CHAPTER VI 



MORE ABOUT ELECTRONS 



Let us now consider in more detail the character 

 and behaviour of the fi particles (commonly called 

 " electrons " or " corpuscles " ), which seem to be the 

 final product of the disruption of atoms, and the 

 prima materia of matter. 



Whether they are found in a vacuum tube, 

 whether emitted from radium, whether ejected 

 by glowing carbon — whatever, in fact, their origin 

 — the electrons always carry the same charge of 

 negative electricity ; they always fly with incred- 

 ible speed ; and they have always an apparent mass 

 of about YoVo °^ ^ hydrogen atom. We have already 

 shown how infinitesmal atoms are, yet a corpuscle 

 compared to an atom is as a comma to a cathedral. 



The relationship between corpuscle and atom 

 has been illustrated thus : " If we imagine an 

 ordinary church to be an atom of hydrogen, the 

 corpuscles constituting it will be represented by 

 about one thousand grains of sand, each of the size 



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