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The Anderson positron track experiment identified a light positively charged particle, now called the Positron, by combining magnetic bending, loss of kinetic energy in lead, and particle range. Each observation answered a different question: bending constrained momentum, the lead supplied a direction of travel, and particle range tested the proposed mass.

Carl David Anderson's The Positive Electron (1933), pp. 491–493, describes the 1932 discovery in a vertical cloud chamber with a $15,000\mathrm{gauss}$ magnetic field. A $6\mathrm{mm}$ lead plate separated two photographed track segments. The effective viewing depth was $1\mathrm{cm}$ along the magnetic field, with $14\mathrm{cm}$ transverse diameter: this restricted out-of-plane motion. The photographic readout supplied curvature on both sides. Comparisons with electron tracks under the same conditions constrained ionization; specific ionization was not directly measured for these events. He tested accidental alignment of unrelated tracks and rejected a reversed electron interpretation requiring an increase of kinetic energy in lead. Assuming unit electric charge, the mass bound was about twenty electron masses, rather than an exact mass determination. The paper credits Robert Andrews Millikan with the design and Seth Henry Neddermeyer with assistance.^[ref]

Preparation used rapid piston expansion and a water–alcohol mixture in the cloud chamber; cooling permitted droplets to form along ionization trails. A camera photographed these droplets. Initially, expansions occurred at random, so many photographs contained no tracks. Later counter triggering improved the useful yield.^[ref]

In The Production and Properties of Positrons, his 1936 lecture, Carl David Anderson describes the chamber inside an electromagnet and explains why the lead plate was decisive: after losing kinetic energy, a particle bent more sharply. He describes a proton hypothesis predicting only $5\mathrm{mm}$ of particle range, against an observed path longer than $50\mathrm{mm}$. These are historical values from the lecture, not the stipulated example below. The point was the incompatibility of particle range with the momentum inferred from curvature, rather than positive electric charge alone.^[ref]

Carl David Anderson identified the Positron through curved tracks in a cloud chamber. A lead plate changed a particle's momentum, helping determine its direction of travel from the curvature on either side. The combined curvature and range excluded a proton interpretation for the light positively charged particle. His 1933 paper separates the measured charge and mass constraints from speculative explanations then considered for the particle's origin.^[ref]

A physicist.^[ref]

By Carl David Anderson. Nobel lecture delivered 12 December 1936. Inspected authored text includes a StudyLib reproduction; the host is not the author.

Awarded in equal shares to Victor Franz Hess for cosmic rays and Carl David Anderson for the Positron. The Hess cosmic-ray balloon experiment and Anderson positron track experiment explain the measurements.^[ref]

Seth Neddermeyer and Carl David Anderson studied the penetrating component of cosmic rays, contributing to identification of the muon. Measurements of particle energy loss in dense absorbers revealed events that were too penetrating to fit the expected behavior of electrons at the measured momentum. Comparing track curvature and penetration supplied evidence about particle mass. The result showed why similar-looking charged tracks could belong to physically different particles.^[ref]

A physicist.^[ref]

By Carl David Anderson. Physical Review 43, 491–494; published 15 March 1933, received 28 February.