- This being the 100th anniversary of J. J. Thomson’s discovery of the electron, the October 1897 paper in which he presented his case that cathode rays are streams of subatomic “corpuscles” is attracting a great deal of attention. Viewed from 100 years later, this paper stands out as the starting point for the research into the structure of the atom that has dominated 20th-century science.
- Cathode Rays (en.wikisource.org)
THE experiments discussed in this paper were undertaken in the hope of gaining some information as to the nature of the Cathode Rays. The most diverse opinions are held as to these rays; according to the almost unanimous opinion of German physicists they are due to some process in the æther to which—inasmuch as in a uniform magnetic field their course is circular and not rectilinear—no phenomenon hitherto observed is analogous: another view of these rays is that, so far from being wholly ætherial, they are in fact wholly material, and that they mark the paths of particles of matter charged with negative electricity. It would seem at first sight that it ought not to be difficult to discriminate between views so different, yet experience shows that this is the case, as amongst the physicists who have most deeply studied the subject can be found supporters of either theory.