Abstract
THE earliest developments of the electronic theory led necessarily to the conclusion that in every atom in its normal condition there were contained electrons which could be detached from it by suitable agencies; these electrons were the same in respect of the only two properties attributed to them, charge and mass, whatever the atom in which they were contained. This, conception of a constituent common to all atoms indicated for the first time the possibility of explaining the relationships described by the periodic law between the properties of different atoms; if similar atomic properties represent similar numbers or arrangements of electrons, any theory which would make these numbers or, arrangements periodic functions of the atomic mass would explain in some measure those relationships.
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CAMPBELL, N. The Structure of the Atom . Nature 92, 586–587 (1914). https://doi.org/10.1038/092586a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/092586a0
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