A Direct Photoelectric Determination of Planck's "<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>h</mml:mi></mml:math>"

Abstract

Quantum theory was not originally developed for the sake of&#13;\ninterpreting photoelectric phenomena. It was solely a theory&#13;\nas to the mechanism of absorption and emission of electromagnetic&#13;\nwaves by resonators of atomic or subatomic dimensions. It had nothing&#13;\nwhatever to say about the energy of an escaping electron or about the&#13;\nconditions under which such an electron could make its escape, and up&#13;\nto this day the form of the theory developed by its author has not been&#13;\nable to account satisfactorily for the photoelectric facts presented herewith.&#13;\nWe are confronted, however, by the astonishing situation that&#13;\nthese facts were correctly and exactly predicted nine years ago by a form&#13;\nof quantum theory which has now been pretty generally abandoned.