# How did J. J. Thomson establish the particle nature of the electron?

In its article about how the electron was discovered, Wikipedia says that Thomson and his students performed experiments which suggested that cathode rays were negatively charged "particles". But even after reading about his experiments I am unable to understand how he came to the conclusion that the cathode rays are made up particles. I can see how he came to the conclusion that they are negatively charged, but how did he find out about their particle nature?

His measurements established that $$m/e$$ for different gases and pressures had the same value, and the paths of particles depended on the density of the medium. He then reasoned further:
If, in the very intense electric field in the neighbourhood of the cathode, the molecules of the gas are dissociated and are split up, not into the ordinary chemical atoms, but into these primordial atoms, which we shall for brevity call corpuscles; and if these corpuscles are charged with electricity and projected from the cathode by the electric field, they would behave exactly like the cathode rays. They would evidently give a value of $$m/e$$ which is independent of the nature of the gas and its pressure, for the carriers are the same whatever the gas may be; again, the mean free paths of these corpuscles would depend solely upon the density of the medium through which they pass."