The Greatest Physicist

Sir Joseph J. Thomson, headmaster of Trinity College, Cambridge, discoverer of the electron, and considered by many the greatest living physicist, is in the United States on an extended visit as the guest of Franklin Institute, Philadelphia. As guest of the Western Electric Company at luncheon in the Bell System laboratories, Sir Joseph saw in operation many applications of his fundamental theories and inventions. Among these was a water-cooled copper vacuum tube, devised by W. G. Housekeeper, with 40 times the capacity of the present glass-enclosed tube used in long-distance radio. This may shortly be installed on all American battleships. Professor Thomson's chief contribution to science is the proof (in 1897) that the rays given off from the cathode, or negative electrode, within a vacuum tube are streams of minute bodies of negative electricity, called by him "corpuscles," but later renamed "electrons." It is now believed that all matter is made up of "electrons," particles of negative electricity, and "protons," particles of positive electricity. The smallness of the electron is beyond human comprehension. Its diameter is about 30 trillionths of an inch. The most powerful microscope known would barely enable us to see an object 200 atoms wide, and if an atom were about the size of a large office building, an electron would be the size of a pinhead. Professor Thomson was Cavendish professor of experimental physics in Cambridge University from 1884 un- til 1918. During that time he developed a great research laboratory which attracted workers from all parts of the world. He received the Nobel prize for physics in 1906, and holds many other awards and honors from the great scientific societies of the world. In 1908 he was knighted, and during the World War he was an important figure in several Government research committees and technical departments.

A number of British scientific men, under the leadership of Sir Kenneth D. Mackenzie, formed the Scientific Expeditionary Research Association to facilitate and promote scientific expeditions to all parts of the world. The first voyage under its auspices will be to the South Pacific Ocean, starting this summer.