... protons and electrons. The first subatomic particle to be discovered was the electron; the Irish physicist G. J. Stoney first used the name 'electron' for a unit of negative electricity in 1891. This was actually identified in 1897 by Joseph J. Thomson, however it can be said that the beginnings of the discovery of the electron started in 1855 with the German physicist Julius Plucker. Plucker was experimenting with passing an electric current through a vacuum made of evacuated glass vessels. The current produced glowing effects within the tube, the effects changed according to the quality of the vacuum chamber. In 1875 English physicist, William Crookes had devised a better vacuum chamber in which the results could be more easily studied. It seemed that the electric current started at the cathode and travelled to the anode, and created the glow of light. Using a piece of metal, which cast a shadow ...

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