear
his name. They differ from ordinary light-waves in their length,
their irregularity, and especially their power to pass through
opaque bodies. A number of distinguished physicists now took up
the study of the effect of sending an electric discharge through
a vacuum, and the particles of "radiant matter" were soon
identified. Sir J. J. Thomson, especially, was brilliantly
successful in his interpretation. He proved that they were tiny
corpuscles, more than a thousand times smaller than the atom of
hydrogen, charged with negative electricity, and travelling at
the rate of thousands of miles a second. They were the
"electrons" in which modern physics sees the long-sought
constituents of the atom.
No sooner had interest been thoroughly aroused than it was
announced that a fresh discovery had opened a new shaft into the
underworld. Sir J. J. Thomson, pursuing his research, found in
1896 that compounds of uranium sent out rays that could penetrate
black paper and affect the photographic plate; though in this
case the French physicist, Becquerel, made the discovery
simultaneously' and was the first to publish it.
Pages:
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48