The Atom As a Solar System

FIGURE 321. The Rococo era of the old quantum theory comes to an end (J.D. Main Smith, Chemistry and Atomic Structure, New York, 1924). 

The Development of Modern Chemistry, Harper Row, New York, 1964, pp. 231-235. 

P ce shn P thi of 4 Sfectnon movtng on the Surface of an Ima nary Soifd Effpsoid of Qeyofutfon efth Nucfeusat the focus 

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From the beginning of his studies Langmuir was especially interested in the structure of the atom. The nature of the atom s structure was still very much in doubt. Many had crossed swords with nature to wrest this secret from her. Kelvin had pictured the atom as consisting of mobile electrons embedded in a sphere of positive electrification. J. J. Thomson had developed this same idea but his model, too, had failed because it could not account for many contradictory phenomena. Rutherford s nuclear theory of the atom as a solar system was also objected to as incomplete. The greatest difficulty to the acceptance of these models was that they all lacked a consistent explanation of the peculiar spectra of gaseous elements when heated to incandescence. 

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