Joseph John Thomson- 1897

Born: Cheetham Hill, a suburb of Manchester on December 18th 1856  
Accomplishments:
  •  Described nature of cathode rays
  • Plum pudding model of an atom 
  • Discovered the electron
  • Nobel Prize in Physics in 1906
Life:
  • Thomson expressed an early interest in atomic structure which was reflected in his Treatise on the Motion of Vortex Rings
  • Treatise on the Motion of Vortex Rings won him the Adams Prize in 1884
  • 1886 - Thomson visited America to give a course of four lectures, which summarized his current researches
  • Knighted in 1908
 Discoveries:
  • Upon his return from America, Thomson achieved the most brilliant work of his life - an original study of cathode rays culminating in the discovery of the electron in 1897.
  • Discovered a method for separating different kinds of atoms and molecules by the use of positive rays.
Plum Pudding Model
    • Composed of electrons (which Thomson still called "corpuscles") surrounded by a soup of positive charge to balance the negative.