Discoverer of the electron. First edition of the memoirs of Nobel Prize-winning physicist J.J. Thomson (1856-1940).

Discoverer of the electron J.J. Thomson (1856-1940) was 'a theoretical physicist of outstanding ability' whose leadership of the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge 'set the tone for a vigorous and exciting research school with an "atmosphere of a stimulating quality which [colleague T. Lyman had] never seen equalled in any other place"' (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). Thomson's studies of the discharge of electricity through gases was an important precursor to the development of nuclear and quantum physics (his student Ernest Rutherford would go on to split the atom) and it was for this body of work that he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1906. The present volume is an overview of the field 'using only simple mathematics' (foreword).

The text of the present volume covers Thomson's entire life, including his childhood and education at Owens College, his career as Cavendish Professor at Trinity and the discovery of the electron, and profiles of notable Cambridge contemporaries, not all of them scientists.

First edition; 8vo; portrait frontispiece and 9 plates, 2 duplicate plates from a separate copy loosely inserted at rear, contents fresh; original blue cloth, titles to spine gilt, top edge dyed blue, spine slightly toned, lightly rubbed at the extremities, blue top edge partially faded, an fine copy; 451pp.