, of the
order of about a thousandth part. This is the same result as that to
which we were led by the study of flames.
The thorough examination of the cathode radiation, then, confirms us
in the idea that every material atom can be dissociated and will yield
an electron much smaller than itself--and always identical whatever
the matter whence it comes,--the rest of the atom remaining charged
with a positive quantity equal and contrary to that borne by the
electron. In the present case these positive ions are no doubt those
that we again meet with in the canal rays. Professor Wien has shown
that their mass is really, in fact, of the order of the mass of atoms.
Although they are all formed of identical electrons, there may be
various cathode rays, because the velocity is not exactly the same for
all electrons. Thus is explained the fact that we can separate them
and that we can produce a sort of spectrum by the action of the
magnet, or, again, as M. Deslandres has shown in a very interesting
experiment, by that of an electrostatic field.
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