The Autobiography of an Electron: Wherein the Scientific Ideas of the Present Time Are Explained in an Interesting and Novel Fashion — John Shaqi
The Autobiography of an Electron: Wherein the Scientific Ideas of the Present Time Are Explained in an Interesting and Novel FashionGibson, Charles R. (Charles Robert)
Science
The Autobiography of an Electron: Wherein the Scientific Ideas of the Present Time Are Explained in an Interesting and Novel Fashion
Gibson, Charles R. (Charles Robert)
Electricity; Electrons
A crowd of us had collected on the extremity of a wire, or "electrode,"
at the one end of the tube, while another similar crowd was present on
the other electrode at the opposite end of the tube. While I speak of a
crowd, meaning that there were millions of us, I do not suggest that we
were overcrowded, for we had plenty of elbow-room to move about on the
atoms to which we were attached. All in a moment the scene was changed.
We felt a crowd of electrons pressing us forward and forcing us right up
to the very end of the electrode. We found that the crowd was
approaching by a wire leading into the tube. Soon the crowding had
reached such a condition that we became alarmed; we could see no way of
escape. We were imprisoned by the glass walls, but we soon discovered
that many of the electrons who had been stationed on the other electrode
had deserted their posts and fled along a wire leading out of the tube.
If we could only follow them. It would be a tremendous jump to get over
to the other wire, but the way was fairly clear of air. When the
overcrowding reached a certain point we were literally shot across from
the one electrode to the other. This was the first time I had ever
experienced anything of the kind, but many fellow-electrons had gone
through similar performances for years at the hands of other
experimenters.
However, it was somewhat alarming to be fired off like a rocket across
the tube. What happened after that I cannot recollect, but some time
later I was present in that or a similar tube when I heard the
experimenter say to a friend that he believed there were particles
flying across his tube. We sent news all along the line stating that at
last we had been discovered, and I can assure you that we felt proud.
But our joy was not long-lived, for it turned out that we were
considered to be particles or atoms of matter; the experimenter spoke of
us as "radiant matter." This was a real disappointment.
It took us some time to recover from our disappointment at being
mistaken for clumsy atoms of matter. We are of a higher order of things
altogether. No atom of matter can travel at speeds such as we can. We
cross these vacuum tubes with speeds equal to millions of miles per
minute.
A great many of us were kept busy within vacuum tubes by other
experimenters, but nothing very exciting happened. Indeed, we had lost
all hope of attracting man's attention to ourselves as long as we were
imprisoned within these tubes. In the meantime our hopes were revived by
news which reached us from another quarter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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