The Corpuscular Theory Of Matter

This volume deals with corpuscular matter theory that was to emerge as the dominant model in the seventeenth century. By retracing atomist and corpuscularian ideas to a variety of mutually independent medieval and Renaissance sources in natural philosophy, medicine, alchemy, mathematics, and theology, this volume shows the debt of early modern matter theory to previous traditions and thereby explains its bewildering heterogeneity. The book assembles nineteen carefully selected contributions by some of the most notable historians of medieval and early modern philosophy and science. All chapters present new research results and will therefore be of interest to historians of philosophy, science, and medicine between 1150 and 1750.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Excerpt from The Corpuscular Theory of Matter This book is an expansion of a course of lectures given at the Royal Institution in the Spring of 1906. It contains a description of the properties of corpuscles and their application to the explanation of some physical phenomena. In the earlier chapters a considerable amount of attention is devoted to the consideration of the theory that many other properties of metals are due to the motion of corpuscles diffused throughout the metal. This theory has received strong support from the investigations of Drude and Lorentz; the former has shown that the theory gives an approximately correct value for the ratio of the thermal and electrical conductivities of pure metals and the latter that it accounts for the long-wave radiation from hot bodies. I give reasons for thinking that the theory in its usual form requires the presence of so many corpuscles that their specific heat would exceed the actual specific heat of the metal. I have proposed a modification of the theory which is not open to this objection and which makes the ratio of the conductivities and the long-wave radiation of the right magnitude. The later chapters contain a discussion of the properties of an atom built up of corpuscles and of positive electricity, the positive electricity being supposed to occupy a much larger volume than the corpuscles. The properties of an atom of this kind are shown to resemble in many respects those of the atoms of the chemical elements. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Work by the eminent physicist Thomson, discoverer of the electron, consisting of seven chapters which deal respectively with the origin and properties of corpuscles (subatomic particles), two different corpuscular theories of metallic conduction, and the number and arrangement of corpuscles in the atom.

It is stated in the preface that this book is an expansion of the series of lectures delivered at the Royal Institution in the spring of 1906. The book consists of seven chapters which deal respectively with the origin and properties of corpuscles, the two different corpuscular theories of metallic conduction, and in the number and arrangement of corpuscles in the atom. In the first chapter corpuscles in vacuum tubes are considered, and 'evidence is given showing that the corpuscles act as carriers of electricity, and that a positively electrified body owes its positive electrification to a defect of corpuscles. Also a positive charge is always associated with a mass comparable to that of the hydrogen or helium atom, whereas the corpuscles appear always to have the same mass, viz., that of about 1/1700 the atom of hydrogen. As is well known, the positive ions are given off by radium, and constitute the "X" rays. These have been examined by Rutherford and others, and the ratios of -- e/m measured. The second chapter deals with the origin of the corpuscle, and here all the arguments are carefully set forth, and these tend to show that its mass is wholly electrical in origin. The evidence for the existence of corpuscles afforded by the Zeeman effect is discussed in a most luminous manner. The chapters of most interest to electrical engineers are IV and V, in which the two theories of metallic conduction of electricity are most carefully explained. These are very interesting indeed, and the mathematics used is not too heavy. The first of these theories assumes that the corpuscles are in temperature equilibrium with their surroundings, and that the "drift" of the corpuscles which constitutes the electric current, is started and maintained by the direct action of the electric field which acts on them. From considerations of the expressions derived for the conductivity of a substance, a rough estimate of the number of the corpuscles in a cubic centimetre of silver is arrived at, and the number is shown to be of the same order as the number of atoms in that volume. Again, the comparison between the ratio of the thermal to the electric conductivities gives a fairly close approximation to the results of experiment. -- The Electrical Review, Volume 61 [1907]

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.