Atomic Theory timeline | Timetoast Timelines

Jan 1, 1780

Antoine Lavoisier

Lavoisier developed an experimentally based theory of the chemical reactivity of oxygen and coauthored the modern system for naming chemical substances.
Jan 1, 1799

J. L. Proust

J.L. Proust proposed the Law of Constant Composition in 1799.
Jan 1, 1799

Thomas Young

Thomas Young established the principle of interference of light and brought back the extremely old wave theory of light.
Jan 1, 1803

John Dalton

In 1803 John Dalton showed the concept of Dalton’s Law of Partial Pressures. Also in the 1800s, he was the first scientist to explain the behavior of atoms in terms of the measurement of weight. He was one of the first to help develop atomic theory,
Jan 1, 1883

Heinrich Hertz

In 1883 Hertz began studying the electromagnetic theory of James Clerk Maxwell. Between 1885 and 1889, while he was professor of physics at the Karlsruhe Polytechnic, he produced electromagnetic waves in the laboratory and measured their length and velocity.
Jan 1, 1903

Marie and Pierre Curie

They are famous for their radioactivity work. They won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1903
Jan 1, 1906

Hans Geiger

Hans Geiger was a hysiscist who introduced the first successful detector, called the Geiger counter, of individual alpha particles and other ionizing radiations. He recieved his Ph.D. in 1906.
Jan 1, 1906

J.J. Thomson

J.J. Thomson contributed to atomic theory by they discovery of the electron, in 1897. He received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1906.
Jan 1, 1908

Ernest Rutherford

Rutherford was the main person in the study of radioactivity, and with his concept of the nuclear atom, he led the exploration of nuclear physics. He won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1908.
Jan 1, 1911

Marrie and Pierre Curie

Marrie won the Nobel Prize on her own in 1911 for Chemistry.
Jan 1, 1912

Niels Bohr

First to apply the quantum concept (I.e. Queantum physics).
Jan 1, 1918

Max Planck

Planck was a theoretical physicist who originated quantum theory. Because of this, he won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1918.
Jan 1, 1919

Ernest Marsden

WIth the help of Geiger, Marsden studied the deflection of a-particles and correlated nuclear charge with atomic number in 1913. They continued to study and experiment with the impact of a-particles, and this led to the artificial transmutation of the elements.
Jan 1, 1921

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein recieved the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921 for his explanation of photoelectric effect.
Jan 1, 1921

Albert Einstein

Einstein developed the special and general theories of relativity.
Jan 1, 1922

Niels Bohr

Niels Bohr recieved the Nobel Prize in 1922 for Physics.
Jan 1, 1922

Arthur Compton

Arthur Compton discovered and interpreted the change in wavelength of X rays when they collide with electrons in metals. This is now called the Compton Effect.
Jan 1, 1925

Werner Heisenberg

Heisenberg discovered a way to formulate quantum mechanics in terms of matrices.
Jan 1, 1927

Arthur Compton

Compton won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1927.
Jan 1, 1928

Paul Dirac

Dirac is known mainly for his relativistic quantum theory of the electron. He is also widely known for his prediction of antiparticles.
Jan 1, 1929

Louis de Broglie

Louis de Broglie was widely known for his research on quantum theory and also for his discovery of the wave nature of electrons.
Jan 1, 1929

Louis de Broglie

Won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1929
Jan 1, 1931

Carl Anderson

Did any new questions arise as a result of their work?Were any of their conclusions incorrect?
- In 1931, Anderson found evidence indicating that rays produced charged particales whose tracks were very similar to those produced by ordinary electrons, ecxept that they were bent by the magnefic field in the opposite director.
Jan 1, 1932

Carl Anderson

What was their contribution to atomic theory?:
In what year was this discovery made?:
Describe the experiments that led to their discoveries: -- Some of Anderson's first researches had to do with X-rays. He studied space distribution of photoelectrons ejected from various gases by X-rays while completing his Doctoral thesis. In 1930, with Professor Millikan, he started his cosmic-ray studies which led to his discovery of positron, in 1932.
Jan 1, 1932

Werner Heisenberg

Heisenberg won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1932.
Jan 1, 1933

Paul Dirac

Dirac shared the Nobel Prize for physics with Erwin Schrödinger.
Jan 1, 1933

Erwin Schrödinger

Erwin Schrödinger contributed to the wave theory of matter and to other aspects of quantum mechanics. He shared the 1933 Nobel Prize for Physics with Paul Dirac.
Jan 1, 1935

James Chadwick

James Chadwick dscovered the Neutron.
Jan 1, 1935

James Chadwick

Won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1935.
Jan 1, 1935

Irene Joliet-Curie

Irene Joliet-Curie and her husband started a systematic study of radiations emitted from the lighter chemical elements under the impact of alpha-particles, which through the light of intuitioned them, in early 1934, led their discovery of artificial radioactivity. For this discovery, Irene Joliot-Curie and her husband were awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1935.
Jan 1, 1936

Carl Anderson Wins Nobel Prize

Did he receive a Nobel Prize, in either chemistry or physics? In what year?:
Carl Anderson received a Nobel Prize in 1936. - Anderson recieved a Nobel Prize in 1936.
Jan 1, 1938

Enrico Fermi

Fermi developed mathematical statistics required to clarify a large class of subatomic phenomena. He is also known for exploring nuclear transformations caused by neutrons, and directing the first controlled chain reaction involving nuclear fission.
Jan 1, 1938

Enrico Fermi

Fermi was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1938.
Jan 1, 1938

Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann

In 1938 Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassmann became the first people to recognize that the uranium atom, when attacked by neutrons, actually split.
Jan 1, 1939

Otto Frisch

Otto Frisch is mainly known for describing the division of neutron-bombarded uranium into lighter elements; he names this process fission.
Jan 1, 1945

Wolfgang Pauli

In 1945 He recieved Nobel Prize for Physics for his discovery of the Pauli exclusion principle (in 1925), which states that in an atom no two electrons can occupy the same quantum state simultaneously.
Jan 1, 1965

Richard Feynman and Julian Schwinger

Richard P. Feynman and Julian Schwinger were joing winners of the Nobel Prize for Physics, along with Tomonaga Shin’ichirō, for introducing new ideas and newer methods for quantum electrodynamics. They won the Nobel Prize in 1965.
Jan 1, 1969

Murray Gell-Mann

Gell-Mann was the winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics. He won this for his work that had to do with the classification of subatomic particles and their interactions.
Jan 1, 1970

George Zweig

Zweig expanded upon the experimental data on known particles and proposed the existence of quarks Eric Weisstein's World of Physics independently of Gell-Mann and Ne'eman.