Page "William Crookes" Paragraph 14

Crookes investigated the properties of cathode rays, showing that they travel in straight lines, cause fluorescence in objects upon which they impinge, and by their impact produce great heat.

He believed that he had discovered a fourth state of matter, which he called " radiant matter ", but his theoretical views on the nature of " radiant matter " proved to be mistaken.

He believed the rays to consist of streams of particles of ordinary molecular magnitude.

It remained for Sir J. J. Thomson to discover their subatomic nature, and to prove that cathode rays consist of streams of negative electrons, that is, of negatively electrified particles whose mass is only 1 / 1840 that of a hydrogen atom.

Nevertheless, Crookes's experimental work in this field was the foundation of discoveries which eventually changed the whole of chemistry and physics.