The two faces of the cathode
seem to emit rays which are deviated in a direction perpendicular to
the lines of force by an electric field, and do not seem to be
electrified. M. Villard calls them magneto-cathode rays, and according
to M. Fortin these rays may be ordinary cathode rays, but of very
slight velocity.
In certain cases the cathode itself may be superficially
disaggregated, and extremely tenuous particles detach themselves,
which, being carried off at right angles to its surface, may deposit
themselves like a very thin film on objects placed in their path.
Various physicists, among them M. Houllevigue, have studied this
phenomenon, and in the case of pressures between 1/20 and 1/100 of a
millimetre, the last-named scholar has obtained mirrors of most
metals, a phenomenon he designates by the name of ionoplasty.
But in spite of all these accessory phenomena, which even sometimes
conceal those first observed, the existence of the electron in the
cathodic flux remains the essential characteristic.
The electron can be apprehended in the cathodic ray by the study of
its essential properties; and J.
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