
3 1 c m
40cm
actual image size: 32cm x 23cm
Description
This apparatus was used to discover the electron. In 1896, in Cambridge, Joseph John Thomson (1856-1940) began experiments on cathode rays. In Britain, physicists argued these rays were particles, but German physicists disagreed, thinking they were a type of electromagnetic radiation. Thomson showed that the cathode rays were particles with a negative charge and much smaller than an atom. He published this information in April 1897; the particles were later named electrons. Apparatus shown without its stand.
Image Details
Image Ref.
10284225
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