Abstract
Poincaré’s work on dynamics of the electron provides a classical theory of subatomic charged particles to accompany the experimental work done over the decade following Jean Perrin’s work in 1895. This chapter is the first of two parts that look at the discovery of the electron, the experimental work that established that electrical charge is discrete and that electrons have a mass that is small compared to hydrogen.
J. J. Thomson measured the charge-to-mass ratio of cathode rays, establishing that they were particles (not radiation) and providing a distinctive property with which to identify the same particle in other contexts, including ionized gases and the photoelectric effect. This is an interpretation of what we mean when we say that he discovered the electron.
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Notes
- 1.
Another aspect of Jean Perrin’s paper is worth noting. He wrote that he looked for positive charges corresponding to the negatively charged cathode rays and writes, “I think I found them in the same region where the cathode rays form.” (Perrin, 1895) These could be the channel rays (kanalstrahlen) discussed by Poincaré in (Poincaré, La dynamique de l’électron, 1908) section III and translated on page 107 of this book.
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- 3.
When I, in an undergraduate physics laboratory many years ago, measured the mass-to-charge ratio of an electron, glasswork and vacuum pumps were not involved; I was shown an instrument on a laboratory table, told “do this,” “measure that,” and given a handout with more information.
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- 5.
To provide a relevant example, but without suggesting that it is more or less deserving of critique, consider the first chapter provided by A. B. Pippard from the University of Cambridge for the book Electron: a Centenary Volume (Springford, 1997). The adjective continental is used three times in the first 10 pages.
- 6.
An English adaptation of this paper was published within two months in The Electrician (Kaufmann , The Development of the Electron Idea, 1901b). The adaptation does not include this list of references.
- 7.
A commercial gas mixture used for lighting.
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Popp, B.D. (2020). Discovery of the Electron: Cathode Rays. In: Henri Poincaré: Electrons to Special Relativity. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48039-4_7
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