Abstract
IN an exceptionally successful session of Section A of the British Association at Toronto this year, perhaps no discussion created such widespread interest as that which centred round the papers of Prof. A. H. Compton of Chicago, and Prof. Duane of Harvard, on the scattering of X-rays. The subject is one which las had considerable influence on the development of modern physical theory. It was as a result of the theory of scattering advanced by Sir J. J. Thomson that Barkla was able to deduce from his experiments, that the number of electrons in the atom was approximately equal to one-half of its atomic weight, a result confirmed by other methods some years afterwards by Moseley. Later developments indicated that the phenomenon of scattering was more complex than Thomson's theory assumed. The work of various observers on 7-rays showed that the absorption of these rays was greater after scattering than before, a fact which suggested that during the scattering there was a shift in the wave-length towards the long wave-length end of the spectrum. Similar results had been obtained with X-rays. Recent developments of X-ray technique have made it possible to carry out-experiments of a much higher order of accuracy and have placed at the disposal of the physicist powerful sources of monochromatic radiation. It was natural, therefore, to expect that the problem would be attacked anew, and this has been done by several observers, notably Compton and Duane.
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The Scattering of X-rays. Nature 114, 627–628 (1924). https://doi.org/10.1038/114627a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/114627a0