Halle, Germany/halle630
Previous | Home | NextStudying the original literature, including the graduate dissertations, of Dorn in the library. This research showed that Dorn should not be credited with the discovery of radon. Contrary to current belief today, Dorn never named the source of the radioactivity, and in fact did not understand at all that he was studying a gas. Instead, he thought he was collecting some strange form of radioactivity that diffused to various aqueous and organic solutions. The true discoverer of radon should be Rutherford {LINK: Canada010} at McGill University in Canada, who termed the gas "radium emanation." The dissertations of Dorn's graduate students made it clear that they understood the nature of radon, and adopted the term "radium emanation," only when they had "accepted the view of Rutherford and the Curies."
