What was J.J Thomsons definition of an atom?
The plum pudding model of the atom by J. J. Thomson, who discovered the electron in 1897, was proposed in 1904 before the discovery of the atomic nucleus. In this model, the atom is composed of electrons (which Thomson still called “corpuscles”, though G. J. Stoney had proposed that atoms of electricity be called electrons in 1894) surrounded by a soup of positive charge to balance the electrons’ negative charges, like negatively-charged “plums” surrounded by positively-charged “pudding”. The electrons (as we know them today) were thought to be positioned throughout the atom, but with many structures possible for positioning multiple electrons, particularly rotating rings of electrons. Instead of a soup, the atom was also sometimes said to have had a “cloud” of positive charge.
