A DISTINGUISHED SCIENTIST.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 969, 9 November 1910, Page 7

A DISTINGUISHED SCIENTIST.

ARRIVES IN WELLINGTON TO-DAY.. wav'iA? 1 ,vho is otl W« K,'n t , ako . u P i a research professorship in physics at tho old and famous .TJmversjty of Yale (United States™i s 7 dZ! e m ■■' ngtoa to - day !rom Professor Wellisch, after an exceptionally distinguished career in the University of Sydnoy, tool; up research work at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, under Sir J. J. Thomson. In 1890, L and subsequently, Sir J. J. Thomson, had shown that tho atom of the chemist •was not the most minute portion of matter, having a separate existence, but that the negativo electron was much less massive than tho small-est-atoms. But while negative' electricity readily appeared in this disembodied form, ■ the positive electron eluded all attempts to 'detect it. Sir J. J. Thomson was concentrating all his efforts on its detection, and there were a number of physicists working to attain the same end in Germany. *The first evidence confirming Sir J. J. Thomson's results that there really was a' : positive electron, was obtained by Mr. Wellisch, as tho result of his masterly handling of an investigation on ionization in gases. Shortly afterwards he was awarded the Clerk Maxwell Scholarship, the blue ribbon of rewards in England for younger physicists, and then . Yalo choso him for a research chair in physics.