| RefNo | PP/14/1 |
| Previous numbers | PP/46/1 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Paper, 'Note on the effect produced by conductors in the neighbourhood of a wire on the rate of propagation of electrical disturbances along it, with a determination of this rate' by J J [Joseph John] Thomson |
| Date | 1889 |
| Description | Thomson writes: 'In a paper on “The Resistance of Electrolytes to the Passage of very rapidly Alternating Currents” (‘Roy. Soc. Proc.,’ vol. 45, p. 270), I have shown that if Maxwell’s theory that electricity moves like a perfectly incompressible fluid is not true, the rate of propagation of very rapidly alternating currents along a wire placed at an infinite distance from other conductors cannot be the same as the rate of propagation of the electrodynamic action through the surrounding dielectric. As Hertz, in his experiments on the rate of propagation of electrical waves along a metal wire, found that these rates were not the same, it might appear that this proved unmistakably that Maxwell’s theory is untenable.'
Annotations in pencil and ink.
Subject: Electricity
Received 1 April 1889. Read 2 May 1889.
A version of this paper was published in volume 46 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society as 'Note on the effect produced by conductors in the neighbourhood of a wire on the rate of propagation of electrical disturbances along it, with a determination of this rate'. |
| Extent | 13p |
| Format | Manuscript |
| PhysicalDescription | Ink and graphite pencil on paper |
| Digital images | View item on Science in the Making |
| AccessStatus | Open |
| RelatedMaterial | DOI: 10.1098/rspl.1888.0089 |
| DOI: 10.1098/rspl.1889.0001 |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA8288 | Thomson; Sir; Joseph John (1856 - 1940); physicist | 1856 - 1940 |