304 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



were in a position to deal with separate atoms, experiment would 

 not only refer to the relative weight of carbon atoms, but we 

 should see that carbon enters into all combinations with multiples 

 of a definite absolute weight ; the above conclusions would then 

 shape themselves more definitely, and experiment would directly 

 teach us the absolute value of the atomic weight of carbon. 



We propose to ourselves the questions, (1) Are there iu nature 

 discrete elementary particles of electricity ? (2) "What is their mag- 

 nitude ? According to the analogy of the conclusions just drawn 

 for carbon, this question may be answered as follows : — If there are 

 in nature discrete elementary particles of electricity, it is to be ex- 

 pected that an absolutely defiuite, very small quantity of electricity 

 occurs, and plays an important part in a large number of processes. 

 If experiment shows us such an amount, then that amount of elec- 

 tricity is the probable quantity of the particles of electricity. The 

 region in which we must investigate, is that of those processes in 

 which electricity interacts with ponderable atoms, and defines the 

 action of those ponderable atoms — that is to say, the region of 

 electrolytical decompositions and combinations. 



Here we meet with Faraday's law, which, referred to individual 

 atoms, may be expressed as follows : — ■ 



Let KA be an electrolyte, which is separated by the voltaic cur- 

 rent into the parts K and A, of which each has the valency n ; let 

 q be the quantity of positive electricity which goes with each sepa- 

 rate atom or radical K to the kathode ; q / n is then for all bodies 

 and for all currents the same absolutely definite magnitude. 



On the basis of the above we may also say : qj n is the absolute 

 quantity of an elementary particle of electricity with the same pro- 

 bability with which twelve is the relative atomic weight of carbon. 



q/n can be easily calculated. Let h be the magnetic intensity of 

 that current which in unit time liberates a milligramme of hydrogen, 

 ch its intensity in mechanical measure, N the number of molecules 

 of hydrogen in a milligramme ; the milligramme contains then 2N 

 atoms, and these bring the quantity ch/2 of positive electricity to 

 the kathode, by which n = 1. Hence the quantity which is attached 

 to an atom is ^ 



In this we have approximately* in mm.,mg.,sec, c = 3'10 n ,7i=957; 

 and further, according to the theory of gases, N=14-10 19 . This 



gives E = 0*00000051 mg.* mm .1 sec.- 1 . 



This value is thus the probable "Atomic quantity of Electricity." 

 It may be a multiple, but with the same probability with which 

 C=12, and not 6, or 3, is E the quantity of electrical elementary 

 particles. For even if electricity can be split into smaller parts 

 than E, it is not clear why such a smaller part is never met with 

 in experiment. — Wiedemann's Annalen, No. 8, 1885. 



* Conf. Wiedemann, Galvani&mus, iii. p. 450; and O. E. Meyer, Kine- 

 tische Theorie der Gase (Breslau, 1877), p. 234. 



