(Cambridge: At the University Press, 1903).

FIRST EDITION. A PMM TITLE. IN 1905 THOMSON WON THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR HIS DISCOVERIES. He was a significant contributor to revolutionizing our knowledge of atomic structure by his discovery of the electron (1897). He was knighted in 1908.
Thomson, the son of a bookseller entered Owens College, now the University of Manchester he was only 14 years old. In 1876 he obtained a scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he remained for the rest of his life. After taking his B.A. degree in mathematics in 1880, the opportunity of doing experimental research drew him to the Cavendish Laboratory. He began also to develop the theory of electromagnetism.
Thomson’s most important line of work, interrupted only for lectures at Princeton University in 1896, was that which led him in 1897 to the conclusion that all matter, whatever its source, contains particles of the same kind that are much less massive than the atoms of which they form a part. They are now called electrons, although he originally called them corpuscles. His discovery was the result of an attempt to solve a long-standing controversy regarding the nature of cathode rays, which occur when an electric current is driven through a vessel from which most of the air or other gas has been pumped out.
Thomson may be described as “the man who split the atom” for the first time, although “chipped” might be a better word, in view of the size and number of electrons. Although some atoms contain many electrons, the electrons’ total mass is never so much as 1/1,000 that of the atom.
In 1903 he had the opportunity to amplify his views on the behaviour of subatomic particles in natural phenomena when, in his Silliman Lectures at Yale University, he suggested a discontinuous theory of light; his hypothesis foreshadowed Albert Einstein’s later theory of photons. In 1906 he received the Nobel Prize for Physics for his researches into the electrical conductivity of gases(the book we offer here); in 1908 he was knighted; in 1909 he was made president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science; and in 1912 he received the Order of Merit. Item #34503

First Edition. Illustrated throughout with graphs, mathematical equations, pictorial renditions and photographs. Tall 8vo, publisher's original green cloth, the upper cover blocked in blind and lettered in gilt, the spine lettered in gilt. vi, [2], 566 pp. A fine copy with very little evidence of age or use.