ABSTRACT
The nature of electrical phenomena makes it necessary to postulate a positive electron, but this electron has not been definitely isolated. Free negative electrons might, function as ions in so far as they represent negative charges of electricity, but the term ion is usually associated with an atom or molecule. Negative electrification is shown to be due to the presence of minute particles called corpuscles or electrons, all of which are exactly the same kind that is, each particle carries the same quantity of negative electricity, and each has the same mass. For atoms other than hydrogen the number of corpuscles in the atom is about half the atomic weight; thus helium, whose atomic weight is four, has two corpuscles in its atom; oxygen, whose atomic weight is sixteen, has eight. Hydrogen, whose atomic weight is one, has probably one corpuscle in its atom. The process of electrification consists in taking corpuscles from one body and giving them to another.
