Editing J. J. Thomson (section)

====Conclusions====
{{blockquote|As the cathode rays carry a charge of negative electricity, are deflected by an electrostatic force as if they were negatively electrified, and are acted on by a magnetic force in just the way in which this force would act on a negatively electrified body moving along the path of these rays, I can see no escape from the conclusion that they are charges of negative electricity carried by particles of matter.|J. J. Thomson<ref name="PhilMag" />}}

As to the source of these particles, Thomson believed they emerged from the molecules of gas in the vicinity of the cathode.

{{blockquote|If, in the very intense electric field in the neighbourhood of the cathode, the molecules of the gas are dissociated and are split up, not into the ordinary chemical atoms, but into these primordial atoms, which we shall for brevity call corpuscles; and if these corpuscles are charged with electricity and projected from the cathode by the electric field, they would behave exactly like the cathode rays.|J. J. Thomson<ref name="Philosophical Magazine 1897">{{cite journal |last=Thomson |first=J. J.|url=http://web.lemoyne.edu/~GIUNTA/thomson1897.html |title=Cathode rays |journal=Philosophical Magazine |volume=44 |page=293 |year=1897}}</ref>}}

Thomson imagined the atom as being made up of these corpuscles orbiting in a sea of positive charge; this was his [[plum pudding model]]. This model was later proved incorrect when his student [[Ernest Rutherford]] showed that the positive charge is concentrated in the nucleus of the atom.