The atom was first proposed to
exist by the Greek philosopher named Democritus. Democritus however had
no way to prove that the atom existed so the idea was left there. Then
a number of scientists built on Democrituses' idea. The first of
these scientist was Isaac Newton who took it up in the 1600's. Newton
proposed a model of the atom called a corpuscular model. Although it
wasn't until the late 1700's and the early 1800's that John Dalton
proposed that all matter was made from atoms and he used it to explain
many experiments that had been done on gases and used it to calculate
the atomic weight of some elements. Although he did all this he still
hadn't proved that atoms existed, he merely gave a plausible
explanation
for how matter was created. The first to prove the atom existed were by
Mr. Rutherford and his student C.T.R Wilson. They created the cloud
chamber. This chamber used a thin gold foil was bombarded with small
helium particles which showed the atoms in the gold foil.
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