In 1909, the American physicist Robert Andrews Millikan began his oil-drop experiments at the University of Chicago to measure the elementary electric charge, the charge carried by a single electron. By observing the motion of tiny electrically charged oil droplets falling and rising between charged plates, Millikan determined that all electrical charge occurred in discrete, indivisible units. This precise measurement at the University of Chicago confirmed the quantum nature of electricity and earned Millikan the 1923 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Millikan's demonstration that all electrical charge comes in discrete, indivisible units reinforced the quantum worldview that was reshaping literature in the early twentieth century. The idea that even the most fundamental forces of nature were granular rather than continuous paralleled the modernist break with the flowing, continuous prose and verse of the nineteenth century. The University of Chicago, where Millikan worked, was also becoming a major center of literary study through the Chicago School of criticism, and the scientific and literary cultures of the institution shared a common commitment to precise measurement and analysis.