This convection of negative electricity by the cathode rays seems
quite inexplicable on the hypothesis that the rays are ethereal
radiations. Nothing then remained in order to maintain this
hypothesis, except to deny the convection, which, besides, was only
established by indirect experiments. That the reality of this
transport has been placed beyond dispute by means of an extremely
elegant experiment which is all the more convincing that it is so very
simple, is due to M. Perrin. In the interior of a Crookes tube he
collected a pencil of cathode rays in a metal cylinder. According to
the elementary principles of electricity the cylinder must become
charged with the whole charge, if there be one, brought to it by the
rays, and naturally various precautions had to be taken. But the
result was very precise, and doubt could no longer exist--the rays
were electrified.
It might have been, and indeed was, maintained, some time after this
experiment was published, that while the phenomena were complex inside
the tube, outside, things might perhaps occur differently.
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