The Discovery of the Electron

What happened

Studying the mysterious cathode rays that glowed inside evacuated glass tubes, the British physicist J. J. Thomson showed in 1897 that they were streams of tiny negatively charged particles far smaller than any atom. He had discovered the electron — the first subatomic particle — proving that the atom, long thought indivisible, was not the smallest thing in nature.

Why it matters

The electron was the first piece of the atom's inner structure to be found, opening the door to modern atomic and particle physics. Thomson's discovery, honoured with the 1906 Nobel Prize, underlies all of electronics and chemistry.

Sources

• The Nobel Prize. J. J. Thomson – Facts (Nobel Prize in Physics 1906) · Reputable source