Timeline of Atomic Nature

Date Events
Approximately Empedocles
492 BC – 432 BC - Divides matter into four elements
Air Fire
Earth Water
Between Aristotle
384 BC – 322 BC - Proposed that all substances are composed of four elements
 Earth
 Fire
 Air
 Water in different proportions
Around Democritus and Leucippus
500 BC - Proposed that everything is composed of very small bit of matter that is
invisible, and they called it atom (from the Greek word Atomos which
means “invisible”.
1777 Antoine Lavoisier
- Made a clarification on his concept of an element, starting that it could
not be broken down by any method of chemical analysis. He devised a
theory on the formation of chemical compounds from elements.
1780s Charles – Agustin de Coulomb
- Explained the idea that, like fluids repel and unlike fluids attract. This
idea helped in the development of the theory of absolute measurement.
1803 John Dalton
- Came up with the so-called Atomic Theory after he gathered all the
findings and results of various experiments made by ancient
philosophers.
1870s William Crookes
- Constructed the forerunner of the modern television picture tube to
investigate the properties of Cathode Rays.
1896 Wilhelm Roentgen
- Discovered X-ray by observing the fluorescence that it produced.
1898 Pierre Curie and Marie Curie
- Stated that radioactive materials cause atoms to break down
spontaneously. As this happens, radiation is releases in the form of
energy and subatomic particles.
1898 Joseph John Thomson
- Discovered the electron.
1900 Max Planck
- Stated that energy is radiated in small, discrete units, which he called
Quanta.
1905 Albert Einstein
- Created the special and general theories of relativity, and he
hypothesized the particle nature of light.
1908 – 1917 Robert Millikan
- Worked on Atomic Physics and Major Science, dealing with the basic
constituents of the universe, the forces they exert on one another, and
the results produced by these forces.
1909 – 1911 Ernest Rutherford
- Worked on Nuclear Physics and invented a detector for electromagnetic
waves.
1913 Neils Bohr
- Proposed the Planetary Model of an Atom. He also had numerous
contributions on QUANTUM Mechanics.
1923 De Brogile
- Discovered that electrons have a dual nature similar to both particles
and waves – particle/wave duality.
1926 Erwin Schrodinger
- Explained how the electrons move in an atom as wave.
1931 James Chadwick
- Discovered the neutron.