Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 September 2014
In Professor Whittaker's highly interesting and suggestive application of my model the postulated structure is a system of magnets rigidly connected like the spokes of a wheel, having poles of the same name at the circumference, the corresponding poles of contrary name being all at the centre. He shows that when a bombarding electron, moving in the direction of the axis, approaches such a wheel it sets the wheel turning, the rotation of the poles constituting what he calls a “magnetic current.” If the initial velocity of the bombarding electron falls short of a certain limiting value, the encounter is perfectly elastic, and the electron is reflected back without loss of energy; the point at which its direction of motion becomes reversed may be on either side of the plane of the wheel, depending on the electron's initial velocity of approach. If the initial velocity exceeds the stated limit, the electron passes clear through the system and escapes, but with a definite reduction of velocity, corresponding to a quantum of energy which it has given up to the wheel. When the encounter is elastic, the angular velocity which the wheel acquires during the approach of the electron is lost during the return of the electron. When the encounter is not elastic, and the electron has passed clear through, the wheel is left with an angular velocity ω; and the energy which that represents is the source of the consequent radiation.