Discovering the electron. First edition, first impression of this key work describing the research program that led to the discovery of the electron.

Thomson's discovery of the electron and its mass and charge, achieved by investigating the rays produced when elemental gases were electrified, 'revolutionized the science of physics. The "indestructible" atom was no more and it began to seem likely that the common constituent of all matter was a form of energy. Thomson's discovery opened up new fields of investigation in almost every branch of physics and initiated such departments as thermionics and photo-electricity' (Printing and the Mind of Man 386).

The announcement of the discovery of the electron was first made at a Friday evening lecture of the Royal Institution in 1897, with two publications on its properties appearing in 1898. The present volume, published in 1903, covers Thomson's entire research program in detail and is based on a series of lectures given at the Cavendish Laboratory.

'Thomson was President of the Royal Society from 1915 to 1920 and Nobel Prize Winner in Physics in 1906. He made the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge the greatest experimental school in physics ever known and was succeeded by his pupil Rutherford' (PMM).

First edition; 8vo; illustrations and charts within the text, contemporary ownership inscription to the front free endpaper, endpapers and half title spotted; original green cloth, titles to spine and upper board gilt, cloth very lightly rubbed at the extremities, a very good copy; 566pp.

PMM 386; Norman Library of Science & Medicine 2076.