Who drew the first model of the atom?

[William Chua]

Does anybody know who first drew (not just described but actually drew, even roughly) a model of the atom like the one below, and when:

I'd appreciate it if anybody can point me to an evidence.

 

[berkeman]

Welcome to the PF.

Either this article or its references should help... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohr_model

EDIT/ADD -- See the suggestion by @PeroK below -- It looks like your sketch was done well before Bohr's work...

 

[PeroK]

Have you searched the Internet for "History of the Atom"?

 

[William Chua]

I was hoping someone could point me to sketches like these:

I was told these were sketches done by Bohr but it doesn't quite look like the image I was looking for (the one I posted earlier.) It's a very ubiquitous picture. I see it in almost every logo that has something to do with science. But I can't figure out who really first drew that picture. Was it Bohr? Or Rutherford? Or maybe someone else?

 

[berkeman]

I see it in almost every logo that has something to do with science.

Like the PF logo...

 

[russ_watters]

I I see it in almost every logo that has something to do with science. But I can't figure out who really first drew that picture. Was it Bohr? Or Rutherford? Or maybe someone else?

I think it *is* just a logo, based on that Bohr sketch on the right.

 

[William Chua]

Like the PF logo...

Hahaha! Thanks for pointing that out. I didn't notice that!
But, really, I'm curious who made that drawing first and when.

 

[berkeman]

Hahaha! Thanks for pointing that out. I didn't notice that!
But, really, I'm curious who made that drawing first and when.

Pretty sure it was @Greg Bernhardt when he updated the forum software about a year ago...

 

[William Chua]

Pretty sure it was @Greg Bernhardt when he updated the forum software about a year ago...

But I'm also pretty sure @Greg Bernhardt is too young to have done it first.

 

[Lukeblackhill]

But I'm also pretty sure @Greg Bernhardt is too young to have done it first.

The first scientist to have a glimpse of the true nature of the atoms was Rutherford. In his experiments (called the Geiger-Mardsen experiments) in 1908, when using golden foils and alpha particles he was able to determine the localization of the positive part of the atom, as the centre of it, and its distance from the electrons or electronic cloud. According to Rutherford, it looked like a mini-solar system, with the negative electrons spinning around the nucleus (positive) like planets around the sun. Bohr refined this system afterwards, to include his energy-level's theory.

 

[DrClaude]

I'm also very interested in this question. I wasn't able to find a good source about the history of the that drawing, but I confess I didn't do that much research...

What puzzles me is that the drawing uses ellipses to represent the orbits, while Bohr's orbits are circular. So in a sense, it doesn't correspond to any actual theory that was proposed about the atom.

 

[f todd baker]

It should be pointed out that your original picture is enormously inaccurate regarding the size of the nucleus. It is drawn about five orders of magnitude bigger than its actual size.

 

[marcusl]

What puzzles me is that the drawing uses ellipses to represent the orbits, while Bohr's orbits are circular. So in a sense, it doesn't correspond to any actual theory that was proposed about the atom.

A circle viewed obliquely appears elliptical.

 

[jtbell]

What puzzles me is that the drawing uses ellipses to represent the orbits, while Bohr's orbits are circular. So in a sense, it doesn't correspond to any actual theory that was proposed about the atom.

Didn't Sommerfeld's extension of the original Bohr model use elliptical orbits?