NO. II STRUCTURE OF THE ATOM PARSON 1 7 



themselves simple, yet the situations to which they can give rise are 

 so exceedingly complex from a mathematical standpoint, that a rigid 

 quantitative treatment is practically impossible. In what follows, 

 therefore, I have not usually attempted to arrive at much more than 

 the relative order of the various effects. But even so, it seems 

 possible to extend the theory over quite a wide range of facts before 

 the uncertainties in its development accumulate enough to make its 

 application meaningless. 



§6. The Group of Eight 



The configurations of small numbers of electrons at rest within a 

 sphere of positive electrification have been described by Sir J. J. 

 Thomson in his book, " The Corpuscular Theory of Matter," pp. 

 102-106, where he states that while three, four, and six electrons 

 would take up triangular, tetrahedral, and octahedral arrangements 

 respectively, the symmetrical cubical arrangement of eight can be 

 shown to be unstable. The magneton, however, introduces two new 

 factors into the problem: one, the extended ring shape of the elec- 

 tron, and another which is yet more significant, the " bi-polar " 

 magnetic forces. To give a configuration with the minimum mag- 

 netic energy, it is evident that the currents in all adjoining parts of 

 magnetons must be parallel and in the same direction, or, to take a 

 cruder though possibly more vivid picture, the " N " and " S " poles 

 of the magnetons must be placed alternately in every direction. 

 From this point of view let us consider the groups of three, four, six, 

 and eight magnetons (five and seven obviously have not the possi- 

 bilities of the other numbers). 



The stablest configuration for three magnetons is shown in 



s % 



the diagram <^ > ^> . Four can have the configuration : 



S 



diagram <* >"~-> 



jj-^ *"^^ > which under symmetrical electrostatic conditions 



+ 



would form an irregular tetrahedron (this, which has been produced 

 in a model, may be pictured by imagining one pair of opposite mag- 

 netons to be raised above the plane of the paper). The octahedral 

 group of six would probably be made up in a similar way of three 

 pairs of magnetons ; but six can have a configuration of lower 



