George Johnstone Stoney
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George Johnstone Stoney (February 15,1826 – July 5,1911) was an Irish physicist. In 1894, he coined the word electron. Worked at the National University of Ireland, Galway.
Stoney was born on 15 February 1826 at Oak Park, near Birr, County Offaly, in the Irish midlands. He attended Trinity College, Dublin, graduating with a B.A. in 1848 and an M.A. in 1852. In 1848 he became an assistant to the Earl of Rosse at Birr Castle, County Offaly, where Rosse had built and operated the 'Leviathan', the world's largest telescope in its day. In 1852, Stoney became Professor of Natural Philosophy at Queen's College Galway (now the National University of Ireland, Galway). In 1857, he moved to Dublin as Secretary of the Queen's University; he subsequently became superintendent of Civil Service Examinations in Ireland, a post he held until his retirement in 1893. In this year, he took up residence in London.
Stoney published seventy-five scientific papers in a variety of journals, making significant contributions to cosmic physics and to the theory of gases. In 1891, he proposed the term 'electron' to describe the fundamental unit of electrical charge, and his contributions to research in this area laid the foundations for the eventual discovery of the particle by J.J. Thomson in 1905. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1861, and served as Vice-President of the Society for 1898-9.
Stoney died on 5 July 1911 at his home in Notting Hill, London. After cremation, his ashes were buried in Dundrum, County Dublin.
Craters on Mars and the Moon are named in his honour.
Literature
- Alex Keller: The Infancy of Atomic Physics. Hercules in His Cradle, Oxford University 1983. ISBN 0-19-853904-5
External link
- Of the "Electron", or Atom of Electricity (http://dbhs.wvusd.k12.ca.us/webdocs/Chem-History/Stoney-1894.html) - by G. J. Stoney, Philosophical Magazine, Series 5, Volume 38, p. 418-420, October 1894