Sir J. J. Thomson, O.M., F.R.S

Abstract

WHEN J. J. Thomson was appointed to the Cavendish chair of experimental physics in 1884, there was no little comment on the youthfulness of the new professor. It was, however, quite consistent with the fresh outlook on scientific research which was then prevalent, particularly at Cambridge. No one could be more fitly entrusted with the continuance of the work which had been begun by Maxwell, Rayleigh and others, and was now given a dwelling place at the Cavendish Laboratory. The man who could write a brilliant piece of mathematical analysis on the motion of vortex rings, and could link together mathematics, physics and chemistry in his daring book of 1886 was just the right man to give vigour to a new enterprise. Under his leadership and inspiration the Cavendish grew rapidly in efficiency and fame. His work was an illustration in full of the principle which he stated in 1893 in the preface to his “Recent Researches”: “analysis works to the best advantage when employed in developing the suggestions made by other and more physical methods”. At this time he had already begun to concentrate his inquiries on the phenomena attending the passage of electricity through gases; in “Recent Researches” he refers to the importance which Maxwell had already attached to the subject. Thomson's researches were conspicuously successful, and drew an increasing number of workers to a laboratory where inspiration and opportunity were so fortunately combined.