JJ+Thomson+Hall



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Thomson was born on December 18, 1856 near Manchester, England. His father died when "J.J." was only sixteen. The young Thomson attended Owens College in Manchester, where his professor of mathematics encouraged him to apply for a scholarship at Trinity College, one of the most prestigious of the colleges at Cambridge University. Thomson won the scholarship, and in 1880 finished second in his class (behind Joseph Larmor) in the grueling graduation examination in mathematics. Trinity gave him a fellowship and he stayed on there, trying to craft mathematical models that would reveal the nature of atoms and electromagnetic forces.
 * Who was he? **


 * What's going on? **
 * 1) Thomson discovered the existence of the electron in 1897
 * 2)  At this time, the Second Industrial Revolution was drawing to a close
 * 3) The decision of “Separate but Equal” had been made the previous year, in 1896
 * 4)  The Pullman Strike took place in 1894, three years prior to the discovery
 * 5) In only six years, the Wright brothers would fly the first successful heavier-than-air craft.

**How'd he do it?** [] []
 * 1) Thomson's experiment was conducted by conducting an electrical current through a cathode ray tube.
 * 2) Vacuum exists inside cathode ray tubes
 * 3) When a current runs through the tube, light streams from one end to the other- no one knew what particles emitted the light
 * 4) Thomson held a magnet close to the tube, and was able to deflect the light streams inside
 * 5) This proved the existence of matter smaller than the atom- what we now know as subatomic particles.