Joseph John Thomson, 1856 - 1940

Abstract

Joseph John Thomson was the son of Joseph James Thomson and his wife, née Emma Swindells. The father was of purely Scottish descent and carried on a family business as a bookseller and publisher in Manchester. J. J. Thomson was born on 18 December 1856. It had been the intention of his father to put him as an apprentice with an engineering firm, but owing to the difficulty of finding an opening he was sent to Owens College, Manchester, as an interim measure. He regarded this more or less accidental circumstance as the turning-point in his life. When there he came under the influence of Balfour Stewart, Professor of Physics, Osborne Reynolds, Professor of Engineering, and Thomas Barker, Professor of Mathematics. His mathematical and scientific capacity soon came to be recognized. He was initiated into physical research by Balfour Stewart, and published a short paper in the Royal Society’s Proceedings on ‘Contact electricity of insulators’. He also assisted Balfour Stewart in various researches and nearly lost his eyesight in an explosion. Fortunately, however, no permanent bad result followed. While at Owens College he made the acquaintance of Arthur Schuster and J. H. Poynting, who remained lifelong friends. On Barker’s advice he gave up the idea of an engineering career and entered Trinity College, Cambridge, as a minor scholar in October 1876.