The Project Gutenberg eBook, Autobiography of an Electron, by Charles R. (Charles Robert) Gibson

Title: Autobiography of an Electron

Wherein the Scientific Ideas of the Present Time Are Explained in an Interesting and Novel Fashion

Author: Charles R. (Charles Robert) Gibson

Release Date: June 17, 2011 [eBook #36456]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN ELECTRON***

E-text prepared by Sharon Joiner, Erica Pfister-Altschul,
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net)
from page images generously made available by
Internet Archive/American Libraries
(http://www.archive.org/details/americana)

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY
OF AN ELECTRON

Photo The Fleet Agency

A Well-known Phenomenon Produced by Electrons

A sudden discharge of electrons from cloud to cloud, or from cloud to the earth, constitutes what we call "lightning."

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY
OF AN ELECTRON.

WHEREIN THE SCIENTIFIC IDEAS OF THE PRESENT
TIME ARE EXPLAINED IN AN INTERESTING
AND NOVEL FASHION

BY
CHARLES R. GIBSON, F.R.S.E.

AUTHOR OF "SCIENTIFIC IDEAS OF TO-DAY," "ELECTRICITY OF TO-DAY"
"THE ROMANCE OF MODERN ELECTRICITY," &c. &c.

ILLUSTRATED

PHILADELPHIA
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
LONDON: SEELEY & CO. Limited
1911

PREFACE

Although text-books of science may appear to the general reader to be "very dry" material, there is no doubt that, when scientific facts and theories are put into everyday language, the general reader is genuinely interested. The reception accorded to the present author's Scientific Ideas of To-day bears out this fact. While that volume explains, in non-technical language, the latest scientific theories, it aims at giving a fairly full account, which, of course, necessitates going into a great deal of detail. That the book has been appreciated by very varied classes of readers is evident from the large numbers of appreciative letters received from different quarters. But the author believes that if the story of modern science were told in a still more popular style, it would serve a further useful purpose. For there are readers who do not care to go into details, and yet would like to take an intelligent interest in the scientific progress of the present day. Some of those readers do not wish to trouble about names and dates, while the mere mention of rates of vibration and such-like is a worry to them. They wish a book which they may read with the same ease as an interesting novel. Hence the form of the present volume.

The author is indebted to Professor James Muir, M.A., D.Sc., of the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College, and to H. Stanley Allen, M.A., D.Sc., Senior Lecturer in Physics at King's College, University of London, for very kindly reading the proof-sheets. The author is indebted further to Professor Muir in connection with some of the illustrations, and for others to Dixon and Corbitt and R. S. Newall, Ltd., Glasgow; Siemens Schuckert Werke, Berlin.

CONTENTS

• PAGE
• CHAPTER I
  WHAT THE STORY IS ABOUT
• The Scribe introduces the Electron to the reader. He has something to say also about the mysterious æther which pervades all space. He emphasises the fact that the electron is a real existing thing 21
• CHAPTER II
  THE ELECTRON'S PREFACE
• The Electron explains the reason why it has written its autobiography 29
• CHAPTER III
  THE NEW ARRIVAL
• The Electron points out who the new arrival is really. It relates an amusing experience. It tells how man disturbed electrons before he discovered their existence. An ancient experiment, and what the wise men of the East thought about it. How electrons are responsible for the electrification of any object. Handled by a new experimenter, they surprise man. Man becomes of special interest to the electrons 32

• CHAPTER IV
  SOME GOOD SPORT
• The Electron explains how man succeeded in crowding them together, with some rather exciting results from the overcrowding. One historical incident. Man's fear of the consequences. How a party of electrons wrecked a church steeple. An unfortunate accident 42
• CHAPTER V
  MY EARLIEST RECOLLECTIONS
• The Electron's story begins at a very far distant period, before this world had taken shape. The Electron was present when the atoms of matter were being formed. The birth of the moon. Something still to be discovered. The moulding of the planet. Boiling oceans. The electrons took an active part in making sea-water salt. The Electron explains why it has been chosen to write the story of itself and its fellows 52