Skip to content

Please be aware that some material may contain words, descriptions or illustrations which will not reflect current scientific understanding and may be considered in today's context inaccurate, unethical, offensive or distressing.

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

Reference number: PP/14/1

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'.

Reference number
PP/14/1
Earliest possible date
1889
Physical description
Ink and graphite pencil on paper
Page extent
13 pages
Format
Manuscript

Creator name

Joseph John Thomson

View page for Joseph John Thomson

Use this record

Citation

Joseph John Thomson, 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, 1889, PP/14/1, The Royal Society Archives, London, https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/pp_14_1/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, accessed on 08 November 2024

Link to this record

Embed this record

<iframe src="https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/embed/items/pp_14_1/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" 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" allow="fullscreen" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="500px"></iframe>

Hierarchy

This item is part of:

Related Fellows

Explore the collection

  • Proceedings Papers

    Dates: 1882 - 1894

    The archival collection known as 'Proceedings Papers' is comprised of manuscripts and occasional proofs of scientific papers sent to the Royal Society which were read before meetings of Fellows and printed in full in the Proceedings of the Royal Society.

    View collection