On King's Classical Theory of Radiation

Abstract

In his paper, "Gyromagnetic Electrons and a Classical Theory of Atomic Structure and Radiation," [1] Louis V. King endeavors to give a physical image of the quantum mechanism. Ever since quantum phenomena became definitely recognized many attempts were made to picture their mechanism [2]. In the case of King's theory there is an additional appeal to a scientific mind in the fact that his picture seems to unify the quantum phenomena with the classical electro-magnetic theory of Maxwell-Lorentz. Briefly stated the essentials of King's theory are as follows: An electron is assumed to be a rigid sphere carrying a surface charge uniformly distributed and rigidly attached to the surface. The electron is assumed spinning with constant intrinsic angular velocity Ω, the same for all electrons. The shape of the electron is assumed unchanged by rotation.