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Mastering phpMyAdmin 3.4 for
Effective MySQL Management

A complete guide to getting started with

phpMyAdmin 3.4 and mastering its features

Marc Delisle

BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
Mastering phpMyAdmin 3.4 for Effective MySQL
Management

Copyright © 2012 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written
permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in
critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy
of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is
sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt
Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages
caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the
companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals.
However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: February 2012

Production Reference: 1310112

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place
35 Livery Street
Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-84951-778-2

www.packtpub.com

Cover Image by Michal Čihař ([email protected])

 Credits

Author Project Coordinator

Marc Delisle Jovita Pinto

Reviewers Proofreader
Madhura Jayaratne Mario Cecere
Rouslan Placella
Indexer
Lead Technical Editors Tejal Daruwale
Kartikey Pandey
Meeta Rajani Production Coordinator
Arvindkumar Gupta

Technical Editor
Kedar Bhat Cover Work
Arvindkumar Gupta
 About the Author

Marc Delisle was awarded "MySQL Community Member of the year 2009"
because of his involvement with phpMyAdmin. He started to contribute to the
project in December 1998, when he made the multi-language version. He is involved
with phpMyAdmin as a developer, translator, and project administrator and enjoys
meeting phpMyAdmin users in person.

Marc is a system administrator at Cegep de Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada. He lives in

Sherbrooke with his wife and they enjoy spending time with their four children.

In addition to the "Mastering phpMyAdmin" successive editions, Marc has

written "Creating your MySQL Database: Practical Design Tips and Techniques" and
"phpMyAdmin Starter", also with Packt Publishing.

I am truly grateful to the Packt team whose sound comments were

greatly appreciated during the production. My thanks also go to the
reviewers of all editions; their sharp eyes helped in making this book
clearer and more complete.

Finally, I wish to thank all contributors to phpMyAdmin's source

code, translations, and documentation; their dedication to this
project continues to push me forward.
 About the Reviewers

Madhura Jayaratne is a Computer Science and Engineering graduate of

University of Moratuwa. Currently he works as a software engineer and is located in
Colombo, Sri Lanka.

He is a member of phpMyAdmin team and has contributed with GIS support for the
software, which will be a part of its future releases. He continues to contribute by
coding and translating the software.

Rouslan Placella, based in Cork, Ireland, is currently completing an Honors

degree in Software Development at the Cork Institute of Technology. Born in Saint
Petersbourg in 1985, his enthusiasm for programming and electronics was nurtured
from a very early age. He is passionate about high performance and secure software
and has been contributing to open source software with phpMyAdmin and Geeklog.
During the summer of 2011 he took part in the Google Summer of Code program,
where he developed an improved interface for MySQL routines, triggers, and events
for phpMyAdmin. He currently also teaches Math and programming to second and
third-level students.
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This book is dedicated to Carole, André, Corinne, Annie, and Guillaume,
with all my love.
 Table of Contents
Preface 1
Chapter 1: Getting Started with phpMyAdmin 7
PHP and MySQL: The leading open source duo 7
What is phpMyAdmin? 8
Project documentation 9
Installing phpMyAdmin 9
Required information 9
System requirements 10
Downloading the files 10
Installing on different platforms 11
Installing on a remote server using a Windows client 11
Installing on a local Linux server 11
Installing on a local Windows server (Apache, IIS) 12
Configuring phpMyAdmin 12
The config.inc.php file 12
Avoiding false error messages about permissions on config.inc.php 13
Configuration principles 13
Web-based setup script 15
Manually creating config.inc.php 20
Tips for editing config.inc.php on a Windows client 20
Description of some configuration parameters 20
PmaAbsoluteUri 21
Server-specific sections 21
Installing phpMyAdmin configuration storage 24
Goal of the configuration storage 24
Location of the configuration storage 24
Performing the installation 25
Installing for a single user 25
Installing for multiple users 27
Table of Contents

Upgrading phpMyAdmin 28
Summary 29
Chapter 2: Configuring Authentication and Security 31
Logging in to MySQL through phpMyAdmin 31
Logging in to an account without a password 32
Authenticating a single user with config 32
Testing the MySQL connection 33
Authenticating multiple users 33
Authenticating with HTTP 33
Authenticating with cookie values 34
Authenticating with signon mode 36
Configuring for multiple server support 38
Defining servers in the configuration file 38
Authenticating through an arbitrary server 39
Logging out 40
Securing phpMyAdmin 40
Protecting phpMyAdmin at directory level 40
Displaying error messages 41
Protecting with IP-based access control 41
Defining rules 42
Order of interpretation for rules 42
Blocking root access 43
Protecting in-transit data 43
Summary 44
Chapter 3: Over Viewing the Interface 45
Over viewing panels and windows 45
Login panels 45
Navigation and main panels 46
Home page 46
Views 46
Query window 46
Starting page 47
Customizing general settings 47
Configuring window title 47
Natural sort order for database and table names 48
Creating site-specific header and footer 48
Themes 49
Configuring themes 49
Selecting themes 50
Selecting a language 50
Slider 51
Restricting the list of databases 51

[ ii ]
 Table of Contents

Deactivating Ajax 52
Character sets and collations 52
Effective character sets and collations 53
Navigation panel 54
Configuring the logo 54
Database and table list 55
Light mode 55
Full mode 57
Table abridged statistics 58
Table quick-access icon 58
Nested display of tables within a database 58
Counting the number of tables 59
Choosing from the server list 59
Handling many databases or tables 60
Limits on the interface 60
Improving fetch speed 61
Main panel 61
Home page 62
Database view 63
Table view 64
Server view 65
Icons for home page and menu tabs 65
Opening a new phpMyAdmin window 66
User preferences 66
Accessing user preferences 67
Possible locations for saving preferences 67
Saving in phpMyAdmin configuration storage 68
Saving in a file 68
Saving in the browser's local storage 68
Changing settings 69
Disallowing specific preferences 69
Showing developer settings 70
Query window 70
Summary 72
Chapter 4: Creating and Browsing Tables 73
Creating a database 73
No privileges 74
First database creation is authorized 74
Creating our first table 76
Choosing the columns 76
Creating a table 76
Choosing keys 79

[ iii ]
Table of Contents

Inserting data manually 80

Data entry panel tuning for CHAR and VARCHAR 82
Browse mode 83
SQL query links 83
Navigation bar 84
Query results operations 86
Displaying data as a chart 86
Sorting results 87
Headwords 89
Color-marking rows or columns 89
Limiting the length of each column 90
Display options 90
Browsing distinct values 91
Profiling queries 92
Creating an additional table 92
Summary 94
Chapter 5: Changing Data and Structure 95
Changing data 95
Entering edit mode 95
Moving to next field with the tab key 97
Moving with arrows 97
Handling NULL values 97
Applying a function to a value 98
Duplicating rows of data 100
Multi-row editing 101
Editing the next row 102
Inline row editing 102
Deleting data 103
Deleting a single row 103
Deleting multiple rows 104
Deleting all of the rows in a table 104
Deleting all rows in multiple tables 105
Deleting tables 105
Deleting databases 106
Changing table structure 107
Adding a column 107
Vertical mode 108
Editing column attribute 108
TEXT column type 109
BLOB (Binary Large Object) column type 110
Uploading binary content 111
ENUM and SET column types 113

[ iv ]
 Table of Contents

DATE, DATETIME, and TIMESTAMP column types 115

Calendar pop up 116
TIMESTAMP option 116
Bit column type 117
Managing indexes 118
Single-column indexes 118
Multi-column indexes and index editing 120
FULLTEXT indexes 120
Optimizing indexes with EXPLAIN 121
Detecting index problems 122
Summary 123
Chapter 6: Exporting Structure and Data (Backup) 125
Dumps, backups, and exports 125
Scope of the export 126
Exporting a database 126
The Table(s) sub-panel 128
The Output sub-panel 128
File name template 128
Choosing a character set 129
Kanji support 129
Compression 129
Export formats 130
SQL 130
CSV 135
CSV for Microsoft Excel 136
PDF 137
Microsoft Word 2000 137
LaTeX 138
XML 139
Open document spreadsheet 140
Open document text 140
YAML 141
CodeGen 141
Texy! text 141
PHP array 142
MediaWiki table 142
JSON 142
Exporting a table 143
Split-file exports 143
Exporting selectively 143
Exporting partial query results 144
Exporting and checkboxes 144
Exporting multiple databases 145
Saving the export file on the server 146
User-specific save directories 147

[v]
Table of Contents

Memory limits 148

Summary 148
Chapter 7: Importing Structure and Data 149
Limits for the transfer 150
Time limits 150
Other limits 151
Handling big export files 151
Uploading into a temporary directory 152
Importing SQL files 152
Importing CSV files 154
Differences between SQL and CSV formats 154
Exporting a test file 154
CSV 154
CSV using LOAD DATA 156
Requirements 156
Using the LOAD DATA interface 157
Importing other formats 158
Open Document Spreadsheet 158
XML 159
Reading files from a web server upload directory 160
Displaying an upload progress bar 161
Configuring APC 161
Summary 162
Chapter 8: Searching Data 163
Single-table searches 163
Entering the search page 163
Searching criteria by column—query by example 164
Searching for empty / non-empty values 165
Producing reports with Print view 166
Searching with wildcard characters 166
Case sensitivity and search 168
Combining criteria 168
Search options 168
Selecting the columns to be displayed 168
Ordering the results 169
Applying a WHERE clause 169
Avoiding repeated results 170
Performing a complete database search 171
Restricting search to a column 172
Stopping an errant query 173
Summary 173

[ vi ]
 Table of Contents

Chapter 9: Performing Table and Database Operations 175

Maintaining a table 176
Changing table attributes 177
Table storage engine 177
Table comments 177
Table order 178
Table collation 179
Table options 180
Emptying or deleting a table 180
Renaming, moving, and copying tables 181
Appending data to a table 182
Performing other table operations 182
Multi-table operations 182
Repairing an "in use" table 183
Database operations 183
Renaming a database 184
Copying a database 184
Summary 184
Chapter 10: Benefiting from the Relational System 185
Relational MySQL 185
InnoDB and PBXT 186
Defining relations with the relation view 186
Defining internal relations 187
Defining the relation 188
Defining the display column 188
Foreign key relations 189
Foreign keys without phpMyAdmin configuration storage 192
Defining relations with the Designer 192
Over viewing the interface 193
Defining relations 195
Defining foreign key relations 196
Defining the display column 197
Exporting for PDF schema 197
Benefiting from the defined relations 197
Foreign key information 197
The drop-down list of foreign keys 199
The browseable foreign-table window 200
Referential integrity checks 200
Automatic updates of metadata 201

[ vii ]
Table of Contents

Column commenting 201

Automatically migrating column comments 202
Summary 203
Chapter 11: Entering SQL Statements 205
The SQL query box 205
The Database view 206
The Table view 207
The Columns selector 208
Clicking into the query box 208
The Query window 209
Query window options 210
Session-based SQL history 210
Database-based SQL history (permanent) 210
Editing queries 211
Multi-statement queries 212
Pretty printing (syntax highlighting) 213
The SQL Validator 213
System requirements 214
Making the Validator available 214
Validator results 215
Standard-conforming queries 215
Non standard-conforming queries 216
Summary 216
Chapter 12: Generating Multi-table Queries 217
Choosing tables 218
Exploring column criteria 219
Column selector: Single column or all columns 219
Sorting columns 220
Showing a column 220
Updating the query 220
Adding conditions to the criteria box 221
Adjusting the number of criteria rows 223
Adjusting the number of criteria columns 224
Generating automatic joins (internal relations) 224
Executing the query 225
The visual builder 226
Summary 228
Chapter 13: Synchronizing Data and Supporting Replication 229
Synchronizing data and structure 229
Goals of synchronization 230
Moving between the development and production servers 230

[ viii ]
 Table of Contents

Collaboration between database designers 230

Preparing for replication 230
Over viewing the synchronization process 231
Preparing for the synchronization exercise 231
Choosing source and target servers and databases 232
Analyzing comparison results 234
Performing a complete synchronization 236
Performing a selective synchronization 236
Supporting MySQL replication 237
The Replication menu 238
Configuring replication 238
Master server configuration 239
Slave server configuration 242
Setting up a test environment 243
Controlling a slave server 244
Obtaining replication information 245
Gathering replication status 245
Replicated databases 245
Replicated tables 246
Summary 247
Chapter 14: Using Query Bookmarks 249
Comparing bookmark and query history features 250
Creating bookmarks 250
Creating a bookmark after a successful query 250
Storing a bookmark before sending a query 252
Making bookmarks public 253
The default initial query for a table 254
Multi-query bookmarks 255
Recalling bookmarks from the bookmarks list 256
Executing bookmarks 256
Manipulating bookmarks 257
Passing a parameter to a bookmark 257
Creating a parameterized bookmark 257
Passing the parameter value 258
Summary 259
Chapter 15: Documenting the System 261
Producing structure reports 261
Creating a printable report 261
The database print view 262
The selective database print view 262
The table print view 263
Preparing a complete report with the data dictionary 264
[ ix ]
Table of Contents

Generating relational schemas 264

Adding a third table to our model 265
Producing schema pages 266
Page planning 266
Creating a new page 266
Editing a page 267
Exporting a page for display 269
Changing the font in PDF schema 271
Laying out a schema with the Designer feature 272
Summary 273
Chapter 16: Transforming Data using MIME 275
Browsing data without transformations 275
Switching display options 276
Enabling transformations 276
Configuring settings for MIME columns 277
Selecting the MIME type 278
Browser transformations 278
Assigning values to transformation options 279
Requirements for image generation 279
Configuring GD2 library availability verification 280
Asserting support of JPEG and PNG libraries 280
Evaluating the impact of memory limits 281
Examples of transformations 281
Clickable thumbnail (JPEG or PNG) 281
Adding links to an image 282
Date formatting 283
Links from text 283
text/plain: link 284
text/plain: imagelink 284
Preserving the original formatting 286
Displaying parts of a text 286
Displaying a download link 286
Hexadecimal representation 287
SQL pretty printing 288
IP address 288
Transforming data via external applications 288
External application example: In-cell sort 289
Summary 290
Chapter 17: Supporting Features Added in MySQL 5 291
Supporting views 291
Creating a view from results 292
Main panel and views 294
Controlling row counting for improved performance 295

[x]
 Table of Contents

Supporting routines—stored procedures and functions 295

Creating a stored procedure 296
Changing the delimiter 296
Entering the procedure 297
Testing the procedure 297
Manipulating procedures and functions 298
Manually creating a function 299
Testing the function 300
Exporting stored procedures and functions 300
Executing code with triggers 301
Manually creating a trigger 302
Testing the trigger 303
Using information_schema 303
Partitioning 304
Creating a table with partitions 304
Maintaining partitions 305
Exporting a partition definition 305
Exploring the event scheduler 306
Activating the scheduler 306
Granting EVENT permission 306
Creating an event 306
Manipulating events 307
Exporting 307
Summary 307
Chapter 18: Tracking Changes 309
Understanding the goals of the tracking system 309
Tracking in other software applications 309
Tracking in phpMyAdmin 310
Prerequisites 310
Configuring a basic tracking mechanism 311
Principles 311
Versioning 311
Taking a snapshot of the current structure 312
Understanding archiving issues 312
Initiating tracking for one table 313
Choosing the statements to be tracked 315
Testing the tracking mechanism 315
Tracking report 316
Determining tracking status 317
Deactivating and activating tracking 320

[ xi ]
Table of Contents

Structure snapshot 320

Exporting a version 321
Creating a new version 322
Quickly accessing tracking information 323
Deleting tracking information 323
Summary 324
Chapter 19: Administrating the MySQL Server 325
Managing users and their privileges 325
The user overview 326
Exporting privileges 327
Privileges reload 328
Adding a user 328
Entering the username 329
Assigning a host value 329
Setting passwords 330
Understanding rights for database creation 330
Assigning global privileges 330
Limiting the resources used 331
Editing a user profile 331
Editing global privileges 331
Assigning database-specific privileges 332
Changing the password 334
Changing login information or copying a user 334
Removing a user 336
Database information 336
Enabling statistics 337
Sorting the statistics 337
Checking the database privileges 338
Dropping selected databases 338
Server information 339
Verifying server status 339
Server variables 341
Server processes 341
Storage engines 342
Available character sets and collations 343
Examining binary logs 343
Summary 344
Appendix: Troubleshooting and Support 345
Troubleshooting 345
System requirements 345
Verifying the base configuration 346
Solving common errors 346

[ xii ]
 Table of Contents

Seeking support 346

FAQs 347
Help forums 347
Creating a SourceForge account 347
Choosing the thread title 347
Reading the answers 347
Using the support tracker 348
Using the bug tracker 348
Environment description 348
Bug description 348
Contributing to the project 349
The code base 349
Translation updates 349
Patches 349
Index 351

[ xiii ]
 Preface
phpMyAdmin is an open source web interface that handles the administration
of MySQL. It can perform various tasks such as creating, modifying, or deleting
databases, tables, columns, or rows. It can also execute SQL statements or manage
users and their permissions. When it comes to exploiting phpMyAdmin to its
full potential, even experienced developers and system administrators search for
tutorials to accomplish their tasks.

Mastering phpMyAdmin 3.4 for Effective MySQL Management is an easy-to-read,

step-by-step practical guide that walks you through every facet of this legendary
tool—phpMyAdmin—and takes you a step ahead in taking full advantage of its
potential. This book is filled with illustrative examples that will help you understand
every phpMyAdmin feature in detail.

This book jump starts with installing and configuring phpMyAdmin, and then
looks into phpMyAdmin's features. This is followed by configuring authentication
in phpMyAdmin and setting parameters that influence the interface as a whole,
including the new user preferences feature. You will first create two basic tables and
then edit, delete data, tables, and databases. As backups are crucial to a project, you
will create up-to-date backups and then look into importing the data that you have
exported. You will also explore the various search mechanisms and query across
multiple tables.

Now you will learn some advanced features such as defining inter-table relations,
both with relation view and the Designer panel. Some queries are out of the scope of
the interface; you will enter SQL command to accomplish these tasks.

You will also learn about synchronizing databases on different servers and managing
MySQL replication to improve performance and data security. You will also store
queries as bookmarks for their quick retrieval. Towards the end of the book you will
learn to document your database, track changes made to the database, and manage
user accounts using phpMyAdmin server management features.
Preface

This book is an upgrade from the previous version that covered phpMyAdmin
version 3.3. Version 3.4.x introduced features such as a user preferences module,
relation schema export to multiple formats, an ENUM/SET column editor, a
simplified interface for export and import, AJAX interface on some pages, charts
generation, and a visual query builder.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Getting Started with phpMyAdmin, gives us the reasons why we should
use phpMyAdmin as a means of managing MySQL databases. It then covers
the downloading and installation procedures for phpMyAdmin. Installing the
phpMyAdmin configuration storage is covered as well.

Chapter 2, Configuring Authentication and Security, provides an overview of various

authentication types used in phpMyAdmin. It then covers the security issues related
to phpMyAdmin.

Chapter 3, Over Viewing the Interface, gives us an overview of the phpMyAdmin

interface. It includes the login panel, the navigation and main panels with the Light
and the Full mode, and the Query window. The new user preferences module is
examined in this chapter.

Chapter 4, Creating and Browsing Tables, is all about database creation. It teaches us
how to create a table, how to insert data manually, and how to sort the data. It also
covers how to produce charts from data.

Chapter 5, Changing Data and Structure, covers the aspects of data editing in
phpMyAdmin. It teaches us handling NULL values, multi-row editing, and
data deletion. Finally it explores the subject of changing the structure of tables,
with focus on editing column attributes (including the new ENUM/SET editor)
and index management.

Chapter 6, Exporting Structure and Data (Backup), deals with backups and exports.
It lists various ways to trigger an export, available export formats, the options
associated with export formats, and the various places where the export files
may be sent.

Chapter 7, Importing Structure and Data, tells us how to bring back exported data
created for backup and transfer purposes. It covers the various options available in
phpMyAdmin to import data, and different mechanisms involved in importing SQL
files, CSV files, and other formats. Finally, it covers the limitations that may be faced
while importing files, and the ways to overcome them.

[2]
 Preface

Chapter 8, Searching Data, presents the mechanisms that are useful for searching data
effectively, per table or inside an entire database.

Chapter 9, Performing Table and Database Operations, covers ways to perform some
operations that influence and can be applied on entire tables or databases as a whole.
Finally, it deals with table maintenance operations for table repair and optimization.

Chapter 10, Benefiting from the Relational System, is where we start covering advanced
features of phpMyAdmin. The chapter explains how to define inter-table relations
and how these relations can help us while browsing tables, entering data, or
searching for it.

Chapter 11, Entering SQL Statements, helps us enter our own SQL commands. The
chapter also covers the Query window—the window used to edit an SQL query.
Finally, it also helps us to obtain the history of typed commands.

Chapter 12, Generating Multi-table Queries, covers the multi-table query generator,
which allows us to produces these queries without actually typing them. The visual
query builder is covered as well.

Chapter 13, Synchronizing Data and Supporting Replication, teaches us how to

synchronize databases on the same server or from one server to another. It then
covers how to manage MySQL replication.

Chapter 14, Using Query Bookmarks, covers one of the features of the phpMyAdmin
configuration storage. It shows how to record bookmarks and how to manipulate
them. Finally, it covers passing parameters to bookmarks.

Chapter 15, Documenting the System, gives an overview of how to produce

documentation which explains the structure of the databases, using the tools offered
by phpMyAdmin.

Chapter 16, Transforming Data Using MIME, explains how to apply transformations to
the data in order to customize its format at view time.

Chapter 17, Supporting Features Added in MySQL 5, covers phpMyAdmin's support

for the MySQL features that are new in MySQL 5.0 and 5.1, such as views, stored
procedures, and triggers.

Chapter 18, Tracking Changes, teaches us how to record structure and data changes
done from the phpMyAdmin interface.

[3]
Preface

Chapter 19, Administrating the MySQL Server, is about the administration of a MySQL
server, focusing on user accounts and privileges. The chapter discusses how a system
administrator can use phpMyAdmin's server management features for day-to-day
user account maintenance, server verification, and server protection.

Appendix, Troubleshooting and Support, explains how to troubleshoot phpMyAdmin

by performing simple verifications. It also explains how to interact with the
development team for support, bug reports, and contributions.

What you need for this book

You need to have access to a server or workstation that has the following installed:

• A web server with PHP 5.2 or later

• MySQL 5.0 or later

Who this book is for

If you are a developer, system administrator, or web designer who wants to manage
MySQL databases and tables efficiently, then this book is for you. This book assumes
that you are already well-acquainted with MySQL basics. This book is a must
read for every serious phpMyAdmin user who would like to use this outstanding
application to its full power.

Conventions
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between
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 . Their third claim is that the value of , determined
as just explained from the Brownian movements, is in general higher
than the value computed from the law of fall, and that the
departures become greater and greater the smaller the particle.
These observers conclude therefore that we oil-drop observers failed
to detect sub-electrons because our droplets were too big to be able
to reveal their existence. The minuter particles which they study,
however, seem to them to bring these sub-electrons to light. In
other words, they think the value of the smallest charge which can
be caught from the air actually is a function of the radius of the drop
on which it is caught, being smaller for small drops than for large
ones.
Ehrenhaft and Zerner even analyze our report on oil droplets and
find that these also show in certain instances indications of sub-
electrons, for they yield in these observers’ hands too low values of
, whether computed from the Brownian movements or from the law
of fall. When the computations are made in the latter way is
found, according to them, to decrease with decreasing radius, as is
the case in their experiments on particles of mercury and gold.

III. CAUSES OF THE DISCREPANCIES

Now, the single low value of which these authors find in the
oil-drop work is obtained by computing from some twenty-five
observations on the times of fall, and an equal number on the times
of rise, of a particle which, before we had made any
computations at all, we reported upon[117] for the sake of showing
that the Brownian movements would produce just such fluctuations
as Ehrenhaft had observed when the conditions were those under
which he worked. When I compute by equation (29), using
merely the twenty-five times of fall, I find the value of comes
out 26 per cent low, just as Zerner finds it to do. If, however, I omit
the first reading it comes out but 11 per cent low. In other words,
the omission of one single reading changes the result by 15 per
cent. Furthermore, Fletcher[118] has shown that these same data,
though treated entirely legitimately, but with a slightly different
grouping than that used by Zerner, can be made to yield exactly the
right value of . This brings out clearly the futility of attempting to
test a statistical theorem by so few observations as twenty-five,
which is nevertheless more than Ehrenhaft usually uses on his drops.
Furthermore, I shall presently show that unless one observes under
carefully chosen conditions, his own errors of observation and the
slow evaporation of the drop tend to make obtained from
equation (29) come out too low, and these errors may easily be
enough to vitiate the result entirely. There is, then, not the slightest
indication in any work which we have thus jar done on oil drops that
comes out too small.
Next consider the apparent variation in when it is computed
from the law of fall. Zerner computes from my law of fall in the
case of the nine drops published by Fletcher, in which came out
as in electrolysis, and finds that one of them yields
, one , one
, one , while the other five
yield about the right value, namely, . In other words
(as stated on p. 165 above), five of these drops fall exactly on my
curve (Fig. 5), one falls somewhat above it, one somewhat below,
while two are entirely off and very much too low. These two,
therefore, I concluded were not oil at all, but dust particles. Since
Zerner computes the radius from the rate of fall, these two dust
particles which fall much too slowly, and therefore yield too low
values of , must, of course, yield correspondingly low values of .
Since they are found to do so, Zerner concludes that our oil drops,
as well as Ehrenhaft’s mercury particles, yield decreasing values of
with decreasing radius. His own tabulation does not show this. It
merely shows three erratic values of , two of which are very low
and one rather high. But a glance at all the other data which I have
published on oil drops shows the complete falsity of this position,
[119] for these data show that after I had eliminated dust all of my
particles yielded exactly the same value of “ ” whatever their
size[120]. The only possible interpretation then which could be put
on these two particles which yielded correct values of , but too
slow rates of fall, was that which I put upon them, namely, that they
were not spheres of oil.
As to the Vienna data on mercury and gold, Dr. Ehrenhaft
publishes, all told, data on just sixteen particles and takes for his
Brownian-movement calculations on the average fifteen times of fall
and fifteen of rise on each, the smallest number being 6 and the
largest 27. He then computes his statistical average from
observations of this sort. Next he assumes Perrin’s value of ,
namely, , which corresponds to , and obtains
instead by the Brownian-movement method, i.e., the method,
the following values of , the exponential term being omitted for the
sake of brevity: 1.43, 2.13, 1.38, 3.04, 3.5, 6.92, 4.42, 3.28, .84.
Barring the first three and the last of these, the mean value of is
just about what it should be, namely, 4.22 instead of 4.1. Further,
the first three particles are the heaviest ones, the first one falling
between his cross-hairs in 3.6 seconds, and its fluctuations in time of
fall are from 3.2 to 3.85 seconds, that is, three-tenths of a second
on either side of the mean value. Now, these fluctuations are only
slightly greater than those which the average observer will make in
timing the passage of a uniformly moving body across equally
spaced cross-hairs. This means that in these observations two nearly
equally potent causes were operating to produce fluctuations. The
observed ’s were, of course, then, larger than those due to
Brownian movements alone, and might easily, with but a few
observations, be two or three times as large. Since appears in
the denominator of equation (29), it will be seen at once that
because of the observer’s timing errors a series of observed ’s
will always tend to be larger than the due to Brownian
movements alone, and hence that the Brownian-movement method
always tends to yield too low a value of , and accordingly too low
a value of . It is only when the observer’s mean error is wholly
negligible in comparison with the Brownian-movement fluctuations
that this method will not yield too low a value of . The overlooking
of this fact is, in my judgment, one of the causes of the low values
of recorded by Dr. Ehrenhaft.
Again, in the original work on mercury droplets which I produced
both by atomizing liquid mercury and by condensing the vapor from
boiling mercury,[121] I noticed that such droplets evaporated for a
time even more rapidly than oil, and other observers who have since
worked with mercury have reported the same behavior.[122] The
amount of this effect may be judged from the fact that one
particular droplet of mercury recently under observation in this
laboratory had at first a speed of 1 cm. in 20 seconds, which
changed in half an hour to 1 cm. in 56 seconds. The slow cessation,
however, of this evaporation indicates that the drop slowly becomes
coated with some sort of protecting film. Now, if any evaporation
whatever is going on while successive times of fall are being
observed—and as a matter of fact changes due to evaporation or
condensation are always taking place to some extent—the apparent
will be larger than that due to Brownian movements, even
though these movements are large enough to prevent the observer
from noticing, in taking twenty or thirty readings, that the drop is
continually changing. These changes combined with the fluctuations
in due to the observer’s error are sufficient, I think, to explain all of
the low values of e obtained by Dr. Ehrenhaft by the Brownian-
movement method. Indeed, I have myself repeatedly found
coming out less than half of its proper value until I corrected for the
evaporation of the drop, and this was true when the evaporation was
so slow that its rate of fall changed but 1 or 2 per cent in a half-
hour. But it is not merely evaporation which introduces an error of
this sort. The running down of the batteries, the drifting of the drop
out of focus, or anything which causes changes in the times of
passage across the equally spaced cross-hairs tends to decrease the
apparent value of . There is, then, so far as I can see, no
evidence at all in any of the data published to date that the
Brownian-movement method actually does yield too low a value of “
 ”, and very much positive evidence that it does not was given in the
preceding chapter.
Indeed, the same type of Brownian-movement work which
Fletcher and I did upon oil-drops ten years ago (see preceding
chapter) has recently been done in Vienna with the use of particles
of selenium, and with results which are in complete harmony with
our own. The observer, E. Schmid,[123] takes as many as 1,500
“times of fall” upon a given particle, the radius of which is in one
case as low as —quite as minute as any used by Dr.
Ehrenhaft—and obtains in all cases values of by “the Brownian-
movement method” which are in as good agreement with our own
as could be expected in view of the necessary observational error.
This complete check of our work in Vienna itself should close the
argument so far as the Brownian movements are concerned.
That and computed from the law of fall become farther and
farther removed from the values of and computed from the
Brownian movements, the smaller these particles appear to be, is
just what would be expected if the particles under consideration
have surface impurities or non-spherical shapes or else are not
mercury at all.[124] If, further, exact multiple relations hold for them,
as at least a dozen of us, including Dr. Ehrenhaft himself, now find
that they invariably do, there is scarcely any other interpretation
possible except that of incorrect assumptions as to density.[see
footnote 124] Again, the fact that these data are all taken when the
observers are working with the exceedingly dense substances,
mercury and gold, volatilized in an electric arc, and when, therefore,
anything not mercury or gold, but assumed to be, would yield very
low values of and , is in itself a very significant circumstance. The
further fact that Dr. Ehrenhaft implies that normal values of e very
frequently appear in his work,[125] while these low erratic drops
represent only a part of the data taken, is suggestive. When one
considers, too, that in place of the beautiful consistency and
duplicability shown in the oil-drop work, Dr. Ehrenhaft and his pupils
never publish data on any two particles which yield the same value
of , but instead find only irregularities and erratic behavior,[126] just
as they would expect to do with non-uniform particles, or with
particles having dust specks attached to them, one wonders why any
explanation other than the foreign-material one, which explains all
the difficulties, has ever been thought of. As a matter of fact, in our
work with mercury droplets, we have found that the initial rapid
evaporation gradually ceases, just as though the droplets had
become coated with some foreign film which prevents further loss.
Dr. Ehrenhaft himself, in speaking of the Brownian movements of his
metal particles, comments on the fact that they seem at first to
show large movements which grow smaller with time.[127] This is
just what would happen if the radius were increased by the growth
of a foreign film.
Now what does Dr. Ehrenhaft say to these very obvious
suggestions as to the cause of his troubles? Merely that he has
avoided all oxygen, and hence that an oxide film is impossible. Yet
he makes his metal particle by striking an electric arc between metal
electrodes. This, as everyone knows, brings out all sorts of occluded
gases. Besides, chemical activity in the electric arc is tremendously
intense, so that there is opportunity for the formation of all sorts of
higher nitrides, the existence of which in the gases coming from
electric arcs has many times actually been proved. Dr. Ehrenhaft
says further that he photographs big mercury droplets and finds
them spherical and free from oxides. But the fact that some drops
are pure mercury is no reason for assuming that all of them are, and
it is only the data on those which are not which he publishes.
Further, because big drops which he can see and measure are of
mercury is no justification at all for assuming that sub-microscopic
particles are necessarily also spheres of pure mercury. In a word, Dr.
Ehrenhaft’s tests as to sphericity and purity are all absolutely
worthless as applied to the particles in question, which according to
him have radii of the order .—a figure a hundred times
below the limit of sharp resolution.
 IV. THE BEARING OF THE VIENNA WORK ON THE QUESTION OF
THE EXISTENCE OF A SUB-ELECTRON
But let us suppose that these observers do actually work with
particles of pure mercury and gold, as they think they do, and that
the observational and evaporational errors do not account for the
low values of . Then what conclusion could legitimately be drawn
from their data? Merely this and nothing more, that (1) Einstein’s
Brownian-movement equation is not universally applicable, and (2)
that the law of motion of their very minute charged particles through
air is not yet fully known.[128] So long as they find exact multiple
relationships, as Dr. Ehrenhaft now does, between the charges
carried by a given particle when its charge is changed by the capture
of ions or the direct loss of electrons, the charges on these ions
must be the same as the ionic charges which I have accurately and
consistently measured and found equal to
; for they, in their experiments,
capture exactly the same sort of ions, produced in exactly the same
way as those which I captured and measured in my experiments.
That these same ions have one sort of a charge when captured by a
big drop and another sort when captured by a little drop is obviously
absurd. If they are not the same ions which are caught, then in
order to reconcile the results with the existence of the exact multiple
relationship found by Dr. Ehrenhaft as well as ourselves, it would be
necessary to assume that there exist in the air an infinite number of
different kinds of ionic charges corresponding to the infinite number
of possible radii of drops, and that when a powerful electric field
drives all of these ions toward a given drop this drop selects in each
instance just the charge which corresponds to its particular radius.
Such an assumption is not only too grotesque for serious
consideration, but it is directly contradicted by my experiments, for I
have repeatedly pointed out that with a given value of I obtain
exactly the same value of , whether I work with big drops or with
little ones.
 V. NEW PROOF OF THE CONSTANCY OF
For the sake of subjecting the constancy of to the most
searching test, I have made new measurements of the same kind as
those heretofore reported, but using now a range of sizes which
overlaps that in which Dr. Ehrenhaft works. I have also varied
through wide limits the nature and density of both the gas and the
drops. Fig. 13 (I) contains new oil-drop data taken in air; Fig. 13 (II)
similar data taken in hydrogen. The radii of these drops, computed
by the very exact method given in the Physical Review[129] vary
tenfold, namely, from .000025 cm. to .00023 cm. Dr. Ehrenhaft’s
range is from .000008 cm. to .000025 cm. It will be seen that these
drops fall in every instance on the lines of Fig. 13, I and II, and
hence that they all yield exactly the same value of , namely,
. The details of the measurements, which are just like
those previously given, will be entirely omitted. There is here not a
trace of an indication that the value of “ ” becomes smaller as “ ”
decreases. The points on these two curves represent consecutive
series of observations, not a single drop being omitted in the case of
either the air or the hydrogen. This shows the complete uniformity
and consistency which we have succeeded in obtaining in the work
with oil drops.
That mercury drops show a similar behavior was somewhat
imperfectly shown in the original observations which I published on
mercury.[130] I have since fully confirmed the conclusions there
reached. That mercury drops can with suitable precautions be made
to behave practically as consistently as oil is shown in Fig. 13 (III),
which represents data obtained by blowing into the observing
chamber above the pinhole in the upper plate a cloud of mercury
droplets formed by the condensation of the vapor arising from
boiling mercury. These results have been obtained in the Ryerson
Laboratory with my apparatus by Mr. John B. Derieux. Since the
pressure was here always atmospheric, the drops progress in the
order of size from left to right, the largest having a diameter about
three times that of the smallest, the radius of which is .00003244
cm. The original data may be found in the Physical Review,
December, 1916. In Fig. 13 (IV) is found precisely similar data taken
with my apparatus by Dr. J. Y. Lee on solid spheres of shellac falling
in air.[131] Further, very beautiful work, of this same sort, also done
with my apparatus, has recently been published by Dr. Yoshio Ishida
(Phys. Rev., May, 1923), who, using many different gases, obtains a
group of lines like those shown in Fig. 13, all of which though of
different slopes, converge upon one and the same value of “ ”,
namely, .

Fig. 13

These results establish with absolute conclusiveness the

correctness of the assertion that the apparent value of the electron
is not in general a function of the gas in which the particle falls, of
the materials used, or of the radius of the drop on which it is caught,
even when that drop is of mercury, and even when it is as small as
some of those with which Dr. Ehrenhaft obtained his erratic results.
If it appears to be so with his drops, the cause cannot possibly be
found in actual fluctuations in the charge of the electron without
denying completely the validity of my results. But these results have
now been checked, in their essential aspects, by scores of observers,
including Dr. Ehrenhaft himself. Furthermore, it is not my results
alone with which Dr. Ehrenhaft’s contention clashes. The latter is at
variance also with all experiments like those of Rutherford and
Geiger and Regener on the measurement of the charges carried by
- and -particles, for these are infinitely smaller than any particles
used by Dr. Ehrenhaft; and if, as he contends, the value of the unit
out of which a charge is built up is smaller and smaller the smaller
the capacity of the body on which it is found, then these -particle
charges ought to be extraordinarily minute in comparison with the
charges on our oil drops. Instead of this, the charge on the -
particle comes out exactly twice the charge which I measure in my
oil-drop experiments.
While then it would not be in keeping with the spirit or with the
method of modern science to make any dogmatic assertion about
the existence or non-existence of a sub-electron, it can be asserted
with entire confidence that there has not appeared up to the present
a scrap of evidence for the existence of charges smaller than the
electron. If all of Dr. Ehrenhaft’s assumptions as to the nature of his
particles were correct, then his experiments would mean simply that
Einstein’s Brownian-movement equation is not of universal validity
and that the law of motion of minute charged particles is quite
different from that which he has assumed. It is exceedingly unlikely
that either of these results can be drawn from his experiments, for
Nordlund[132] and Westgren[133] have apparently verified the
Einstein equation in liquids with very much smaller particles than Dr.
Ehrenhaft uses; and, on the other hand, while I have worked with
particles as small as cm. and with values of as large
as 135, which is very much larger than any which appear in the work
of Dr. Ehrenhaft and his pupils, I have thus far found no evidence of
a law of motion essentially different from that which I published in
1913, and further elaborated and refined in 1923.
 There has then appeared up to the present time no evidence
whatever for the existence of a sub-electron. The chapter having to
do with its discussion is now considered for the present at least to
have been closed,[134] but it constitutes an interesting historical
document worthy of study as an illustration on the one hand of the
solidity of the foundations upon which the atomic theory of
electricity now rests, and on the other hand of the severity of the
gauntlet of criticism which new results must run before they gain
admission to the body of established truth in physics.
 CHAPTER IX
THE STRUCTURE OF THE ATOM
We have shown in the preceding chapters how within the last two decades there has been
discovered beneath the nineteenth-century world of molecules and atoms a wholly new world of
electrons, the very existence of which was undreamed of twenty years ago. We have seen that these
electrons, since they can be detached by X-rays from all kinds of neutral atoms, must be constituents of
all atoms. Whether or not they are the sole constituents we have thus far made no attempt to
determine. We have concerned ourselves with studying the properties of these electrons themselves
and have found that they are of two kinds, negative and positive, which are, however, exactly alike in
strength of charge but wholly different in inertia or mass, the negative being commonly associated with
a mass which is but ¹⁄₁₈₄₅ of that of the lightest known atom, that of hydrogen, while the positive
appears never to be associated with a mass smaller than that of the hydrogen atom. We have found
how to isolate and measure accurately the electronic charge and have found that this was the key which
unlocked the door to many another otherwise inaccessible physical magnitude. It is the purpose of this
chapter to consider certain other fields of exact knowledge which have been opened up through the
measurement of the electron, and in particular to discuss what the physicist, as he has peered with his
newly discovered agencies, X-rays, radioactivity, ultra-violet light, etc., into the insides of atoms, has
been able to discover regarding the numbers and sizes and relative positions and motions of these
electronic constituents, and to show how far he has gone in answering the question as to whether the
electrons are the sole building-stones of the atoms.

1. THE SIZES OF ATOMS

One of the results of the measurement of the electronic charge was to make it possible to find the
quantity which is called the diameter of an atom with a definiteness and precision theretofore altogether
unattained.
It was shown in chap. V that the determination of gave us at once a knowledge of the exact
number of molecules in a cubic centimeter of a gas. Before this was known we had fairly satisfactory
information as to the relative diameters of different molecules, for we have known for a hundred years
that different gases when at the same temperature and pressure possess the same number of
molecules per cubic centimeter (Avogadro’s rule). From this it is at once evident that, as the molecules
of gases eternally dart hither and thither and ricochet against one another and the walls of the
containing vessel, the average distance through which one of them will go between collisions with its
neighbors will depend upon how big it is. The larger the diameter the less will be the mean distance
between collisions—a quantity which is technically called “the mean free path.” Indeed, it is not difficult
to see that in different gases the mean free path is an inverse measure of the molecular cross-section.
The exact relation is easily deduced (see Appendix E). It is

in which is the molecular diameter and is the number of molecules per cubic centimeter of the gas.
Now, we have long had methods of measuring , for it is upon this that the coefficient of viscosity of the
gas largely depends. When, therefore, we have measured the viscosities of different gases we can
compute the corresponding ’s, and then from equation (31) the relative diameters , since is the
same for all gases at the same temperature and pressure. But the absolute value of can be found only
after the absolute value of is known. If we insert in equation (31) the value of found from by the
method presented in chap. V, it is found that the average diameter of the atom of the monatomic gas
helium is , that of the diatomic hydrogen molecule is a trifle more, while the diameters of
the molecules of the diatomic gases, oxygen and nitrogen, are 50 per cent larger.[135] This would make
the diameter of a single atom of hydrogen a trifle smaller, and that of a single atom of oxygen or
nitrogen a trifle larger than that of helium. By the average molecular diameter we mean the average
distance to which the centers of two molecules approach one another in such impacts as are continually
occurring in connection with the motions of thermal agitation of gas molecules—this and nothing more.
As will presently appear, the reason that two molecules thus rebound from one another when in their
motion of thermal agitation their centers of gravity approach to a distance of about is
presumably that the atom is a system with negative electrons in its outer regions. When these negative
electrons in two different systems which are coming into collision approach to about this distance, the
repulsions between these similarly charged bodies begin to be felt, although at a distance the atoms are
forceless. With decreasing distance this repulsion increases very rapidly until it becomes so great as to
overcome the inertias of the systems and drive them asunder.

II. THE RADIUS OF THE ELECTRON FROM THE ELECTROMAGNETIC THEORY OF THE ORIGIN OF MASS
The first estimates of the volume occupied by a single one of the electronic constituents of an atom
were obtained from the electromagnetic theory of the origin of mass, and were therefore to a pretty
large degree speculative, but since these estimates are strikingly in accord with results which follow
from direct experiments and are independent of any theory, and since, further, they are of extraordinary
philosophic as well as historic interest, they will briefly be presented here.
Since Rowland proved that an electrically charged body in motion is an electrical current the
magnitude of which is proportional to the speed of motion of the charge, and since an electric current,
by virtue of the property called its self-induction, opposes any attempt to increase or diminish its
magnitude, it is clear that an electrical charge, as such, possesses the property of inertia. But inertia is
the only invariable property of matter. It is the quantitative measure of matter, and matter quantitatively
considered is called mass. It is clear, then, theoretically, that an electrically charged pith ball must
possess more mass than the same pith ball when uncharged. But when we compute how much the
mass of a pith ball is increased by any charge which we can actually get it to hold, we find that the
increase is so extraordinarily minute as to be hopelessly beyond the possibility of experimental
detection. However, the method of making this computation, which was first pointed out by Sir J. J.
Thomson in 1881,[136] is of unquestioned validity, so that we may feel quite sure of the correctness of
the result. Further, when we combine the discovery that an electric charge possesses the distinguishing
property of matter, namely, inertia, with the discovery that all electric charges are built up out of
electrical specks all alike in charge, we have made it entirely legitimate to consider an electric current as
the passage of a definite, material, granular substance along the conductor. In other words, the two
entities, electricity and matter, which the nineteenth century tried to keep distinct, begin to look like
different aspects of one and the same thing.
But, though we have thus justified the statement that electricity is material, have we any evidence
as yet that all matter is electrical—that is, that all inertia is of the same origin as that of an electrical
charge? The answer is that we have evidence, but as yet no proof. The theory that this is the case is
still a speculation, but one which rests upon certain very significant facts. These facts are as follows:
If a pith ball is spherical and of radius , then the mass due to a charge spread uniformly over
its surface is given, as is shown in Appendix D) by,

The point of especial interest in this result is that the mass is inversely proportional to the radius, so
that the smaller the sphere upon which we can condense a given charge the larger the mass of that
charge. If, then, we had any means of measuring the minute increase in mass of a pith ball when we
charge it electrically with a known quantity of electricity , we could compute from equation (32) the
size of this pith ball, even if we could not see it or measure it in any other way. This is much the sort of
a position in which we find ourselves with respect to the negative electron. We can measure its mass,
and it is found to be accurately ¹⁄₁₈₄₅ of that of the hydrogen atom. We have measured accurately its
charge and hence can compute the radius of the equivalent sphere, that is, the sphere over which
would have to be uniformly distributed to have the observed mass, provided we assume that the
observed mass of the electron is all due to its charge.
The justification for such an assumption is of two kinds. First, since we have found that electrons are
constituents of all atoms and that mass is a property of an electrical charge, it is of course in the
interests of simplicity to assume that all the mass of an atom is due to its contained electrical charges,
rather than that there are two wholly different kinds of mass, one of electrical origin and the other of
some other sort of an origin. Secondly, if the mass of a negative electron is all of electrical origin, then
we can show from electromagnetic theory that this mass ought to be independent of the speed with
which the electron may chance to be moving unless that speed approaches close to the speed of light.
But from one-tenth the speed of light up to that speed the mass ought to vary with speed in a definitely
predictable way.
Now, it is a piece of rare good fortune for the testing of this theory that radium actually does eject
negative electrons with speeds which can be accurately measured and which do vary from three-tenths
up to ninety-eight hundredths of that of light. It is further one of the capital discoveries of the twentieth
century[137] that within these limits the observed rate of variation of the mass of the negative electron
with speed agrees accurately with the rate of variation computed on the assumption that this mass is all
of electrical origin. Such is the experimental argument for the electrical origin of mass.[138]
Solving then equation (32) for , we find that the radius of the sphere over which the charge of
the negative electron would have to be distributed to have the observed mass is but ,
or but one fifty-thousandth of the radius of the atom ( ). From this point of view, then, the
negative electron represents a charge of electricity which is condensed into an exceedingly minute
volume. In fact, its radius cannot be larger in comparison with the radius of the atom than is the radius
of the earth in comparison with the radius of her orbit about the sun.
In the case of the positive electron there is no direct experimental justification for the assumption
that the mass is also wholly of electrical origin, for we cannot impart to the positive electrons speeds
which approach the speed of light, nor have we as yet found in nature any of them which are endowed
with speeds greater than about one-tenth that of light. But in view of the experimental results obtained
with the negative electron, the carrying over of the same assumption to the positive electron is at least
natural. Further, if this step be taken, it is clear from equation (32), since for the positive is nearly
two thousand times larger than for the negative, that for the positive can be only ¹⁄₂₀₀₀ of what it
is for the negative. In other words, the size of the positive electron would be to the size of the negative
as a sphere having a two-mile radius would be to the size of the earth. From the standpoint, then, of
the electromagnetic theory of the origin of mass, the dimensions of the negative and positive
constituents of atoms in comparison with the dimensions of the atoms themselves are like the
dimensions of the planets and asteroids in comparison with the size of the solar system. All of these
computations, whatever their value, are rendered possible by the fact that is now known.
Now we know from methods which have nothing to do with the electromagnetic theory of the origin
of mass, that the excessive minuteness predicted by that theory for both the positive and the negative
constituents of atoms is in fact correct, though we have no evidence as to whether the foregoing ratio is
right.

III. DIRECT EXPERIMENTAL PROOF OF THE EXCESSIVE MINUTENESS OF THE ELECTRONIC

CONSTITUENTS OF ATOMS
 For at least twenty years we have had direct experimental proof[139] that the fastest of the -
particles, or helium atoms, which are ejected by radium, shoot in practically straight lines through as
much as 7 cm. of air at atmospheric pressure before being brought to rest. This distance is then called
the “range” of these -rays. Figs. 14 and 15 show actual photographs of the tracks of such particles.
We know too, for the reasons given on p. 139, that these -particles do not penetrate the air after the
manner of a bullet, namely, by pushing the molecules of air aside, but rather that they actually shoot
through all the molecules of air which they encounter. The number of such passages through molecules
which an -particle would have to make in traversing seven centimeters of air would be about a
hundred and thirty thousand.
Further, the very rapid -particles, or negative electrons, which are shot out by radium have been
known for a still longer time to shoot in straight lines through much greater distances in air than 7 cm.,
and even to pass practically undeflected through appreciable thicknesses of glass or metal.
We saw in chap. VI that the tracks of both the - and the -particles through air could be
photographed because they ionize some of the molecules through which they pass. These ions then
have the property of condensing water vapor about themselves, so that water droplets are formed
which can be photographed by virtue of the light which they reflect. Fig. 17 shows the track of a very
high-speed -ray. A little to the right of the middle of the photograph a straight line can be drawn from
bottom to top which will pass through a dozen or so of pairs of specks. These specks are the water
droplets formed about the ions which were produced at these points.
Fig. 14—Photographs of the Tracks of -Particles Shooting through Air
Fig. 15—Photographs of the Tracks of -Particles Shooting through Air
Fig. 16—Photographs of the Tracks of -Particles Shooting through Air
 Fig. 17—Photographs of the Tracks of -Particles Shooting through Air

Since we know the size of a molecule and the number of molecules per cubic centimeter, we can
compute, as in the case of the -particle, the number of molecules through which a -particle must
pass in going a given distance. The extraordinary situation revealed by this photograph is that this
particular particle shot through on an average as many as 10,000 atoms before it came near enough to
an electronic constituent of any one of these atoms to detach it from its system and form an ion. This
shows conclusively that the electronic or other constituents of atoms can occupy but an exceedingly
small fraction of the space inclosed within the atomic system. Practically the whole of this space must
be empty to an electron going with this speed.
The left panel in the lower half of the plate (Fig. 16) shows the track of a negative electron of much
slower speed, and it will be seen, first, that it ionizes much more frequently, and, secondly, that instead
of continuing in a straight line it is deflected at certain points from its original direction. The reason for
both of these facts can readily be seen from the considerations on p. 139, which it may be worth while
to extend to the case in hand as follows.
 If a new planet or other relatively small body were to shoot with stupendous speed through our
solar system, the tune which it spent within our system might be so small that the force between it and
the earth or any other member of the solar system would not have time either to deflect the stranger
from its path or to pull the earth out of its orbit. If the speed of the strange body were smaller, however,
the effect would be more disastrous both to the constituents of our solar system and to the path of the
strange body, for the latter would then have a much better chance of pulling one of the planets out of
our solar system and also a much better chance of being deflected from a straight path itself. The
slower a negative electron moves, then, the more is it liable to deflection and the more frequently does
it ionize the molecules through which it passes.
This conclusion finds beautiful experimental confirmation in the three panels of the plate opposite
this page, for the speed with which X-rays hurl out negative electrons from atoms has long been known
to be much less than the speed of -rays from radium, and the zigzag tracks in these photographs are
the paths of these corpuscles. It will be seen that they bend much more often and ionize much more
frequently than do the rays shown in Figs. 16 and 17.
But the study of the tracks of the -particles (Figs. 14 and 15, opposite p. 190) is even more
illuminating as to the structure of the atom. For the -particle, being an atom of helium eight thousand
times more massive than a negative electron, could no more be deflected by one of the latter in an
atom through which it passes than a cannon ball could be deflected by a pea. Yet Figs. 14 and 15 show
that toward the end of its path the -particle does in general suffer several sudden deflections. Such
deflections could be produced only by a very powerful center of force within the atom whose mass is at
least comparable with the mass of the helium atom.
Fig. 18—Photographs of the tracks of -particles ejected by x-rays from molecules of air
Fig. 19—Photographs of the tracks of -particles ejected by x-rays from molecules of air
 Fig. 20—Photographs of the tracks of -particles ejected by x-rays from molecules of air

These sharp deflections, which occasionally amount to as much as 150° to 180°, lend the strongest
of support to the view that the atom consists of a heavy positively charged nucleus about which are
grouped enough electrons to render the whole atom neutral. But the fact that in these experiments the
-particle goes through 130,000 atoms without approaching near enough to this central nucleus to
suffer appreciable deflection more than two or three times constitutes the most convincing evidence
that this central nucleus which holds the negative electrons within the atomic system occupies an
excessively minute volume, just as we computed from the electromagnetic theory of the origin of mass
that the positive electron ought to do. Indeed, knowing as he did by direct measurement the speed of
the -particle, Rutherford, who is largely responsible for the nucleus-atom theory, first computed,[140]
with the aid of the inverse square law, which we know to hold between charged bodies of dimensions
which are small compared with their distances apart, how close the -particle would approach to the
nucleus of a given atom like that of gold before it would be turned back upon its course (see Appendix
F). The result was in the case of gold, one of the heaviest atoms, about , and in the case of
hydrogen, the lightest atom, about . These are merely upper limits for the dimensions of the
nuclei.
 However uncertain, then, we may feel about the sizes of positive and negative electrons computed
from the electromagnetic theory of the origin of the mass, we may regard it as fairly well established by
such direct experiments as these that the electronic constituents of atoms are as small, in comparison
with the dimensions of the atomic systems, as are the sun and planets in comparison with the
dimensions of the solar system. Indeed, when we reflect that we can shoot helium atoms by the billion
through a thin-walled highly evacuated glass tube without leaving any holes behind, i.e., without
impairing in the slightest degree the vacuum or perceptibly weakening the glass, we see from this alone
that the atom itself must consist mostly of “hole”; in other words, that an atom, like a solar system,
must be an exceedingly loose structure whose impenetrable portions must be extraordinarily minute in
comparison with the penetrable portions. The notion that an atom can appropriate to itself all the space
within its boundaries to the exclusion of all others is then altogether exploded by these experiments. A
particular atom can certainly occupy the same space at the same time as any other atom if it is only
endowed with sufficient kinetic energy. Such energies as correspond to the motions of thermal agitation
of molecules are not, however, sufficient to enable one atom to penetrate the boundaries of another,
hence the seeming impenetrability of atoms in ordinary experiments in mechanics. That there is,
however, a portion of the atom which is wholly impenetrable to the alpha particles is definitely proved
by experiments of the sort we have been considering; for it occasionally happens that an alpha particle
hits this nucleus “head on,” and, when it does so, it is turned straight back upon its course. As indicated
above, the size of this impenetrable portion, which may be defined as the size of the nucleus, is in no
case larger than ¹⁄₁₀₀₀₀ the diameter of the atom, and yet there may be contained within it, as will
presently be shown, several hundred positive and negative electrons, so that the excessive minuteness
of these bodies is established, altogether without reference to any theory as to what they are.

IV. THE NUMBER OF ELECTRONS IN AN ATOM

If it be considered as fairly conclusively established by the experiments just described that an atom
consists of a heavy but very minute positively charged nucleus which holds light negative electrons in
some sort of a configuration about it, then the number of negative electrons outside the nucleus must
be such as to have a total charge equal to the free positive charge of the nucleus, since otherwise the
atom could not be neutral.
But the positive charge on the nucleus has been approximately determined as follows: With the aid
of the knowledge, already obtained through the determination of , of the exact number of atoms in a
given weight of a given substance, Sir Ernest Rutherford[141] first computed the chance that a single
helium atom in being shot with a known speed through a sheet of gold foil containing a known number
of atoms per unit of area of the sheet would suffer a deflection through a given angle. This computation
can easily be made in terms of the known kinetic energy and charge of the -particle, the known
number of atoms in the gold foil, and the unknown charge on the nucleus of the gold atom (see
Appendix F). Geiger and Marsden[142] then actually counted in Rutherford’s laboratory, by means of the
scintillations produced on a zinc-sulphide screen, what fraction of, say, a thousand -particles, which
were shot normally into the gold foil, were deflected through a given angle, and from this observed
number and Rutherford’s theory they obtained the number of free positive charges on the nucleus of
the gold atom.
Repeating the experiment and the computations with foils made from a considerable number of
other metals, they found that in every case the number of free positive charges on the atoms of
different substances was approximately equal to half its atomic weight. This means that the aluminum
atom, for example, has a nucleus containing about thirteen free positive charges and that the nucleus of
the atom of gold contains in the neighborhood of a hundred. This result was in excellent agreement
with the conclusion reached independently by Barkla[143] from experiments of a wholly different kind,
namely, experiments on the scattering of X-rays. These indicated that the number of scattering centers
in an atom—that is, its number of free negative electrons—was equal to about half the atomic weight.
But this number must, of course, equal the number of free positive electrons in the nucleus.
 V. MOSELEY’S REMARKABLE DISCOVERY
The foregoing result was only approximate. Indeed, there was internal evidence in Geiger and
Marsden’s work itself that a half was somewhat too high. The answer was made very definite and very
precise in 1913 through the extraordinary work of a brilliant young Englishman, Moseley, who, at the
age of twenty-seven, had accomplished as notable a piece of research in physics as has appeared
during the last fifty years. Such a mind was one of the early victims of the world-war. He was shot and
killed instantly in the trenches in Gallipoli in the summer of 1915.
Laue in Munich had suggested in 1912 the use of the regular spacing of the molecules of a crystal
for the analysis, according to the principle of the grating, of ether waves of very short wave-length,
such as X-rays were supposed to be, and the Braggs[144] had not only perfected an X-ray spectrometer
which utilized this principle, but had determined accurately the wave-lengths of the X-rays which are
characteristic of certain metals. The accuracy with which this can be done is limited simply by the
accuracy in the determination of , so that the whole new field of exact X-ray spectrometry is made
available through our exact knowledge of . Moseley’s discovery,[145] made as a result of an elaborate
and difficult study of the wave-lengths of the characteristic X-rays which were excited when cathode
rays were made to impinge in succession upon anticathodes embracing most of the known elements,
was that these characteristic wave-lengths of the different elements, or, better, their characteristic
frequencies, are related in a very simple but a very significant way. These frequencies were found to
constitute the same sort of an arithmetical progression as do the charges which we found to exist on
our oil drops. It was the square root of the frequencies rather than the frequencies themselves which
showed this beautifully simple relationship, but this is an unimportant detail. The significant fact is that,
arranged in the order of increasing frequency of their characteristic X-ray spectra, all the known
elements which have been examined constitute a simple arithmetical series each member of which is
obtained from its predecessor by adding always the same quantity.
The plate opposite this page shows photographs of the X-ray spectra of a number of elements
whose atomic numbers—that is, the numbers assigned them in Moseley’s arrangement of the elements
on the basis of increasing X-ray frequency—are given on the left. These photographs were taken by
Siegbahn.[146] The distance from the “central image”—in this case the black line on the left—to a given
line of the line spectrum on the right is approximately proportional to the wave-length of the rays
producing this line. The photographs show beautifully, first, how the atoms of all the elements produce
spectra of just the same type, and, secondly, how the wave-lengths of corresponding lines decrease, or
the frequencies increase, with increasing atomic number. The photograph on the left shows this
progression for the highest frequency rays which the atoms produce, the so-called series, while the
one on the right shows the same sort of a progression for the rays of next lower frequency, namely,
those of the so-called series, which have uniformly from seven to eight times the wave-length of the
series. The plate opposite p. 200 shows some very beautiful photographs taken by De Broglie in
Paris[147] in October, 1916.
The upper one is the X-ray emission spectrum of tungsten. It consists of general radiations,
corresponding to white light, scattered throughout the whole length of the spectrum as a background
and superposed upon these two groups of lines.
 Fig. 21a—PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE SPECTRA OF THE CHARACTERISTIC X-RAYS FROM CERTAIN SUBSTANCES

The remarkable element in these photographs is the exact similarity of the spectra produced by the
different elements and the step-by-step shortening of the wave-length (which is proportional to the
distance from the line on the left to the spectral lines) as the atomic number increases. This is shown
both in the series, which is produced by stimulating the inmost pair of electrons in each atom, and
the series, which is produced by stimulating the group of eight electrons in the second ring or shell
from the center.
 Fig. 21b—PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE SPECTRA OF THE CHARACTERISTIC X-RAYS FROM CERTAIN SUBSTANCES

The two lines are here close to the central image, for the wave-lengths are here very short, since
tungsten has a high atomic number (74). Farther to the right is the series of tungsten lines which will
be recognized because of its similarity to the series in the plate opposite p. 198. Between the and
the lines are two absorption edges marked and . The former represents the frequency above
which the silver absorbs all the general radiation of tungsten but below which it lets it all through. The
latter is the corresponding line for bromine. In a print from a photograph absorption in the plate itself
obviously appears as a darkening, transmission as a lightening. Just below is the spectrum obtained by
inserting a sheet of molybdenum in the path of the beam, i.e., before the slit of the spectrometer.
Absorption in the molybdenum will obviously appear as a lightening, transmission as a darkening. It will
be seen that the molybdenum absorbs all the frequencies in the X-ray emission of tungsten higher than
a particular frequency and lets through all frequencies lower than this value. This remarkable
characteristic of the absorption of X-rays was discovered by Barkla in 1909.[148] The absorption edge at
which, with increasing frequency, absorption suddenly begins is very sharply marked.
This edge coincides with the highest emission frequency of which molybdenum is theoretically
capable, and is a trifle higher than the highest observed emission frequency. De Broglie has measured
accurately these critical absorption frequencies for all the heavy elements up to thorium, thus extending
the series from atomic number where he found it, to , a notable advance. The two
absorption edges characteristic of the silver and the bromine in the photographic plate appear in the
same place on all the photographs in which they could appear. The other absorption edges vary from
element to element and are characteristic each of its particular element. The way in which this critical
absorption edge moves toward the central image as the atomic number increases in the steps Br 35, Mo
42, Ag 47, Cd 48, Sb 51, Ba 56, W 74, Hg 80, is very beautifully shown in De Broglie’s photographs all
the way up to mercury, where the absorption edge is somewhat inside the shortest of the characteristic
radiations of tungsten. There must be twelve more of these edges between mercury (N = 80) and
uranium ( ) and De Broglie has measured them up to thorium ( ). They become,
however, very difficult to locate in this region of frequencies on account of their extreme closeness to
the central image. But the radiations, which are of seven times longer wave-length, may then be
used, and Fig. 23 of the plate opposite this page shows the -ray absorption edges, of which there are
three, as obtained by De Broglie in both uranium and thorium, so that the position in the Moseley table
of each element all the way to the heaviest one, uranium, is fixed in this way by direct experiment. Fig.
25 shows the progression of square-root frequencies as it appears from measurements made on the
successive absorption edges of De Broglie’s photographs and on a particular one of Siegbahn’s emission
lines. It will be noticed that, in going from bromine (35) to uranium (92), the length of the step does
change by a few per cent. The probable cause of this will be considered later.

Fig. 22—X-ray absorption spectra. series

 Fig. 23—X-ray absorption spectra, series

Fig. 24—Hydrogen spectrum from the star Vega

 Fig. 25

According to modern theory an absorption edge appears where the incident energy—which is
proportional to the incident frequency—has become just large enough to lift the particular electron
which absorbs it entirely out of the atom. If this removed electron should then fall back to its old place
in the atom, it would emit in so doing precisely the frequency which was absorbed in the process of
removal.
Since these enormously high X-ray frequencies must arise from electrons which fall into
extraordinarily powerful fields of force, such as might be expected to exist in the inner regions of the
atom close to the nucleus, Moseley’s discovery strongly suggests that the charge on this nucleus is
produced in the case of each atom by adding some particular invariable charge to the nucleus of the
atom next below it in Moseley’s table. This suggestion gains added weight when it is found that with
one or two trifling exceptions, to be considered later, Moseley’s series of increasing X-ray frequencies is
exactly the series of increasing atomic weights. It also receives powerful support from the following
discovery.
Mendeleéff’s periodic table shows that the progression of chemical properties among the elements
coincides in general with the progression of atomic weights. Now it was pointed out ten years ago that
whenever a radioactive substance loses a doubly charged -particle it moves two places to the left in
the periodic table, while whenever it loses a singly charged -particle it moves one place to the right,
[149] thus showing that the chemical character of a substance depends upon the number of free positive
charges in its nucleus.
One of the most interesting and striking characteristics of Moseley’s table is that all the known
elements between sodium (atomic number 11, atomic weight 23) and lead (atomic number 82, atomic
weight, 207.2) have been fitted into it and there are left but three vacancies within this range. Below
sodium there are just 10 known elements, and very recent study[150] of their spectra in the extreme
ultra-violet has fixed the place of each in the Moseley progression, though in this region the progression
of atomic weights and of chemical properties is also altogether definite and unambiguous. It seems
highly probable, then, from Moseley’s work that we have already found all except three of the complete
series of different types of atoms from hydrogen to lead, i.e., from 1 to 82, of which the physical world
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