Timeline of the Discovery of the Atom

Year Scientist Contribution

442 BC Democritus Democritus believed that if you kept on
cutting up something, a point would come
where it would not be cut anymore. He
called these uncuttable pieces “atomos”, a
direct translation of uncuttable; which later
became the word atom.
1803 John Dalton He proposed his very own atomic theory
wherein it stated that (1) matter is composed
of minute particles called atoms, (2) atoms
of the same element have the same size and
atoms of different elements vary in size, and
(3) atoms cannot be created, destroyed, or
divided.
1886 Eugen Goldstein Proton discovery. Eugene Goldstein
discovered evidence of the existence of
protons in 1886. Using a cathode ray tube
with holes in the cathode, he noticed that
there were rays traveling in the opposite
direction from the cathode rays. He called
these canal rays, and he showed it was
composed of positively charged particles
which are now what we call protons.
1897 Joseph John Thomson Electron discovery. In the 19th centuryson
started experimenting with cathode ray
tubes. Thomson surrounded the cathode ray
with two electric plates that were charged in
opposition to test the qualities of the
particles. The negatively charged electric
plate was avoided in favor of the positively
charged plate, deflecting the cathode ray.
This demonstrated the presence of
negatively charged particles in the cathode
ray. Thomson also proposed the plum
pudding model of the atom..
1910 Robert Andrews Electron’s charge. To conduct an
Millikan experiment to determine the amount of an
electron's charge in 1910, Millikan used an
oil drop experiment. The oil droplets in this
experiment would fall at various rates as he
altered the voltage.
1911 Ernest Rutherford Rutherford wanted to test the plum pudding
model by using gold foil. The scientists
anticipated that all of the alpha particles
would pass through the gold foil with only a
tiny deflection or no deflection at all
because the model states that an atom's mass
and charge are uniformly distributed
throughout the atom. Surprisingly, even
though the majority of the alpha particles
were undeflected, just a tiny
fraction bounced off the gold foil at
extremely acute angles. Some were even
sent back in the direction of the origin. This
 led to the discovery of the nucleus and the
nuclear model of the atom.
1913 Niels Bohr Bohr postulated that electrons reside in
stationary states, which are states of constant
energy, rather than radiating energy as they
orbit the nucleus. This indicates that the
electrons orbit the nucleus at constant
distances. This led to the Bohr’s atomic
model, more commonly known as the
planetary model.
1926 Erwin Schrodinger Schrödinger created a model of the atom
using de Broglie's matter wave theory.
In contrast to Bohr's model, which has
electrons moving in tightly defined orbits,
Schrödinger's model places them in orbitals.
The quantum mechanical and wave
properties of electrons, both of which are
expressed in equations termed wave
functions, are also the foundations of
Schrödinger's atomic model. It is known as
the Quantum- Wave model.
1932 James Chadwick Chadwick discovered the existence of
neutrons. Chadwick was certain that alpha
particles lacked the energy necessary to
generate such powerful gamma rays. He
conducted the beryllium bombardment
experiments himself and postulated that the
radiation was made up of neutrons, which
are protons-sized particles without an
electrical charge.
1948 Maria Geoppert- Mayer German-American researcher Maria
Goeppert-Mayer made the important
discovery that protons and neutrons,
which make up nucleons, exist in distinct
energy shells inside the atomic nucleus.
The placement of electrons in various
energy shells outside the nucleus is
remarkably similar to this.