J.J Thompson
In 1897 J.J. Thomson discovered the electron (at the time he called them corpuscles).
Then in 1904 Thomson published his model of the atom often referred to as the plum pudding model.
In this model Thomson envisioned a soup of positively charged matter. Arranged through this positive charge were the electrons (like negatively charged plumbs surrounded by positively charged pudding).
Plum pudding atomic model
The significance of this model was that it allowed the atom to be electro-statically stable. By that I mean the negative electric charge of the electrons can be as close as possible to the positive charge of the atom and at the same time the electrons can be as far away from one another as possible.
After 119 years Coulomb’s inverse square law was influencing our understanding of the atom.