Word: electronic
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...were theoretically predicted and diligently looked for. Such was the discovery of the planet Pluto whose existence and probable orbit were indicated by irregularities in the orbits of other planets. So, too, deuterium (heavy hydrogen) was identified because its discoverer already had intimations of its existence, and the positive electron was foreshadowed in the cogitations of at least one mathematician before its track turned up in the laboratory. In fact, some things are made use of even before they are discovered - e.g., the little uncharged particle called the neutrino which atomic physicists need in their calculations but which has never...
Research on the atom has attracted some of the most brilliant minds of contemporary science, and atomic history is strewn with the names of Nobel Prizewinners. Aged Sir J. J. Thomson, who discovered the electron, is a Nobelman; so is Niels Bohr of Denmark and so was the late Lord Rutherford of England, who formulated atomic structure. Their atom was, and still is, a nucleus surrounded by electrons. But in the 1920's, with the powerful searchlight of relativity illuminating the atomic field, it became apparent that the picture of the electron as a simple particle of negative electricity...
Fast moving electrons make an impression on a photographic plate as X-rays do, but Davisson's electrons were too slow to obtain such a picture. So he "felt" the pattern of his reflected beam by moving an electron collector around in the recoil region. Connected to an ammeter, the collector translated the strength of the electron beam at a number of points into measured electric current. The pattern having been thus patiently and ingeniously mapped out, it was seen to consist of true diffraction rings. Concluded the researchers: "Our experiments establish the wave nature of moving electrons with...
...sized electrodes until the potential is such that a mighty flow of direct current crosses the gap. For technical reasons, notably the difficulty of constructing a discharge tube which will handle the flow of high-voltage particles, the practical upper limit for these types is about 2,000,000 electron-volts. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which had a giant electrostatic generator shooting 7,000,000-volt sparks from electrode to electrode four years ago, has not yet put it to work smashing atoms because of the discharge tube problem...
...circle at higher speed. After another half-circle the reversed voltage hits them again, and so on. The deuterons go spiraling outward, faster and faster, toward the rim of the tank. After being kicked 100 times by 50,000 volts, they attain speeds of 5,000,000 electron-volts. As they approach the rim of the tank, they are guided by a deflecting plate through a window and thence against any target the researchers choose...