Stoney, G. Johnstone

The word "electron" was first suggested in 1891 by Dr G. Johnstone Stoney as a name for the "natural unit of electricity," namely, that quantity of electricity which must pass though a solution in order to liberate at one of the electrodes one atom of hydrogen or one atom of any univalent substance. 

After thinking about the phenomena of electrolysis (which we shall discuss in Chap. 10), an English scientist. Dr. G. Johnstone Stoney, stated, as early as 1874, that these phenomena indicate that electricity exists in discrete units, and that the units are associated with material atoms. In 1891 he emphasized this point and suggested the name electron for the postulated unit of electricity. At that time experiments were being carried on by physicists on the conduction of electricity through gases (as in a neon lamp) these experiments after some years (in 1897) led Sir J. J. Thomson (1856-1940), then Director of the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University, to the firm conclusion that the electron exists and to the determination of some of its properties. 

In 1891, G. Johnstone Stoney pointed out that Faraday s laws of electricity implied a particulate character of electricity. He proposed the name electron for the smallest electrical charge. The study of cathode rays by Crookes and others, and J. J. Thomson s quantitative measurements of the electron s properties led the latter to surmise that the electron was a constituent of all atoms. Rutherford in 1911 discovered evidence for the atom s nucleus. The arrangement of electrons within the atom on the basis of spectroscopic and chemical evidence has been explored extensively during the... 

The word electron was coined by G. Johnstone Stoney in 1891. It was used to describe a unit of electrical charge measured in his experiments where an electrical current was sent through various chemical solutions to test its effect. 

The idea that there are electric particles in substances was proposed, as a hypothesis, by G. Johnstone Stoney, an English scientist. Stoney knew that substances can be decomposed by an electric current —for example, water can be decomposed into hydrogen and oxygen in this way. He also knew that Michael Faraday had found that a definite amount of electricity is needed to liberate a certain amount of an element from one of its compounds. (The experiment carried out by Faraday will be discussed in Chapter 11.) In 1874, after thinking about these facts, Stoney stated that they indicate that electricity e.xists in discrete units, and that these units are associated with atoms. In 1891 he suggested the name electron for his postulated unit of electricity. The discovery of the electron by experiment was made in 1897 by Sir Joseph John Thomson (1856-1940), in Cambridge University, England. ... 

From these results, George Johnstone Stoney in 1874 concluded that electricity, like matter, consists of particles. He called the charge of a single particle of electricity the electron and estimated 10 coulomb (C) for the electronic charge, later corrected to 1.6 X 10" G. Electricity is thus a stream of electrons, each electron carrying 1.6 X 10" C of electricity. 

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