J.J.Thomson, discoverer of the electron, was a great fan of Gilbert and Sullivan operas, and he wrote a song, in their idiom, about his work with charged particles. It is sung to the tune of ‘My Darling Clementine’.
In the dusty laboratory
‘Mid the coils and wax and twine
There the atoms in their glory
Ionize and recombine
Oh my darlings! Oh my darlings!
Oh my darlings ions mine!
You are lost and gone forever
When just once you recombine.
In the weird magnetic circuit
See how lovingly they twine
As each ion describes a spiral
Round its own magnetic line
Oh my darlings! Oh my darlings!
Oh my darlings ions mine!
You are lost and gone forever
When just once you recombine.
In a tube quite electrodeless
They discharge around a line
And the glow they leave behind them
Is quite corking for a time
Oh my darlings! Oh my darlings!
Oh my darlings ions mine!
You are lost and gone forever
When just once you recombine.
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