DOC.
60
387
rays
independent
of the intensity of
light?
Why
does
one
need
high
temper-
atures,
i.e.,
high
molecular
energies,
if the radiation emitted
by
bodies is
to
contain short-wave
components?
The
wave
theory
in
its
current form does not
answer
any
of these
questions.
In particular, it is
absolutely incomprehensible
why
the cathode
rays
produced
photoelectrically
or by
X-rays
attain
such
a
substantial
velocity
independent
of radiation
intensity.
The
appearance
of
such
large
[18]
amounts
of
energy
on a
molecular
structure
under the influence of
a
source
in
which
the
energy
is
so
sparsely
distributed,
as
we
must
assume
according to
the
wave
theory
for light
and
X-rays,
prompted
capable
physicists to resort to
a
rather farfetched
hypothesis.
They
assumed
that light
plays
merely
a
triggering
role
in
the
process,
and that
the molecular
energies
that
come
to
the fore
are
of radioactive
nature.
As
this
hypothesis
has
by now
been
more
[19]
or
less
abandoned, I
will
not
present
any
arguments
against it.
The
basic
property
of
the
wave
theory
that
gives
rise
to
these
difficulties
seems
to
me
to
lie
in
the
following.
While
in the kinetic
theory
of
matter
there exists
an
inverse
process
for
every process
in
which
only
a
few elementary
particles
take part,
e.g.,
for
every
molecular collision,
according
to the
wave
theory
this is
not
the
case
for
elementary
radiation
processes. According
to
the
prevailing theory,
an
oscillating
ion
produces
an
outwardly propagated
spherical
wave.
The opposite
process
does
not
exist
as
an
elementary
process.
It is
true
that the
inwardly propagated
spherical
wave
is
mathematically
possible;
however,
its
approximate
realization
requires
an
enormous
amount
of emitting
elementary
structures.
Thus,
the
elementary
process
of light radiation
as
such does
not
possess
the character
of
reversi-
bility.
Here, I
believe,
our wave
theory
is off the
mark.
Concerning
this
point the Newtonian
emission
theory
of
light
seems
to
contain
more
truth than
does
the
wave
theory,
since
according
to
the former the
energy imparted
at
emission
to
a
particle of
light
is
not
scattered
throughout
the infinite
space
but remains
available for
an
elementary
process
of absorption.
Keep
in
mind
the
laws
of
production of secondary
cathode
rays
by
X-rays.
If
primary
cathode
rays impinge
upon
a
metal
plate
P1,
they produce
X-rays.
If
these
impinge upon
a
second metal
plate
P2,
cathode
rays
will
be
produced once
again,
their
velocity
being
of the
same
order of
magnitude
as
that
of
the
primary
cathode
rays. As
far
as we
know today,
the
velocity of
[20]