RESEARCHES ON THE RADIANT MATTER OF CROOKES AND THE MECHANICAL THEORY OF
ELECTRICITY.

By DR. W. F. GINTL, abstracted by DR. VON GERICHTEN.


The author discusses the question whether, according to the experiments
of Crookes, the assumption of an especial fourth state of aggregation is
necessary, or whether the facts may be satisfactorily explained without
such hypothesis? He shows that the latter alternative is possible with
the aid of a mechanical theory of electricity. If the radiant matter
produced in the vacuum is a phenomenon _sui generis,_ produced by the
action of electricity and heat upon the molecules of gas remaining in
the receiver, it is, in the first place, doubtful to apply to it the
conception of an aggregate condition. The author considers it impossible
to form a clear understanding of the phenomena in accordance with the
theory of Crookes, or to find in the facts any evidence of the existence
of radiant matter. An explanation of the latter phenomenon is thus
given: Particles become separated from the surface of the substance of
the negative pole, they are repelled, and they move away from the pole
with a speed resulting from the antagonistic forces in a parallel and
rectilinear direction, preserving their speed and their initial path so
long as they do not meet with obstacles which influence their movement.
At a certain density of the gases present in the exhausted space, these
particles, in consequence of the impact of gaseous molecules more or
less opposed to their direction of movement, lose their velocity after
traveling a short distance and soon come to rest. The more dilute the
gas the smaller is the number of the impacts of the gaseous molecules
encountering the molecules of the poles, and at a certain degree of