APPENDIX 481 







in 1868, has accomplished a very large amount of chemical research. 

 He is especially distinguished for his work in the revision of the 

 atomic weights of upwards of twenty of the elements. During 

 recent years he has occupied himself with the problems connected 

 with the compressibility of elementary atoms, and has shown that 

 this property, like other properties of elements, is periodic with 

 atomic weight. 



Professor Richards is a member of the National (American) 

 Academy of Sciences and an Honorary Member of many European 

 academies and institutions. 



The Davy Medal was awarded to him by the Royal Society in 

 1910, the Faraday Medal, which is given to the Faraday Memorial 

 Lecturer, by the Chemical Society in 1911, and the William Gibbs 

 Medal in 1912. In 1915 he also received the Nobel Prize for Chem- 

 istry. 



SIB JOSEPH JOHN THOMSON, O.M., Cavendish Professor of Ex- 

 perimental Physics, Cambridge, and Professor of Physics at the 

 Royal Institution. 



Sir Joseph Thomson was elected President of the Royal Society 

 in 1915, in succession to Sir William Crookes, whose period of office, 

 in consideration of his advanced age, extended to only two years. 



Sir Joseph Thomson was educated at Owens College, Manchester, 

 and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was Second Wrangler and 

 Second Smith's Prizeman in 1880, and was forthwith elected a 

 Fellow of his College. After working as a Lecturer at Trinity he 

 succeeded Lord Rayleigh as Cavendish Professor of Physics in 1884, 

 and has carried out in the Cavendish Laboratory the long series of 

 investigations on the Discharge of Electricity through Gases, which 

 have resulted in the remarkable discoveries of which some are 

 described in previous pages. 



Sir Joseph Thomson has been the recipient of many honours, 

 including membership of the most important academies in Europe 

 and America. He has also received the following medals and prizes 

 in recognition of the importance of his discoveries ; a Royal Medal 

 in 1894, and the first Hughes Medal, 1902, both from the Royal 

 Society, the Hodgkins Medal from the Smithsonian Institute, 

 Washington (1902), the Copley Medal (1914), the highest honour in 

 the power of the Royal Society to award. In 1906 he was awarded 

 the Nobel Prize for physics. The Order of Merit, which was insti- 

 tuted in 1902, has been awarded among the rest to six men of science, 

 of whom Lord Rayleigh, Sir William Crookes, and Sir Joseph 

 Thomson are the survivors. 



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