J.J. Thomson – Biography
Joseph John Thomson was born in Cheetham Hill, a
suburb
of
Manchester on December 18, 1856. He enrolled at
Owens
College, Manchester, in 1870, and in 1876 entered
Trinity
College, Cambridge as a minor scholar. He became a
Fellow of
Trinity College in 1880, when he was Second Wrangler
and
Second Smith's Prizeman, and he remained a member of
the
College for the rest of his life, becoming Lecturer
in
1883
and Master in 1918. He was Cavendish Professor of
Experimental
Physics at Cambridge, where he
succeeded
Lord
Rayleigh, from 1884 to 1918 and Honorary Professor
of
Physics, Cambridge and Royal Institution, London.
Thomson's early interest in atomic structure was
reflected
in his Treatise on the Motion of Vortex Rings which
won
him
the Adams Prize in 1884. His Application of Dynamics
to
Physics and Chemistry appeared in 1886, and in 1892
he
had
his Notes on Recent Researches in
Electricity and
Magnetism
published. This latter work covered results obtained
subsequent to the appearance of James Clerk
Maxwell's
famous
Treatise and it is often referred to as the third
volume
of Maxwell. Thomson co-operated with Professor J. H.
Poynting in a four-volume textbook of physics,
Properties of
Matter and in 1895 he produced Elements of the
Mathematical
Theory of Electricity and Magnetism, the 5th edition
of
which appeared in 1921.
In 1896, Thomson visited America to give a course of
four
lectures, which summarised his current researches,
at
Princeton. These lectures were subsequently
published as
Discharge of Electricity through Gases (1897). On
his
return
from America, he achieved the most brilliant work of
his
life - an original study of cathode rays culminating
in
the
discovery of the electron, which was announced
during
the
course of his evening lecture to the Royal
Institution
on
Friday, April 30, 1897. His book, Conduction of
Electricity
through Gases, published in 1903 was described by
Lord
Rayleigh as a review of Thomson's great days at the
Cavendish Laboratory. A later edition, written in
collaboration with his son, George, appeared in two
volumes
(1928 and 1933).
Thomson returned to America in 1904 to deliver six
lectures
on electricity and matter at Yale University. They
contained
some important suggestions as to the structure of
the
atom.
He discovered a method for separating different
kinds of
atoms and molecules by the use of positive rays, an
idea
developed by Aston, Dempster and others towards the
discovery of many isotopes. In addition to those
just
mentioned, he wrote the books, The Structure of
Light
(1907)
, The Corpuscular Theory of Matter (1907), Rays of
Positive
Electricity (1913), The Electron in Chemistry (1923)
and
his
autobiography, Recollections and Reflections (1936),
among
many other publications.
Thomson, a recipient of the Order of Merit, was
knighted
in
1908. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in
1884
and
was President during 1916-1920; he received the
Royal
and
Hughes Medals in 1894 and 1902, and the Copley Medal
in
1914. He was awarded the Hodgkins Medal (Smithsonian
Institute, Washington) in 1902; the Franklin Medal
and
Scott
Medal (Philadelphia), 1923; the Mascart Medal
(Paris),
1927;
the Dalton Medal (Manchester), 1931; and the Faraday
Medal
(Institute of Civil Engineers) in 1938. He was
President
of
the British Association in 1909 (and of Section A in
1896
and 1931) and he held honorary doctorate degrees
from
the
Universities of Oxford, Dublin, London, Victoria,
Columbia,
Cambridge, Durham, Birmingham, Göttingen, Leeds,
Oslo,
orbonne, Edinburgh, Reading, Princeton, Glasgow,
Johns
Hopkins, Aberdeen, Athens, Cracow and Philadelphia.
In 1890, he married Rose Elisabeth, daughter of Sir
George
E. Paget, K.C.B. They had one son, now Sir George
Paget
Thomson, Emeritus Professor of Physics at London
University,
who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1937,
and
one
daughter.
From Nobel Lectures, Physics 1901-1921, Elsevier
Publishing
Company, Amsterdam, 1967
This autobiography/biography was written at the time
of
the
award and later published in the book series Les
Prix
Nobel/Nobel Lectures. The information is sometimes
updated
with an addendum submitted by the Laureate. To cite
this
document, always state the source as shown above.
For more updated biographical information, see:
Thomson,
Joseph John, Recollections and Reflections. G. Bell
and
Sons: London, 1936.
J.J. Thomson died on August 30, 1940.
More abstracts about the Cathode rays