Rays of Positive Electricity and Their Application to Chemical Analyses

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Rays of Positive Electricity and Their Application to Chemical Analyses (1913)
by Joseph John Thomson
779438Rays of Positive Electricity and Their Application to Chemical Analyses1913Joseph John Thomson

Preface[edit]

I have endeavoured in this book to give some account of the experiments on Positive Rays which have been made at the Cavendish Laboratory during the last seven years, and which have been the subject of papers scattered through the Philosophical Magazine, the Proceedings of the Royal Society, and the Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. I have, in addition, included a short account of the researches of Stark and others on the Doppler effect in Positive Rays and of Gehrcke and Reichenheim's experiments on Anode Rays, as these, those on the Doppler effect especially, are very closely connected with the results obtained by the very different methods described in the earlier part of this book. I have described at some length the application of Positive Rays to chemical .analysis ; one of the main reasons for writing this book was the hope that it might induce others, and especially chemists, to try this method of analysis. I feel sure that there are many problems in Chemistry which could be solved with far greater ease by this than by any other method. The method is surprisingly sensitive — more so even than that of Spectrum Analysis, requires ,an infinitesimal amount of material, and does not require this to be specially purified: the technique is not difficult if appliances for high vacua are available. I am glad to be able to take this opportunity of expressing my obligations to Mr. F. W. Aston, B.A., and Mr. E. Evrett. My thanks also are due to the President and Council of the Royal Society for permission to use the blocks Illustrating my Bakerian Lecture.

J. J. Thomson
Cambridge, 4 October, 1913.

Contents[edit]

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in 1913, before the cutoff of January 1, 1929.


The longest-living author of this work died in 1940, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 83 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

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