biography
| name: |
Thomson, Sir J(oseph) J(ohn)
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1856–1940)
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| biography:
| Physicist, born in Cheetham Hill, Greater Manchester, NW England, UK. He studied at Cambridge, where he became professor of experimental physics in 1884. He showed in 1897 that cathode rays were rapidly-moving particles, and by measuring their speed and specific charge deduced that these ‘corpuscles’ (electrons) must be nearly a 2000th smaller in mass than the lightest known atomic particle, the hydrogen ion. He received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1906, was knighted in 1908. Through his work, the Cavendish Laboratory became a major research institution. |
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