Joseph John Thomson was born in Manchester, England in 1856. Thomson was indeed a good scientist, but he did not know that at first. He attended college at a time when science was finally getting recognized as an important subject (Morgan). Thomson's road to becoming a scientist was not paved for him from the start, as his father had other plans for him. Joseph was intended to become an engineer, but when the time came to pay for his studies, his family could not make ends meet.
Instead, Thomson attended Owens College in Manchester.The wonderful science professors at Owens College recognized Thomson's niche for science and recommended that he attend Trinity College located in Cambridge (J. J. Thomson). There, Thomson became a mathematical physicist, and in 1884 he was offered the position of Cavendish Professorship of Experimental Physics at Cambridge. He was twenty-eight years old when he accepted this position, and people were very surprised because he was young, and was considered a trained mathematician, not a scientist (Morgan).
However, it seems that Joseph John Thomson proved all of his doubters wrong.The first experiment Thomson conducted focused on the resistance of metal wires affects on temperature, which lead to even more important research on methods of measuring extremely high temperatures. Finally he settled on one field, the discharge of electricity through gases at low pressures, in which most of his best work was done (Morgan). Thomson's studies on electro-magnetic radiation and discharge through gases are the most closely related characteristics of physics taught today in schools and universities all over the world.
In 1897 Thomson discovered the electron, his most notable achievement. At the time of his discovery many other scientists were working on the same thing (Joseph John Thomson). He was doing a lot of research on the nature of electric discharge in a high-vacuum cathode-ray tube. The ray’s deflection by electrically charged particles brought Thomson to the realization that there are much smaller particles of matter than just atoms (Morgan).
At the tome of his discovery he called the “particles” corpuscles, and theorized that they may make up, or reside inside of atoms.People were very wary of his newly formed theory on these so-called corpuscles, because at that time people thought that the atom was the smallest unit of matter (A Look inside the Atom). From his cathode-ray tube experiments he discovered the ratio of mass to charge, so he wanted to find out the specific mass of his particles. He announced his results in 1897, and the actual figures found were surprisingly small.
People in the science world were very intrigued by this, because Thomson had actually discovered something smaller than the chemical atoms of the time.He had discovered a whole new unit of matter, a negatively charged particle- the electron (Morgan). After proving that atoms were divisible, Thomson was inspired to prove that atoms also were not identical when coming from the same element. He used a process called positive ray analysis to do his research on how atoms differ, mainly focusing on isotopes (Morgan). In 1906 Joseph John Thomson won the Nobel Prize for his studies done in the scientific field matter, and in 1908 was knighted in honor of his achievements (Joseph John Thomson).
The work Thomson did opened the doors to many other scientists.After the discovery of the electron American experimental physicist Robert Millikan was inspired to find the charge of the electron. Millikan did this through an oil drop experiment in 1909. After finding that electrons have a negative charge, and that they can be removed from atoms, the Thomson Model of the atom was created.
The Thomson Model was a very early, and lacking model of the atom at the turn of the century. The model was nicknamed the “plum pudding” model, because it was very messy and unorganized. Unfortunately, Thomson's model did not last.In 1909 Earnest Rutherford conducted an experiment showing that the idea was, in fact, wrong. Rutherford's experiment involved directing a beam of alpha particles on a thin gold foil.
When passing through the foil particles were scattered in different directions because of the influence of the positive Gold atoms. Thomson's theory did predict scattering, but it emerged that the prediction was not in agreement with data from the experiment. The most unexpected was the fact that some number of particles was deflected by the gold foil and moved in the opposite direction than at the beginning.The “plum pudding" model didn't deal with such phenomenon.
In that model positive charge was just to regular distributed to influence an alpha particle so strongly to repulse it. Rutherford simply sophisticated Thomson's theory for the better. In conclusion, Thomson made great discoveries in matter. At the time of his discoveries, he was doubted by the scientific world. People thought that Thomson did not have enough experimental experience-- which is true, Thomson was a man of math, at times, more than science.He used his mathematical knowledge to further his experiments that led to his discovery of the electron.
Thomson's work inspired many other great scientists and still remains an important historical figure in science. He died on August 30, 1940 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, very close to Sir Isaac Newton’s headstone. The last major research Joseph John Thomson did before he died was on the way atoms are bound together in regular crystals (Morgan). Thomson greatly contributed to the field of science and his work is still remembered to this day.Referencehttp://www.aip.org/history/electron/jjhome.htm
