Conduction of Electricity through Gases

Abstract

CAN a new garment be made out of old material? This is the problem which the authors have set themselves; and it must be admitted that they have not succeeded. They have produced an interesting and valuable work, but it is not a new book. It is a patched garment, not a new creation. The original volume was inspired. A master unfolded before our eyes a new picture, much of it his own handiwork, of the nature of electricity and the mechanism of electric conduction in gases. The charm and clarity of this picture were preserved in the amplified second edition, and to a large extent in the first volume of the present, third, edition, which appeared in 1928. In this volume the original text was incorporated, practically unchanged, and the new cognate material added in separate, decimally numbered paragraphs. The second volume, on the other hand, containing less than fourteen per cent of the original text, has insufficient to carry the spirit of the old work, yet enough to mar the continuity of the new. At times the book attains pace, especially when dealing with elastic collisions of electrons and atoms, where the fire of the pioneer's zeal flashes brightly. Most of the chapters, however, are collections rather than narratives; and it is inevitable that they should leave the reader with a certain sense of confusion rather than a clear picture.

Conduction of Electricity through Gases.

By Sir J. J. Thomson Prof. G. P. Thomson. Third edition. Vol. 2: Ionisation by Collision and the Gaseous Discharge. Pp. viii + 608 + 6 plates. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1933.) 30s. net.