The electron, its isolation and measurement and the determination of some of its properties

Chapter 3: PREFACE

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About This Book

A systematic presentation of experimental and theoretical work that establishes the discrete, atomic character of electric charge and explains techniques used to isolate and measure the elementary charge. It traces historical ideas about electricity, extends electrolytic laws to gas conduction, analyzes ionization by penetrating radiation, examines Brownian motion in gases, and considers whether the electron is divisible. Later chapters discuss atomic structure and the behavior of radiant energy. Mathematical proofs, experimental data, and technical derivations are collected in appendices to keep the main text accessible to non-specialist readers.

PREFACE

It is hoped that this volume may be of some interest both to the physicist and to the reader of somewhat less technical training. It has been thought desirable for the sake of both classes of readers, not to break the thread of the discussion in the body of the book with the detailed analyses which the careful student demands. It is for this reason that all mathematical proofs have been thrown into appendixes. If, in spite of this, the general student finds certain chapters, such as VII and VIII, unintelligible, it is hoped that without them he may yet gain some idea of certain phases at least of the progress of modern physics.

R. A. MILLIKAN

May 18, 1917