3.4a. Critical points in the classical theories

        In Maxwell’s theory there are countless conceptual blanks which gave birth to new theories; these theory although originally classic put classic electromagnetism at stake. Seemingly innocuous and conceived in a period of innumerable doubts concerning the inner structure of matter (between 1895 and 1915), they have a convergence point in common: all of them challenge experimentation. Countless times they showed incompatible with the classic logic but they only survived because they filled the above mentioned blanks. Acting together they prepared the favorable ground which was to support modern Physics. Here it is worth mentioning three of these theories, since they disagree with the electron image presented in the previous item: the theory of free electrons for conductors we have already mentioned; the theory of electric dipoles for dielectrics; and the theoretical idea that an accelerated electron always emits radiant energy, the great support of Bohr’s allowed orbits, that is, the areas where the electron is "authorized" to disrespect the imposed rule.

        After Geiger and Marsden’s experiment (1909) concerning the scattering of alpha particles through a thin sheet of gold, Rutherford proposed a quite convincing [20] nucleated atom model. Supported by Rutherford’s model and spectroscopic measurements related to the electromagnetic radiation emitted by atoms and deciphered from 1885 on, Bohr (1913) developed the "On the constitution of atoms and molecules" theory [21]. The hypotheses proposed by Bohr were later synthesized in four basic postulates; two of them, extracted from Eisberg and Resnick [20], reads:

        BP3 is more questionable, although less disputable than BP1, since it translates into words what is observed in the laboratory. We cannot state the same thing concerning BP1: no experiments have been reported demonstrating in an unrefutable way that the interactions electron-nucleus are mediated by Coulomb’s forces. On the contrary, most experiments undertaken in the 20th century confirm a single truth: electrons ignore Coulomb’s law.