J.J. Thomson Science lecturers who traveled from town to town in the middle nineteenth century delighted audiences by showing them the ancestor of the neon sign. They took a glass tube with wires embedded in opposite ends . . . put a high voltage across . . . pumped out most of the air . . . and the interior of the tube would glow in lovely patterns. In 1859 a German physicist sucked out still more air with an improved pump and saw …showed first 75 words of 1297 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1297 total…carried beyond the ordinary gaseous state: a state in which all matter is of the same kind. This new form of matter being the substance from which all the chemical elements are built up. Works Cited 1) "Thomson, Sir Joseph John." Microsoft® Encarta® 97 Encyclopedia. 1993-1996 Microsoft Corporation. 2) "Thomson, Joseph (1856-1940)". Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia. 1993, 1994 Compton's NewMedia, Inc. 3) Brazil, Georgia L, and Moore, Dan. "History in Chemistry". Volume Library, Volume 1. Southwestern/ Great American Inc., Nashville, Tennessee, 1998. p. 472-473.