In our preoccupation with thc dramatic developments in the numerous fields of modern physics
with their beautiful instrumentation and exciting revelations we tend to forget our profound
ignorance of some of the longest known pheno mena of physics. Among these were until the
middle nineteen hundred and thir ties ferromagnetism friction lightning stroke the common
electric spark and static electrification. The first two have now been pretty weIl clarified
and the und erst an ding of both of these phenomena have contributed greatly to our under
standing of the structure of matter and surface physics. The lightning stroke and common spark
are weH on their way to clarification. Strangely despite the ever expanding importance of
static electrification in industry affecting as it does a wide diversity of processes either
as a useful tool or adversely and extending even to the realms of meteorology this field has
awakened little curiosity and stimulated little investigation in recent years except in so far
as the immediate industrial problems it invoked required an immediate and often make-shift
remedy. Trained in his early years as a chemist and brought into contact with some aspects of
colloidal chemistry involving electrokinetic potentials cataphoresis and spray
electrification thc author had his curiosity aroused by a number of these strange phenomena.
Entering physics as a life career coincident with the development of the earl)' studies in
atomic structure in part through his teacher R. A.
