JJ+Thompson







J.J. Thomson was born Cheetham Hill, Manchester in the United Kingdom. He reccieved his education at the University of Manchester and Trinity College in Cambridge. He won the Nobel Prize in 1906 for his work with Cathode Rays. Thomson's work with Cathode Rays and tubes provoked the discovery of electrons and subatomic particles. He was knighted for his work in 1908. J.J. Thomson died on August 30, 1940 in Westminster Abbey at the age of 83. JJ Thompson is best known as the man who discovored the electron. His work was infuenced by Maxwell. Thompson started his work in the Cavendihsh Laboratory in 1895. Thomson used Crookes tube (middle) to figure out that the cathode rays inside it had a single charge-to-mass ratio therefore they must be composed of a negatively charged particle, thus the electron came to be. Thompson wasn't the first to propose the idea, G. Johnstone Stoney had proposed the term electron previously, but Thomson was the first to realize that it was a subatomic particle. The electron was the first of the subatomic particles to be discovered. From there JJ Thompson devised his model of the atom which was termed the "plum pudding model." In it the pudding is positively charged and the plums in the pudding represent the electrons (bottom right.)