At the end of the 19th century, many scientists were studying the radiation created from electrical discharges in evacuated tubes. Especially J.J. Thomson is connected to the study of the radiation from the cathod radiation tubes, which they are called, since the radiation comes from the cathode. By deflecting the radiation in an electric and magnetic field, he could decide that the charge of the particle was negative and the mass was 2000 times smaller than the lightest atom, the hydrogen atom. Thomson presented his results in 1897 and called the new particle electron.

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