The periodic classification and the problem of chemical evolution / by George Rudorf.

  • Rudorf, George.
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The periodic classification and the problem of chemical evolution / by George Rudorf. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    It cannot but be noticed that great emphasis is laid on the researches of Professor Thomson.1 A brief account of them will be given here :— It is first shown that the cathode stream consists probably of materia] particles, and is not an ether effect. The whole of the investigation is to show that the value of 1 where m is the mass of, and e the electric charge on, a particle) is constant for all gases. Its value is derived in two different ways, and the results obtained are of an order of magnitude of 10—7, but vary within limits of about 10 per cent, on either side of the mean. The value for the hydrogen ion in electrolysis is about 10~4, and hence Professor Thomson is inclined to think that in the cathode stream we have particles of matter smaller than a hydrogen ion. He then advances the explanation of this effect, cited on page 167 of this volume, together with the statement that the primordial substance cannot be hydrogen. Further, we read, “ Thus, on this view, we have in the cathode rays matter in a new state, a state in which the sub- division of matter is carried very much further than in the ordinary gaseous state : a state in which all matter—that is, matter derived from different sources, such as hydrogen, oxygen, etc.—is of one and the same kind,2 this matter being the substance from which all the elements are built up. ” I would not venture to criticise Professor Thomson’s work, but I hardly think the dissociation explanation to be completely proved by the evidence that m and e are independent of the nature of the gas. For the spectra of the cathode discharges in tubes containing various gases are simply those of the gases. Of course we know that to completely ionise the gas in a vacuum tube would take years to accomplish; yet, surely, after some time there ought to appear spectral lines common to all gases, and characteristic of this primordial substance. Further than this I will not go. The whole subject, however, offers a wide field for speculation. [G.R.] The italics are mine. [G. R. j