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The difficulties which would have to be overcome to make several of the preceding experiments conclusive are so great as to be almost insurmountable.
--
Warning about the non-conclusiveness for the experimental foundation of electrostatic theory, in a footnote of the third edition of: James Clerk Maxwell (1891). A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, Vol.1, 3rd Edition. Oxford University Press. p. 37. 

 

J. J. Thomson

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