The classical electron radius and the restmass

This will be a brief comment on a previous blog post that discussed the electron radius and its relation to the inertial mass. Recently, I found out that the quantity arrived at had already been given a name: The "classical electron radius" or the "Compton radius" (Not to be confused with the Compton wavelength). This came as a bit of a chock and I was curious to find out which kind of problem had inspired this entity to have been given a name before. It is claimed to have been conceived by equating the rest-energy E = mc^2 to a hypothetical electrostatic energy of a sphere:

 

Hence, it could be that by assuming a radius of the electron we predict not only the inertial mass of the electron but also its rest energy and who knows what more? (Electron spin, double slit experiment and who knows) To be continued hopefully..