Joseph John Thomson (1856 – 1940) was an English Nobel Laureate who made key contributions to the field of physics. Most notably he is credited with discovering the electron.
J.J. Thomson was born in Cheetham Hill near Manchester in England. His father planned for him to be an engineer, but when an apprenticeship couldn’t be found he was sent to Owens College at the young age of fourteen. There he obtained a small scholarship to attend Trinity College, Cambridge where he obtained his Fellowship, received his Master of Arts degree, culminating in the Cavendish Professor of Physics at the University of Cambridge.
While at the University of Cambridge, Thomson did important research to advance our understanding of the atom. Most important he was one of the first to suggest that the atom may be composed smaller, more fundamental units. He carried out research with cathode rays, which are beams of light the follow from electrical discharge in a vacuum tube, that led to the discovery of the electron. From his experiments, he was able to at which these rays were deflected by a magnetic field and to calculate the ration of the electrical charge to the mass of the particles. What he discovered was that this ratio was always to same no matter what gases were used, and thus he determined that the particles making up the various elemental gases must be the same.
Along with discovering the electron Thomson was the first to determine that each hydrogen atom has only one electron. He was pivotal in inventing the mass spectrometer which assisted in chemical analyses. Thomson received various awards for his scientific achievements throughout his life including a Nobel Prize in physics in 1906. He was knighted in 1908. JJ Thomson died in 1940 at the age of 83 and was buried in Westminster Abbey with many other scientific greats.
He made some very important discoveries! Good thing he didn’t get that engineering apprenticeship!
Wow, it’s amazing how much he did for physics and science when that wasn’t the original plan for his life. It just goes to show that everything happens for a reason!
Didn’t know so many things about him! What an interesting blog post I learnt so many awesome things
I am ashamed to admit I had not heard of Joseph Thompson before reading this. Although , he seemed to do a lot for science and what a great way to educate everyone of his achievements through a blog.
Wow! I loved this history lesson. I loved science in high school and college. This brought back some memories and clarified some midunderstandings.
Thanks for sharing this, It’s truly amazing how much he did for physics and science when that wasn’t the original plan for his life. I enjoyed the post and will also share with my daughter.
So grateful for what he did for physics and science. Your post is so informative
I can’t believe I had never heard of Joseph Thomson before! Thanks as always for enlightening my scientific mind!
Thank you for sharing it. Didn’t know these many things about him. Respect to this genius scientist who discovered so many things.
I had heard a little bit about Thomson before but not all that much. Good to know a bit about some of the people behind some of the most important discoveries in science.
Fascinating subject and one that makes us marvel. Scientists are truly a very special breed of the human race.
What a brilliant contribution to the world of science! I’ll have to look for his plaque when I’m arbor Westminster Abbey.
Wow I really didn’t know much about him. He did so much for science!
I did not know much about him! This was so informative, what an amazing person with so many brilliant contributions to science!!
It’s true what they say, you fed learn something new everyday! I had no idea he did that much for science. So cool
I’ve never heard of him. Awesome what he did for science. Neat that he was knighted.