TABLE IV
Reading edition
13.6 12.5
13.8 12.4
13.4 21.8
13.4 34.8
13.6 84.5
13.6 85.5
13.7 34.6
13.5 34.8
13.5 16.0
13.8 34.8
13.7 34.6
13.8 21.9
13.6
13.5
13.4
13.8
13.4
Mean 13.595
The column marked gives the successive times which the droplet required to rise under the influence of the electrical field produced by applying in this case 5,051 volts of potential difference to the plates and . It will be seen that after the second trip up, the time changed from 12.4 to 21.8, indicating, since in this case the drop was positive, that a negative ion had been caught from the air. The next time recorded under , namely, 34.8, indicates that another negative ion had been caught. The next time, 84.5, indicates the capture of still another negative ion. This charge was held for two trips, when the speed changed back again to 34.6, showing that a positive ion had now been caught which carried precisely the same charge as the negative ion which before caused the inverse change in time, i.e., that from 34.8 to 84.5.
In order to obtain some of the most important consequences of this and other similar experiments we need make no assumption further than this, that the velocity with which the drop moves is proportional to the force acting upon it and is independent of the electrical charge which it carries. Fortunately this assumption can be put to very delicate experimental test, as will presently be shown, but introducing it for the time being as a mere assumption, as Townsend, Thomson, and Wilson had done before, we get The negative sign is used in the denominator because will for convenience be taken as positive when the drop is going up in the direction of , while will be taken as positive when it is going down in the direction of . denotes the charge on the drop, and must not be confused with the charge on an ion. If now by the capture of an ion the drop changes its charge from to , then the value of the captured charge is and since constant for this drop, any charge which it may capture will always be proportional to () that is, to the change produced in the velocity in the field by the captured ion. The successive values of and of (), these latter being obtained by subtracting successive values of the velocities given under , are shown in Table V.