... Files in red?history) . ... Positive Ions . ... In the 19th century it was well known that water in which salts were dissolved (or acids, or bases) conducted electricity, and that an electric current could separate such dissolved materials into their components. ... In 1898 Ernest Rutherford noted that the radiation seemed to contain two electrically charged components of opposite signs, steered by a magnet in opposite directions--positive "alpha rays" and negative "beta rays." ...