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Re: cathode rays - historical question



Read Jeb Buchwald's papers and books on the development of
electromagnetism in the late 19th century. When I get to work I'll try
to find a specific reference. I recall he has moved from MIT to Caltech
so you might try his webpage there.

joe

On Sun, 6 Apr 2003, Mark Sylvester
wrote:

The debate in the latter part of the 19th century about the nature of
cathode rays, leading to J.J. Thompsons discovery of the electron: was it
primarily a wave vs particle question, or was the issue whether the
negative charge came attached to discrete particles as opposed to a
continuous fluid (bearing in mind that the atomic theory was not fully
accepted by the physics community in that period), or is there essentially
no distinction between the concepts of waves and continuous fluid (in that
anything not a particle had to be wavelike)?

Mark



Mark Sylvester
UWCAd
Duino Trieste Italy


Joseph J. Bellina, Jr. 574-284-4662
Associate Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556