Cathode Rays 1824-1914 Johan Wilhelm Hittorf [Wikipedia] 1850-1930 Eugen Goldstein [Wikipedia] 1832-1919 William Crookes [Wikipedia] 1857-1894 Heinrich Rudolf Hertz [Wikipedia] 1862-1947 Philipp Eduard Anton von Lenard [Wikipedia]
1869	Johan Wilhelm Hittorf: Something is coming out of the cathode like a beam. When a shield was placed in front of the cathode in the glass tube where the vacuum discharge occurred, a shadow was formed on the glass surface behind the shield. W. Hittorf Ueber die Elektricitätsleitung der Gase Annalen der Physik und Chemie, Volume 212, 1-31 (1869). (AKA. Poggendorffs Annalen Volume 136) [DOI] [Wikisource]->[Gallica] [MDZ Munchen] W. Hittorf Ueber die Elektricitätsleitung der Gase Annalen der Physik und Chemie, Volume 212, 197-234 (1869). (AKA. Poggendorffs Annalen Volume 136) [DOI] [Wikisource]->[Gallica] [MDZ Munchen]
1876	Eugen Goldstein named the beam "Kathodenstrahlen" (English: "Cathode Rays") E. Goldstein Vorläufige Mittheilungen über elektrische Entladungen in verdünnten Gasen, Monatsberichte der Königliche Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin Aus dem Jhare 1876 Mit 38 Tafeln (Berlin, 1877) pp. 279-295. [Wikisource]->[BBAW]
1879	William Crookes: A cathode ray = A stream of invisible charged particles He found dark current without glow under higher vacuum conditions. He proposed the following hypothesis; Invisible charged particles are ejected from the cathode, which is the origin of the current of the cathode rays. He also proved it by using his Crookes tube. W. Crookes The bakerian lecture: On the illumination of lines of molecular pressure, and the trajectory of molecules Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Volume 170, pp. 135-164 (1879). [DOI] [JSTOR] [Archive]
1883	Heinrich Rudolf Hertz: The cathode ray does not bend in the electric field. (This conclusion was revised in 1897 by J. J. Thomson.) H. Hertz Versuche über die Glimmentladung Annalen der Physik und Chemie, Volume 255, pp. 782-816 (1883). (AKA. Wiedemanns Annalen Volume 19) [DOI] [Wikisource]->[Gallica] [Archive]=[Google]
1892 1894	Heinrich Rudolf Hertz and Philipp Eduard Anton von Lenard: The cathode ray can penetrate thin films of metals, which suggests that the cathode ray may not be a stream of charged particles but an electromagnetic wave. H. Hertz Ueber den Durchgang der Kathodenstrahlen durch dünne Metallschichten Annalen der Physik und Chemie, Volume 281, pp. 28-32 (1892). (AKA. Wiedemanns Annalen Volume 45) [DOI] [Wikisource]->[Google] [Archive] P. Lenard Ueber Kathodenstrahlen in Gasen von atmosphärischem Druck und im äussersten Vacuum Annalen der Physik und Chemie, Volume 287, pp. 225-267 (1894). (AKA. Wiedemanns Annalen Volume 51) [DOI] [Wikisource]->[Archive]