<<1875-1900>>



-William Roentgen- (1845-1923) Origin: Germany Discovered: X-Rays

In 1845, William Roentgen discovered X-Rays while experimenting with a highly exhausted tube on conduction of electricity through gases. He noticed a paper screen covered in barium platinocyanide became fluorescent under some radiation emitted from the tube. William showed radiation had power to pass through substances opaque to ordinary light. With the ability to reflect and refract, Wilhelm doubted it looked up to light. He was led to the hypothesis that it was due to longitudinal vibrations in the ether.



-Henri Becquerel- (1852-1908) Origin: France Discovered: Radioactivity

In 1896 Henri announced he had discovered a new penetrating ray known as (radioactivity), after noticing an unknown energy was emitted from Uranium salts. He later discovered radioactivity after leaving a rock and well wrapped photographic plate in his desk drawer. Without any exposure to light, he discovered patterns that would lead to exposure. This would accidentally lead to the discovery of Radioactivity. Later on Henri would isolate electrons in radiation to present evidence of radioactive transformation. Henri developed serious burns on his skin from handling radioactive stones that may have lead to his sudden death.





-JJ Thomson- (1856-1940) Origin: England Discovered: Electron

In 1897 after a series of experiments studying the nature of electric charge in a high vacuum cathode ray tube. He later went on to discover electrons. Thomson would theorize cathode rays created in Crookes tube must be composed of corpuscles which was a negative charged particle. Thomson used the Plum Pudding Model to make sense of his theories. This was later disproved by his former student Ernest Rutherford. Thomson won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1906.