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William H. Bragg's Corpuscular Theory of X-Rays and γ-Rays
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2009
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The modern corpuscular theory of radiation was born in 1905 when Einstein advanced his light quantum hypothesis; and the steps by which Einstein's hypothesis, after years of profound scepticism, was finally and fully vindicated by Arthur Compton's 1922 scattering experiments constitutes one of the most stimulating chapters in the history of recent physics. To begin to appreciate the complexity of this chapter, however, it is only necessary to emphasize an elementary but very significant point, namely, that while Einstein based his arguments for quanta largely on the behaviour of high-frequency black body radiation or ultra-violet light, Compton experimented with X-rays. A modern physicist accustomed to picturing ultra-violet light and X-radiation as simply two adjacent regions in the electromagnetic spectrum might regard this distinction as hair-splitting. But who in 1905 was sure that X-rays and γ-rays are far more closely related to ultra-violet light than to α-particles, for example ? This only became evident after years of painstaking research, so that moving without elaboration from Einstein's hypothesis to Compton's experiments automatically eliminates from consideration an important segment of history—a segment in which a major role was played by William Henry Bragg.
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References
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103 On deposit in the O. W. Richardson Collection in the Miriam Lutcher Stark Library at the University of Texas. I am indebted to Sir Lawrence Bragg and to the Stark Library for permission to quote from this letter.
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105 There is of course a longer wavelength Compton component in scattered X-rays as well as in scattered γ-rays. Since, however, the change in wavelength for X-rays is only a few per cent, while for γ-rays it is of the order of 100 per cent, the longer wavelength γ-ray component is much easier to observe than the longer wavelength X-ray component.
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107 Curiously, as I shall show in a future publication, Arthur Compton, while in no way building on Einstein's work, may have received this crucial insight (that a single quantum must interact with a single electron) from Bragg's work. I should also mention that my reason for terming Einstein's hypothesis “long-neglected” in spite of Millikan's 1915 photoelectric effect experiments is that Millikan (in common with virtually every other contemporary physicist except Einstein) did not accept these experiments as proof of Einstein's hypothesis. See my “Non-Einsteinian Interpretations of the Photoelectric Effect” in Stuewer, Roger H., ed., Historical and Philosophical Perspectives of Science (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1970).Google Scholar
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