PERRIN, (JEAN BAPTISTE). - THE DISCONTINUOUS STRUCTURE OF MATTER.

Rayons cathodiques et Rayons de Röntgen. Etude epérimentale. Premiere - (Deuxieme) Partie. (I. Rayons Cathodiques. II. Rayons de Röntgen).

Paris, Masson et Cie, Imprimerie Gauthier-Villars, 1897. 8vo. Bound with original printed yellow wrappers (wrappers to both the volume and to the parts) in contemp. hcalf, raised bands, gilt spine. Light wear along edges. Small stamp on verso of titlepage, on printed frontwrappers and on foot of p. 576. In "Annales de Chimie et de Physique", 7me Series - Tome XI. (Entire volume offered). 576 pp. Perrin's paper: pp. 496-554. Textillustrations. Clean and fine.

First appearance of Perrin's doctorial thesis, in which he definitly settled the question of the common nature of cathode rays and of the recently discovered X rays, showing them to be particles. The experiments prepared the way for J.J. Thomson's determination in 1897 of the charge-mass ratio of these particles, electrons. In 1896 Perrin won the Joule Prize of the Royal Society for his experiments on cathode rays and for his preliminary studies on Röntgen's X rays, these investigations formed the content of his thesis. Perrin received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1926 for this and other work on the discontinuous structure of matter, which put a definite end to the long struggle regarding the question of the physical reality of molecules.

"During the 1890s he was attracted to the study of cathode rays, which Crookes had shown to be electrically charged. Even so, there remained controversy whether they were particles (as it seemed they would have to be if they were charged) or whether Crooke's observations were in error and they were actually a form of wave radiation. Perrin settled the matter for all in 1895 by showing that the radiation could be made to impart a large negative charge to a cylinder upon which they fell. The cathode rays must, therefore, consist of negatively-charged material, and must be particles rather than wave. J.J. Thomson was able to determine the mass of the particles and to show that they were much smaller than atoms."(Asimov).

The offered volume contains further notable papers. 14 Memoirs by Marcellin Berthelot.

Order-nr.: 43636