Scientific Papers of Arthur Holly Compton: X-Ray and Other StudiesUniversity of Chicago Press, 1973 - 777 pages Arthur Holly Compton was one of the great leaders in physics of the twentieth century. In this volume, Robert S. Shankland, who was once a student of Compton's, has collected and edited the most important of Professor Compton's papers on X-rays—the field of his greatest achievement—and on other related topics. Compton entered the field of X-ray research in 1913 and carried on active work until the 1930s, when he began to specialize in cosmic rays. During the years when Compton was an active leader in X-ray research, he made many notable contributions which are reflected in the papers presented here. He was the first to prove several important optical properties of X-rays, including scattering, complete polarization, and total reflection. He was also the first, with his student R. L. Doan, to use ruled gratings for the production of X-ray spectra. Professor Compton's greatest discovery, for which he was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1927, was the Compton Effect. This was the outgrowth of experiments he had initiated during a year at Cambridge in 1919-20. He did the major portion of these experiments at Washington University in St. Louis during the period 1920-24. His work demonstrated that in the scattering of X-rays by electrons, the radiation behaves like corpuscles, and that the interaction between the X-ray corpuscles and the electrons in the scatter is completely described by the principles of the conservation of energy and momentum for the collisions of particles. In his introduction, Professor Shankland gives a historical account of the papers, narrates Professor Compton's early scientific career, and shows how he arrived at a quantum explanation of the Compton scattering after eliminating all classical explanations. |
Contents
A Laboratory Method of Demonstrating the Earths Rotation 5 | 5 |
Watching the Earth Revolve 8 | 14 |
The Variation of the Specific Heat of Solids with Temperature 12 | 30 |
On the Location of the Thermal Energy of Solids 14 | 39 |
A Recording XRay Spectrometer and the High Frequency Spectrum | 45 |
1917 | 59 |
The Reflection Coefficient of Monochromatic XRays from Rock Salt | 88 |
1918 | 94 |
The Recoil of Electrons from Scattered XRays with J C Hubbard 65 | 446 |
The Wavelength of Molybdenum Ka Rays When Scattered by Light Elements | 457 |
A General Quantum Theory of the Wavelength of Scattered XRays 70 | 476 |
1925 | 485 |
On the Mechanism of XRay Scattering 78 | 504 |
XRay Spectra from a Ruled Reflection Grating with R L Doan 80 | 519 |
1926 | 525 |
Coherence of the Reflected XRays from Crystals G E M Jauncey with | 544 |
The Nonmolecular Structure of Solids 23 | 105 |
Note on the Grating Space of Calcite and the XRay Spectrum of Gallium | 135 |
Its Theory and | 163 |
II The Absorption of High Frequency | 177 |
1920 | 191 |
Cathode Fall in Neon with C C Van Voorhis 32 | 197 |
Radioactivity and the Gravitational Field 33 | 203 |
1921 | 220 |
Possible Magnetic Polarity of Free Electrons 37 | 261 |
The Wavelength of Hard Gamma Rays 40 | 286 |
The Magnetic Electron 41 | 294 |
Secondary High Frequency Radiation Abstract 42 | 305 |
The Softening of Secondary XRays Letter 46 | 311 |
The Spectrum of Secondary XRays Abstract 48 | 318 |
Radiation a Form of Matter Letter 52 | 378 |
The Total Reflexion of XRays 57 | 402 |
Recoil of Electrons from Scattered XRays Letter 58 | 413 |
Absorption Measurements of the Change of WaveLength Accompanying | 414 |
The Spectrum of Scattered XRays 60 | 431 |
1924 | 438 |
Some Experimental Difficulties with the Electromagnetic Theory of Radiation | 552 |
The Spectrum and State of Polarization of Fluorescent XRays 89 | 576 |
An Attempt to Detect a Unidirectional Effect of XRays with K N Mathur | 597 |
The Efficiency of Production of Fluorescent XRays 94 | 613 |
I and II 95 | 630 |
Compton Effect 96 | 637 |
Scattering of XRays and the Distribution of Electrons in Helium Abstract | 654 |
A Precision XRay Spectrometer and the Wave Length of Mo Ka₁ 105 | 672 |
The Uncertainty Principle and Free Will 106 | 684 |
1934 | 698 |
1936 | 707 |
Physical Differences between Types of Penetrating Radiation 168 | 721 |
1945 | 727 |
1952 | 737 |
1961 | 746 |
An Exchange of Letters between A H Compton | 756 |
763 | |
775 | |
Other editions - View all
Scientific Papers of Arthur Holly Compton: X-Ray and Other Studies Arthur Holly Compton No preview available - 1973 |
Common terms and phrases
A. H. Compton absorbed absorption coefficient according alpha particles angle ARTHUR H atomic number axis Barkla beam of X-rays beta particles Bragg calcite calculated cathode change in wave-length classical Compton effect crystal curve diffraction direction distance distribution effect ejected electromagnetic electrometer elements emitted energy equation experimental experiments fluorescent fluorescent radiation formula frequency gamma rays hypothesis incident intensity ionization chamber J. J. Thomson length light measurements molecules molybdenum momentum motion number of electrons observed obtained particles Phil photo-electrons photoelectric photoelectric effect photographs photon Phys physical polarization predicted primary beam primary rays probable Proc quantum theory radius ratio rays scattered recoil electrons refraction ring rock salt rotation scattered x-rays scattering of X-rays secondary radiation secondary rays shown sin² slit solid specific heat spectra spectrum Thomson's tion tracks traversed velocity W. H. Bragg wave wave-length X-ray tube y-rays