-rays seems to consist in the shaking off without any appreciable energy of one single electron from an occasional molecule through which the
-ray passes. The faster the
-ray the less frequently does it ionize.
2. The act of ionization by ether waves, i.e., by X-rays or light, seems to consist in the hurling out with an energy which may be very large, but which depends upon the frequency of the incident ether wave, of one single electron from an occasional molecule over which this wave passes.
3. The act of ionization by rapidly moving
-particles consists generally in the shaking loose of one single electron from the atom through which it passes, though in the case of helium, two electrons are certainly sometimes removed at once. It may be, too, that a very slow-moving positive ray, such as J. J. Thomson used, may detach several electrons from a single atom.