Heritage Gateways
Official Sesquicentennial K-12 Education Project
sponsored by the Utah State Board of Education, the BYU-Public School Partnership and the Utah Education Network
Pioneer Student Work
Image courtesy of: Heritage Gateway Project Images, These images have been gathered to support the Sesquicentennial celebration of the immigration to Utah.
Pioneer: J.J. Thomson (Tyler - 4th Grade)
J.J. Thomson was an English physicist. A century ago in England, April 30 1897, he was interested in the strange rays that made the vacuum tubes glow. He identified a new ingredient of matter, an electron. The discovery of the electron changed the world and human understanding of the universe. Without electrons which carry electricity, there would be no computers, television, radios, fax machines, e-mail messages, photocopiers, stereos, home applicances, telephones, or any other electronics. Modern chemistry and physics would not exist. Even worse, if there were no electrons, there couldn't be a universe, at least not one like ours. Thomson was certainly a pioneer. His preparation and perseverance made our modern life possible.
