Moseleys Research on X-Ray Spectra of Elements

FIGURE 22 Henry Gwyn Jeffreys Moseley (1887-1915). Photo and permission from Edgar Fahs Smith Collection. 

Moseley was still working in Rutherford s group in Manchester when he published his first paper on the high frequency spectra of the elements in the issue of the Philosophical Magazine for December 1913 (Moseley and Darwin, 1913). Moseley had been investigating the K radiation of at least 

Soon afterwards, Moseley wrote a second paper on the X-ray spectra of the elements, in which he stated that every element from aluminium to gold (which marked the boundaries of his studies) was characterized by an integer N which determined its X-ray spectrum. This integer N was the atomic number of the element and it was identified with the number of 

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