THOMSON, Joseph John Conduction of Electricity Through Gases.
Cambridge: At the University Press, 1903. First edition, first printing.

A fine copy of this classic. Dibner 165; PMM 386(d); Norman 2076.

“The theory of the atom as the basis of the physical world was dissolved on the vening of April 29, 1897 when Thomson, professor of physics at Cambridge, announced that cathode rays consisted of negatively charged particles of a mass no greater than a thousandth part of a hydrogen atom, the smallest accomplished mass recognized up to its time. This was accomplished by highly exhausting a vacuum tube having metallic electrodes and producing a narrow pencil of rays that passed between plates which could be electrically charged; the tube itself was fixed between the poles of a strong electromagnet. Charging the plates deflecting the rays, and their electrical as well as magnetic character that in the process of electrification these negatively charged particles (named ‘electrons’ by G.J. Stoney in 1891 as a fundamental unit of electricity) were detached from the atom leaving the positively charged core and remaining particles.” (Dibner). “The present work records Thomson’s experiments with gaseous ions produced by the recently discovered Röntgen ray.” (Norman).

The 1906 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to J.J. Thomson “in recognition of the great merits of his theoretical and experimental investigations on the conduction of electricity by gases.”

8vo: 225 x 145 mm. Publisher's original green cloth with gilt lettering spine and front cover, a fine copy. Pp. vi 566.