Freedom of Science

George Johnson duplicates Thomson’s experiment of 1897 with an apparatus he found on eBay. He writes:

First I determined to show myself that electrons really exist. Firing up a beautiful old apparatus I found on eBay — a bulbous vacuum tube big as a melon mounted between two coils — I replayed J. J. Thomson’s famous experiment of 1897 in which he measured the charge-to-mass ratio of an electron beam. It was thrilling to see the bluish-green cathode ray dive into a circle as I energized the electromagnets. Even better, when I measured the curve and plugged all the numbers into Thomson’s equation, my answer was off by only a factor of two. Pretty good for a journalist.

This is great. I would like to get more information about how he did the experiment. But I beg to disagree with the conclusion. I believe that this experiment does not prove the existence of some absolutely indivisible elementary particle called the electron.¹

The beam is a fluid just like a water jet. Imagine a water jet on a rotating platform. As the rotation varies the jet will bend differently. Measuring the angle of bending of the jet will give no information about absolute constituents of the jet.

Electron is a creation of physicists. Thomson’s experiment does not give any clue about the elementary particles that supposedly make up the electric fluid. But physicists are fanatic believers in the Newtonian atomic materialism. Therefore, they must find absolute indivisible particles in this experiment. If there is none then they can easily define it.

Going back to the water jet. If you define a jet of given dimensions as the unit and have it established as a standard then you can claim your unit to be an absolute constituent of water. Standard is the thing. By creating a standard physicists create a thing. Then they define the thing as the proof of their doctrine. This classic method of scholastic doctors has been in existence ever since Babylonian priests used it for the first time. So even the method is as solid a thing as the electron itself.

I consider Johnson’s duplication of an old experiment to be fundamental to physics. This tradition must be established in physics as a new discipline. Old experiments must be duplicated periodically, otherwise they become canonized and turn into miracles.

• The book should be interesting too: The ten most beautiful experiments
• George Johnson and John Horgan discuss the Thomson experiment here. Starts at 53:00 minutes into the video.
• Check out George Johnson’s Garage Band Science. I’ll definitely write about this more later. Reminds me my Cavendish experiment adventure.
• Thomson experiment chapter from my book.

1. I don’t exactly agree with Steven Weinberg but he also claimed that Thomson never observed electrons: “…all Thomson had done so far was to measure the mass/charge ratio of whatever particles make up the cathode rays. Yet he leaped to the conclusion that these particles are the fundamental constituents of all ordinary matter… Indeed, there was no way that the existence of smaller particles within the atom could be verified on the basis of Thomson’s 1897 experiment.” [↩]

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