How Did Rutherford Confirm Alpha Particles Struck the Zinc Sulfide Screen?

[wavingerwin]

How did Rutherford know??

How did Rutherford know that the Zinc Sulfide screen was indeed hit by alpha particles?

The screen did fluoresce, but it could be because it was hit by electrons scattered from the gold foil, or maybe gold atoms... which would lead to conclusions different from the ones which were made (atom is mostly space bla bla...)

Thank you!

 

[alxm]

The screen did fluoresce, but it could be because it was hit by electrons scattered from the gold foil, or maybe gold atoms

Easy: Does the screen fluoresce without the gold foil?

Of course, Rutherford knew that already before he set up the experiment.