The New Student's Reference Work/Thomson, Joseph John

Thomson, Joseph John, a brilliant young English physicist, who has since 1884 occupied the most important chair of physics in Great Britain, that of Experimental Physics at Cambridge University. He was born near Manchester, Dec. 18, 1856; was educated at Owens College and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated as second wrangler and second Smith's prizeman in 1880. His work has been of profound character. Aside from numerous contributions to periodical literature, the following works give some idea of his activity: Treatise on Vortex Motion; Application of Dynamics to Physics and Chemistry; and Recent Researches in Electricity and Magnetism. In 1899 he achieved the division of the hydrogen atom. By a clear and logically connected series of experiments he split a small part from the hydrogen atom, which he calls a corpuscle. It has a mass of only one-thousandth of that of the hydrogen atom. For a popular account of this work consult The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. XI., pp. 170-4 (1900). See Atom and Hydrogen.