J. J. Thomson photographs

J. J. Thomson

J.J. Thomson as a child, about 1861.
(From Lord Rayleigh's biography of Thomson)

Routh and his pupils for the Mathematical Tripos of January 1880. Thomson is third from the right in the back row; Larmor is second from the left in the row. At the time there was no supervision for undergraduates. Instead, those aspiring to a high place in the Mathematical Tripos went to a `coach', who provided intensive teaching. Routh was the most famous coach, and the period 1855-1888 he taught 27 Senior Wranglers. Each pupil paid £36 p.a., which was a large sum for a poor student like Thomson, but he though `the teaching was worth the expense'.
(From Thomson's autobiography)

The research students of the Cavendish Laboratory in June 1897. Thomson is fourth from the left in the front row, Rutherford is at the right-hand end of the row, and C.T.R. Wilson, the inventor of the cloud chamber, is second from the left in the back row.

J.J. Thomson, then Cavendish Professor, c1890.

Thomson giving a lecture demonstration in 1909. The glass discharge tube on the right was presented to Thomson by C.F. Braun, the inventor of the cathode-ray tube.

© Copyright 1997, G.L. Squires.