alchemists
performed reactions without careful measurements or recording information
Robert Boyle
the first to perform accurate measurements and recordings of chemical reactions, wrote "The Skeptic Chemists"
George Stahl
suggested that fire produced a substance called phlogiston
Joseph Priestly
disproved the phlogiston theory and is given credit for discovering oxygen, but not naming it
Antoine Lavoisier
explained the true nature of combustion and gave oxygen it's name
Joseph Proust
Law of Definite Proportion
John Dalton
Wrote "New Systems of Chemical Philosophy", Law of Multiple Proportions, Dalton's Law of partial pressures
Humphry Davy
discovered several alkali and alkaline earth metals and the elemental nature of chlorine and iodine
Jons Jakob Berzelius
discovered cerium, selenium, silicon, and thorium, made modern system of using symbols for elements
Dmitri Mendeleev
gave us modern day sequence of the periodic table
Eugen Goldstein
discovered protons, he called them canal rays
J.J. Thomson
used the cathode ray tube to discover the electron and calculate the charge to mass ratio equation for the electron
Robert Millikan
oil droplet experiment; was able to determine the magnitude of the electron charge, using Thomson's equation was able to determine the mass of an electron
Ernest Rutherford
gold foil experiment; atoms consisted of a sparsely occupied electron field and a dense positively charged center (nucleus)
Francis Aston
invented mass spectrometer, proved existence of isotopes