John Dalton (1766-1844)

Dalton, John (b. Sept. 6, 1766, Eaglesfield, Cumberland. Eng.- d. July 27, 1844, Manchester), British chemist and physicist who developed the atomic theory of matter and hence is known as one of the fathers of modern physical science. Dalton was the son of a Quaker weaver. When only 12 he took charge of a Quaker school in Cumberland and two years later taught with his brother at a school in Kendal, where he was to remain for 12 years. He then became a teacher of mathematics and natural philosophy at New College in Manchester, a college established by the Presbyterians to give a first-class education to both layman and candidates for the ministry, the doors of Cambridge and Oxford being open at that time only to members of the Church of England. He resigned this position in 1800 to become secretary of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society and served as a public and private teacher of mathematics and chemistry. In 1817 he became president of the Philosophical Society, an honorary office that he held until his death
Started as a lecturer, Sir John Dalton is one of the most famous chemists. His achievements include discovery of atoms, development of John Dalton's atomic theory and color blindness findings. He postulated that elements are made up of small atoms, which can neither be created nor destroyed. In his theory, it was mentioned that atoms of an element are similar to each other, but they differ from those of other elements.

Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev (1834-1907)

Born: 7 February 1834 Birthplace: Tobolsk, Siberia (now Russia) Died: 2 February 1907 Best Known As: The chemist who created the periodic table of elements

Leaf through the history of periodic table of elements and you will come across Dmitri Mendeleev, a Russian chemist. He was the creator of original periodic table, though various modifications have been made to it for better referencing. In the Mendeleev periodic table, 68 elements were arranged in increasing order of the atomic weight and similar properties. At that time, he already knew about the existence of other elements that were yet to be discovered.

Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937)

Ernest Rutherford was born on August 30, 1871, in Nelson, New Zealand, the fourth child and second son in a family of seven sons and five daughters. His father James Rutherford, a Scottish wheelwright, emigrated to New

Zealand with Ernest's grandfather and the whole family in 1842. His mother, neMartha Thompson, was an English schoolteacher, who, with her widowed mother, also went to live there in 1855.

Honored as the father of nuclear physics, Ernest Rutherford was a British-New Zealand chemist and physicist renowned for his discovery of half life in radioactive substances which is also referred to as radioactivity. In 1908, he received the Nobel Prize in chemistry. Following that, he postulated planetary model or Rutherford model for structure of an atom. He was the first chemist to try splitting of an atom and it's nucleus.