Atomic theory timeline

  • 460 BCE

    Democritus

    Democritus
    He discovered that all matter is made of invisible things called atoms.
  • Antoine Lavoisier

    He named the elements carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, and discovered oxygen’s role in helping us breath. He also discovered that water is made of hydrogen and oxygen. He also discovered sulfur, He confirmed that matter can not be created nor destroyed.
  • John Dalton

    John Dalton
    Dalton discovered that the forces thought to cause pressure only worked between atoms of the same type
  • Eugene Goldstein

    Eugene Goldstein discovered protons.
  • J. J. Thomson

    J. J. Thomson
    He discovered that all atoms contain have electrons.
  • Henri Becquerel

    He discovered radioactivity.
  • Electron discovery

    J.J. Thomson experimented with ray tubes and it revealed that all atoms contain tiny negatively charged particles.
  • Max Planck

    He discovered the relationship between energy and the radiation frequency.
  • Robert Millikan

    Robert Millikan discovered the magnitude of an electron's charge.
  • NIels Bohr

    NIels Bohr
    He created a model of an atom where the electron was able to go into orbits around the nucleus.
  • Ernest Rutherford

    Ernest Rutherford
    Rutherford created the theory that atoms have a nucleus with protons and neutrons in it.
  • Proton discovery

    Ernest Rutherford discovered the proton by electrocuting hydrogen gas while using gold foil.
  • Louis de Broglie

    He discovered that the electron was in a wave shape.
  • Werner Heisenberg

    He discovered the probabilistic characteristics of electrons.
  • Erwin Schrödinger

    He made an equation that calculated the energy levels of electrons in atoms. E ( n ) = − 1 n 2 × 13.6 e V
  • Neutron discovery

    James Chadwick discovered neutrons by using the Rutherford gold foil experiment.
  • James Chadwick

    James Chadwick showed that there was a neutral particle with the same mass as a proton.