Relations of Field-Currents to Thermionic-Currents

In 1925 Millikan and Eyring(1) first developed experimentally the quantitative laws governing the extraction of electrons from metals by fields alone, i.e., the laws of "field-currents" as they called them. They first proved that the electrons constituting these field-currents are not identical with thermions as had theretofore been assumed.(2) Their most significant conclusions are stated by them in the following words, which summarize, as well as we can now do, the relations of field-currents to thermionic-currents, save for an important addition that is here made.