EQUATION AND THE NATURE OF COHESION. 75 



and its critical pressure 200 atmospheres. I do not wish to consider 

 this possibility further in this paper, for it will require a far more 

 extended consideration than can be given it here, but in connection 

 with the ideas which follow it opens to our eyes a vista of orderly 

 beauty and simple symmetry of things as they are. 



VIII. THE COHESION OE ELECTRICITY. 



In closing this paper I should like to raise one other question, 

 and that is the cohesion of electricity itself. I have never even seen 

 it alluded to, but surely it must exist. If the atoms are built of 

 electrons, then the negative electron is the simplest particle of matter. 

 The electron has mass, the amount being dependent on the velocity 

 of its motion. A single electron would not presumably have any 

 cohesion, for it has no valence electrons revolving about it. But 

 suppose we have two electrons revolving about each other, then the 

 condition, it appears to me, will be changed and these two elec- 

 trons will have cohesion. For each electron becomes the valence 

 electron of the other and we shall then have cohesion as well as 

 gravitation between them. IJow large will this cohesion be and will 

 it be large enough to overcome their electrostatic repulsions when 

 the two charges are close together? We can compute the amount 

 of this cohesion if we assume that the same relations exist as in 

 the cohesion of molecules. It may be computed from the relation 

 a = JN 2 (m 2 & X VuljMy 1 ''. For such a pair of electrons N becomes 

 unity and drops out; m, the mass, may be taken in relatively slow 

 moving electrons as V^oo that °f a hydrogen atom, so that the 

 atomic weight becomes Vi-oo- The valence, Val, is unity so that 

 the factor ValjM becomes very large. The electrical charge is enor- 

 mous compared with the mass. This factor is larger than for any 

 other substance. Then if the attraction is inversely as the fourth 

 power of the distance two electrons at the distance of 1 X 10~~ 10 . cms., 

 which is about the radius of the nucleus of an atom, will attract 

 each other with a cohesive force of 22.48 dynes. In this calcu- 

 lation the mass of the electron, m, is 9.704 X 10 -28 grams, and 

 k is 6.00 X 10^" 8 . The valence is unity. If the attraction varies 

 inversely as a higher power than the fourth, which is quite possible, 

 then the attraction will be larger. The electrostatic repulsion, taking 

 the electron charge as 4.77 X 10~ llJ electrostatic units, if the same 

 law holds within such minute distances as at greater distances, 

 wouM be 22.75 dynes. In other words the attraction and repul- 

 sion would be equal. But if the charges were closer together, or 



