Elements and Atoms: Atoms

The term atom has a long history. The concept has evolved from that of an indivisible ultimate particle of matter to a composite structure whose constituent parts themselves have constituent parts. The notion that materials come in discrete packets can be traced to the ancient Greeks. This classical atomism is most frequently associated with Leucippus and Democritus, and it was transmitted to later cultures throught the didactic poem De Rerum Natura by the Roman Lucretius. The atoms of the ancients were literally indivisible (the etymological meaning of atom from the Greek α (not) + τεμνω (cut). The atoms of Newton, so influential in the subsequent development of the concept, were also indestructible, structureless particles [Newton 1704].

The selections of this section will trace only a small part of the story of the atom, focusing on Dalton's hypothesis regarding the chemical significance of atoms and his program for determining one of their salient characteristics (their relative masses). The interaction between Dalton's hypothesis, the subsequent work of Gay-Lussac on combining volumes, and the insights of Avogadro form, in retrospect, a coherent whole, but illustrate, among other things, that progress in science is often non-linear.

This chapter's final selection foreshadows the book's final section, which examines some of the evidence that the atom was not in fact indivisible. Prout's hypotheses were a part of the early 19^th-century concept of the atom, but were finally settled only in the first half of the 20^th century. In the meantime, the concept of atom developed along distinct chemical and physical lines. "Physical" atoms were a part of theories of matter: were these ultimate particles centers of force, vortices, packets of electrodynamic energy, or something else? In this respect, physicists were ready to look into the structure of the atom before chemists. At the same time, physical manifestations of the discrete nature of matter led to "molecular" theories such as the kinetic theory of gases. Chemists were interested in the units of elements that entered into chemical combinations, often without regard for whether those units were or were not ultimate particles.

Numerous treatments of the history of atoms, of which I mention just a few, consider these and other aspects of the story. Pullman 1998 contains an overarching history of the concept of atom. Van Melsen 1952 concentrates on philosophical and pre-scientific facets of atomism. Rocke 1984 focuses on the chemical concept of atom in the 19th century. Knight 1967 treats scientific concepts of the atom, particularly in the 19^th century. Knight 1968 contains facsimiles of many of the original papers mentioned in Knight 1967. Boorse & Motz 1966 is another source of original material and some commentary on the development of scientific atomism.

References

• Henry A. Boorse & Lloyd Motz, eds., The World of the Atom (New York: Basic Books, 1966), 2 vol.
• David M. Knight, Atoms and Elements (London: Hutchinson, 1967)
• David M. Knight, ed., Classical Scientific Papers: Chemistry (New York: American Elsevier, 1968)
• Titus Lucretius Carus, De Rerum Natura translated by William Ellery Leonard as Of the nature of things : a metrical translation (London: Dent, 1921)
• Andrew G. van Melsen, From Atomos to Atom (Pittsburgh: Duquene, 1952)
• Isaac Newton, Opticks (London, 1704), query 31
• Bernard Pullman, The Atom in the History of Human Thought (New York : Oxford University Press, 1998)
• Alan J. Rocke, Chemical Atomism in the Nineteenth Century: from Dalton to Cannizzaro (Columbus, OH: Ohio State, 1984)