Catalogue description Catalogue of the papers and correspondence of SIR JOSEPH JOHN THOMSON, OM FRS (1856-1940)

SECTION A PERSONAL MATERIAL AND CORRESPONDENCE CSAC74.4.80/A.1 - CSAC74.4.80/A.13

SECTION B NOTES AND DRAFTS FOR PUBLICATION CSAC74.4.80/B.1 - CSAC74.4.80/B.22

SECTION C SCIENTIFIC CORRESPONDENCE CSAC74.4.80/C.1 - CSAC74.4.80/C.3

SECTION D ACCOUNTS AND BIOGRAPHIES OF THOMSON CSAC74.4.80/D.1 - CSAC74.4.80/D.37

SECTION E PUBLISHED WORKS CSAC74.4.80/E.1 - CSAC74.4.80/E.6

INDEX OF CORRESPONDENTS

BALFOUR, Arthur James Earl of CSAC74.4.80/A.8

BURTON, Eli Franklin CSAC74.4.80/A.4

CHURCHILL, Sir Winston Spencer CSAC74.4.80/A.8

DESCHAMPS, Baron CSAC74.4.80/C.1

DEVONSHIRE, Victor Christian William Cavendish, 9th Duke CSAC74.4.80/A.8

ELIOT, Thomas Stearns CSAC74.4.80/A.9

FISHER, John Arbuthnot, Baron Fisher CSAC74.4.80/C.2

FLETCHER, Hanslip CSAC74.4.80/A.9

HALDANE, Richard Burdon, Viscount CSAC74.4.80/C.3

HOBSON, Ernest William CSAC74.4.80/A.4

KEMPNER, Aubrey J. CSAC74.4.80/C.3

LAMB, Sir Horace CSAC74.4.80/A.4

MACNAGHTEN, Malcolm M. CSAC74.4.80/A.9

M'TAGGART, M. Ellis CSAC74.4.80/A.4

MAUROIS, André CSAC74.4.80/A.10

PARSONS, Sir Charles Algernon CSAC74.4.80/A.5

PYM, T.W. CSAC74.4.80/A.10

SCHOFIELD, A.F. CSAC74.4.80/A.10

SPITZER, Paul CSAC74.4.80/A.3

THRELFALL, Sir Richard CSAC74.4.80/A.6

TREVELYAN, George Macaulay CSAC74.4.80/A.11

ULLSWATER, James Arthur Lowther, Viscount CSAC74.4.80/A.11

WARD, J.A. CSAC74.4.80/A.6

Compiled by Jeannine Alton and Julia Latham-Jackson

Thomson, Sir, Joseph John, 1856-1940, Knight, physicist

• Physics

J.J. Thomson was one of the foremost physicists of his day. His name is principally remembered for the discovery of the electron and for his work on gaseous discharges.

Thomson was born in Manchester and educated at Owen's College (later the University of Manchester); in 1875 at the age of nineteen he went with a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he remained for the rest of his life. In 1894 he succeeded Rayleigh as Cavendish Professor of Experimental Physics, and his guidance of the Cavendish Laboratory for a generation (until 1919) established its international reputation as a research school. He was Master of Trinity from 1918 until his death in 1940.

In 1906 Thomson was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for his work on the electron; elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1884, he served as its President 1915-1920. He was knighted in 1908 and received the Order of Merit in 1912. Many accounts of his life and work have been written, several by his son, Sir George Thomson (see section D).

Very little survives of drafts and correspondence relating to Thomson's scientific work in Sections B and C; other specimens of Thomson's notebooks, lecture notes and experimental material are held at the University Library, Cambridge (see CSAC74.4.80/A.3 for a note of this material). Various accounts of the discovery of the electron and of electron physics will be found in the collection of the papers of Sir George Thomson (CSAC no. 75/5/80) in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge.