Even though he was clumsy with his hands, he had a genius for designing apparatus and diagnosing its problems. In 1884 he was named to the prestigious Cavendish Professorship of Experimental Physics at Cambridge, although he had personally done very little experimental work.
He was then recommended to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became a mathematical physicist. Instead young Thomson attended Owens College, Manchester, which had an excellent science faculty. His father intended him to be an engineer, which in those days required an apprenticeship, but his family could not raise the necessary fee. Ironically, Thomson-great scientist and physics mentor-became a physicist by default.
When current was passed through a gas at 1 atmospheric pressure and at a very high voltage, nothing happened.
when current at high voltage (10,000volts) was passed following observations were made: The tube contained gas at atmospheric pressure. To this small tube vacuum pump was attached, it also had two metal plates which were connected to battery by wires. The Electron was discovered by J.J Thomson by conducting a Cathode ray tube experiment.įor the experiment he used Crooke’s tube, which was 60cm long glass tube and had a small tube attached.