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Two landmarks in the history of physics are the discovery of the particulate nature of cathode rays (the electron) by J. J. Thomson in 1897 and the experimental demonstration by his son G. P. Thomson in 1927 that the electron exhibits the properties of a wave. Together, the Thomsons are two of the most significant figures in modern physics, both winning Nobel prizes for their work. This book presents the intellectual biographies of the father-and-son physicists, shedding new light on their combined understanding of the nature of electrons and, by extension, of the continuous nature of matter. It is the first text to explore J. J. Thomson's early and later work, as well as the role he played in G. P. Thomson's education as a physicist and how he reacted to his son's discovery of electron diffraction. This fresh perspective will interest academics and graduate students working in the history of early twentieth-century physics.

Electrons --- Cathode rays. --- Électrons --- Rayons cathodiques. --- History. --- Histoire. --- Thomson, J. J. --- Thomson, G. P. --- Thomson, Joseph John --- Thomson, George Paget

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In the mid to late 1890s, J.J. Thomson and colleagues at Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory conducted experiments on "cathode rays" (a form of radiation produced within evacuated glass vessels subjected to electric fields) -- the results of which some historians later viewed as the "discovery" of the electron. This book is both a biography of the electron and a history of the microphysical world that it opened up. The book is organized in four parts. The first part, Corpuscles and Electrons, considers the varying accounts of Thomson's role in the experimental production of the electron. The second part, What Was the Newborn Electron Good For?, examines how scientists used the new entity in physical and chemical investigations. The third part, Electrons Applied and Appropriated, explores the accommodation, or lack thereof, of the electron in nuclear physics, chemistry, and electrical science. It follows the electron's gradual progress from cathode ray to ubiquitous subatomic particle and eponymous entity in one of the world's most successful industries -- electronics. The fourth part, Philosophical Electrons, considers the role of the electron in issues of instrumentalism, epistemology, and realism. The electron, it turns out, can tell us a great deal about how science works.

Electrons --- Physics --- Physical Sciences & Mathematics --- Nuclear Physics --- Corpuscular theory of matter --- History. --- Thomson, J. J. --- Thomson, J. J., --- Thomson, Joseph John, --- Thompson, J. J. --- Atoms --- Leptons (Nuclear physics) --- Matter --- Particles (Nuclear physics) --- Cathode rays --- Ions --- Positrons --- Constitution --- SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY/History of Science --- PHYSICAL SCIENCES/General --- ENGINEERING/Electrical Engineering --- Metaphysics --- Philosophy of nature --- Philosophy of science --- 539.124 <09> --- 539.124 <09> Electrons. Negatrons (including beta-particles). Positrons--Geschiedenis van ... --- Electrons. Negatrons (including beta-particles). Positrons--Geschiedenis van ... --- History