History of the Atom

By senskec

  • John Dalton

    John Dalton
    Contribution to the study of the atom: Proposed Atomic theory. That stated that all matter was made of small indivisible particles called atoms, atoms have unique characteristics and weight, and there are 3 types of atoms, simple, compound, and complex. He was a meteorologist, but switched to study chemistry.

  • JJ Thomson

    JJ Thomson
    Contribution to the study of the atom: Discovered the electron. He was inspired by the invention of the x-ray and thats what got him to measure the speed and specific charge of cathode rays. He also helped with the discovery of isotopes.

  • G.N. Lewis

    G.N. Lewis
    Contribution to the study of the atom: His model often called the cubic atom showed that an atom was made of concentric cubes with electrons on every corner. He helped in the field of thermodynamics and applied it’s laws to real chemical systems.

  • Hantaro Nagaoka

    Hantaro Nagaoka
    Contribution to the study of the atom: He made the Saturnian Model of the atom. This showed the atom compared to Saturn's rings. He thought the atom had a very massive nucleus with electrons surrounding the nucleus, bound by electrostatic forces. The fact that the rings are steady because the planet they orbit is massive, is what inspired this model.
    He was also a professor of physics at the university of Tokyo.

  • Ernest Rutherford

    Ernest Rutherford
    Contribution to the study of the atom: He proposed that the nucleus in the middle was a small positively charged center with it’s counterparts the electrons revolving around it like the planets around the sun. He also decided that in between the nucleus and electrons was mostly empty space. He also published several books.

  • Niels Bohr

    Niels Bohr
    Contribution to the study of the atom: He determined that the electrons were not randomly placed around the nucleus. He showed the electrons moving in different shells around the nucleus. He got a nobel prize in 1922 for his work on the structure of the atom.

  • James Chadwick

    James Chadwick
    Contribution to the study of the atom: He discovered the neutron, a particle having around the same mass as the proton, but with no electrical charge. This explained why the atom was heavier than the mass of it’s protons. He discovered new things in nuclear science and led the way to creation of the nuclear bomb. Landing him the Hughes Medal of the Royal Society in 1932 and the Nobel Prize in physics in 1935