1 - Early Atomic Theory

Summary

The serious scientific application of the atomic theory began in the eighteenth century, with calculations of the properties of gases, which had been studied experimentally since the century before. This is the topic with which we begin this chapter. Applications to chemistry and electrolysis followed in the nineteenth century, and are considered in subsequent sections. The final section of this chapter describes how the nature of atoms began to be clarified with the discovery of the electron.