Since antiquity it was known that some objects attracted one another and other objects repelled one another. Benjamin Franklin was able to unify the 18th century understanding of electrical phenomena by invoking two kinds of electricity. Joseph Priestley ended the century with further explanations and unifications. Michael Faraday was able to study electric current inside vacuum tubes and the electromagnetic theory of Maxwell stimulated a search for the fundamental sources of negative and positive current. Jean Perrin studied the behavior of Crooke's tubes and determined that the current was carried by negative particles. J.J. Thomson subjected these particles to magnetic fields and the 'electron' was born. But, if electrons were going in one direction, what was going in the other direction to equalize the charge? Sure enough, there were cations in Crooke's tubes as well: rays of positive electricity!

Natural history of positive electricity

246th National Meeting (2013)

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