Group 3: Law of Interaction 11 HUMSS – A 2/25/20

The History of the Atom

The knowledge of human beings about the history of the atom’s models, diagrams
and descriptions have all started hundreds of years ago even before the Common Era. It
all started with the ancient ideas about the atom and matter itself by the Greek
philosophers and scholars who had lived in this past millennia, some of which are proven
with concrete evidences namely: Thales of Miletus, Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Pythagoras
of Samos and many more Greek philosophers and scholars. Regarding to this, Thales of
Miletus (640-546 B.C.E.) claimed that the water is the primary component of all matter
both in the synthesis during life and the decomposition after death. But Anaximenes (526
B.C.E.) stated that it was air that is the primary component of all matter. Heraclitus (537-
475 B.C.E.) also argued that fire is the one and is the primary component of all matter.
Later, Pythagoras of Samos, along with his disciple or followers, conceptualized that all
matter is a combination of four basic elements namely fire, water, air, and earth. This
lead to the establishment of the first idea of elements which are the air, fire, water, earth,
and quintessence, which is the fifth element according to them. This was adopted and
supported by Empedocles (450 B.C.E.) and Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.) which helped
them generate more knowledge about the atom. Leucippus of Milet (500-420 B.C.E.) was
the first one to believe that all matter including the four basic elements, are made up of a
basic building block: the atom. The word “atom” was derived from the Greek word
“atomos” which means indivisible. Democritus of Abdere (460-370 B.C.E.) later backed
this idea up and managed to propose factual characteristics of the atom. The theory
stating that all matter is made up of atoms was called the Theory of Atomism and was
widely attributed to Democritus. However, due to Aristotle (who was more popular than
Democritus at that time) not accepting the idea behind it, the theory was not widely
accepted in the Ancient Greece. And there came the dark age of atomism: Alchemy.
Alchemy is the combination of black magic and scientific knowledge, but the idea was
indeed more magical and was not that scientific in order to be accepted as a scientific
knowledge. Even though their efforts and methods were rather unscientific, alchemists
have contributed much useful tools in the study of science specifically the branch of
chemistry. These tools or equipment such as test tubes, closed crucible, and the retort,
which are still used in chemical laboratories today were pioneered by the alchemists.
Phillippus Aureolus Paracelsus, a physician known as the “Father of Toxicology”, was
one of these alchemists who opened the path for alchemy to build the foundations of
medicines. It was not until the early 1700s that the Theory of Atomism had had a hope
and undergone revival. Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655), a French priest, philosopher,
scholar of science and ancient texts, rejected the view that matter is infinitely divisible.
Following Epicurus, an ancient Greek philosopher, Gassendri suggested that material
objects have substrata made up of basic, indivisible principles which made him believe
that the closer these principles are stick or put together, the harder the material object is;
he also believed that the further these principles are put or stick together, the softer the
object will be. In the year 1660, the Irish physicist and chemist Robert Boyle (1627-1691)
proposed a similar idea. Through experiments with gases, he developed a principle of
gases that is presently known as Boyle’s Law which states that the volume of gas
decreases as its pressure increases at constant temperature.” He further concluded that
since gas can be compressed, it must be composed of particles that have spaces between
Group 3: Law of Interaction 11 HUMSS – A 2/25/20

them. Boyle’s significant contributions in the branch of Chemistry helped him to be

called and considered as the “Father of Chemistry.” These contributions from Gassendri,
Boyle, and many more scientists lead to the revival of the Atomist Theory. As the idea
that matter is made up of atoms became widely accepted, the questions about it have
shifted to the atom’s structure. Democritus is indeed the first person to be credited as the
creator of the first original model of the atom despite him not performing any
experiments. John Dalton (1766-1844), an English chemist and physicist, however,
started and created the first modern atomic theory and model in the early 1800s. He
claimed that all atoms have the same size and weight, and that all matter is made of
indestructible atoms, He even deduced the Law of Multiple Proportions. In the year 1897,
the British physicist Joseph John Thomson (1856-1940) discovered that the atomic model
of Dalton was inaccurate. He proposed that atoms are uniform spheres of positively
charged matter in which negatively charged electrons are embedded. He came up with the
atomic model which is called Thomson’s “Plum Pudding” model. He realized and
discovered that negatively charged particles or cathode rays existed by improving the
Crookes’ tube, an invention of the English chemist and physicist Sir William Crookes in
the 1860s. Thomson’s cathode ray was later called “electron” by Irish physicist George
Johnstone Stoney in 1891, a couple of years after the word “proton” was considered to be
the new term for positively charged particle which was discovered by Eugen Goldstein, a
German chemist in 1886. Wilhelm Wien named the positively charged particle into
“proton.” In the year 1911, the British physicist Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) with the
help of his colleagues observed that an atom is composed of a positive, central core
which he called the nucleus, where most of its mass is concentrated. It was James
Chadwick however, an English physicist, who discovered the neutrally charged particle
which he called neutron. Henry Moseley (1887-19150, an English physicist, discovered
that the atomic number (Z) is equal to the number of protons and electrons of an element.
The number of neutrons meanwhile is equal to the difference between the atomic mass
(A) and the atomic number (Z) of an element. In the late 1900, Max Karl Ludwig Planck
(1858-1947), a German physicist, came up with the quantum hypothesis in order to solve
the problem of how the radiation emitted by an object is related to the temperature of the
object. In the year 1913, Niels Bohr (1885-1962), a Danish physicist, proposed his
quantized planetary model of the atom to elucidate how electrons can have stable orbits
around the nucleus. In 1924, the French physicist Louis de Broglie (1892-1987) proposed
the dual nature of electrons, suggesting that every particle had wavelike properties and its
wavelength is related to its mass. In the year 1927, the German physicist Werner
Heisenberg (1901-1976), suggested the uncertainty principle, which states that the
position and momentum of a small moving particle could not be measured or known
accurately at the same time. In the year 1926, Erwin Schrodinger (1887-1961) developed
a powerful atomic model on wave functions, which is further based on the assumption
that the electron is a wave. This atomic model was later called Schrodinger’s Electron
Cloud Model. With this history, we can conclude that the study about the atom was
definitely broad and is rich in information. The study about the history of the atom will
help us learn that there is more to life than how much we have discovered.