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Friedrich Ernst Dorn

Friedrich Ernst Dorn was a German physicist known for discovering that radon is emitted from radium. He held various academic positions, including ordinarius professor for theoretical and experimental physics at Halle University. Dorn's work contributed to the understanding of radioactive emissions, although credit for the discovery of radon is often attributed to Ernest Rutherford.

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12 views3 pages

Friedrich Ernst Dorn

Friedrich Ernst Dorn was a German physicist known for discovering that radon is emitted from radium. He held various academic positions, including ordinarius professor for theoretical and experimental physics at Halle University. Dorn's work contributed to the understanding of radioactive emissions, although credit for the discovery of radon is often attributed to Ernest Rutherford.

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Friedrich Ernst Dorn

Friedrich Ernst Dorn (27 July 1848 – 16 December


1916) was a German physicist who was the first to Friedrich Ernst Dorn
discover that a radioactive substance, later named
radon, is emitted from radium.

Life and work


Dorn was born in Guttstadt (Dobre Miasto), Province
of Prussia (nowadays Warmia in Poland), and died in
Halle, Province of Saxony. He was educated at
Königsberg and went on to teach at the university
level. In 1885, at Halle University, Dorn took over the
position of personal ordinarius professor for
theoretical physics from Anton Oberbeck. Since Dorn
was already an ordinarius professor,[1] he was allowed
to assume the title so as to not appear as having been Friedrich Ernst Dorn
demoted.[2] In 1895, Dorn succeeded Hermann Born 27 July 1848
Knoblauch at Halle as the ordinarius professor for Guttstadt (Dobre Miasto),
experimental physics[3] and director of the physics Province of Prussia
institute. Dorn's previous duties were assumed by Carl
Died 16 December 1916 (aged 68)
Schmidt, who had been a Privatdozent and was called
Halle, Province of Saxony,
as an extraordinarius professor for theoretical
Germany
physics.[4]
Nationality German
In 1900, Dorn published a paper in which he described Alma mater University of Königsberg
experiments that repeated and extended some earlier Known for Dorn effect
work on thorium by Ernest Rutherford. Dorn verified Radon
Rutherford's observation that a radioactive material
Scientific career
was emitted by thorium, and discovered that a similar
emission arose from the element radium.[5] Additional Fields Physics
work by Rutherford and Soddy showed that the same Institutions Halle University
emission came from both thorium and radium, that it
was a gas, and that it was actually a new element.[6]

Dorn called the radioactive gaseous product from radium simply "emanation", but in 1904 Rutherford
introduced the name "radium emanation" for the same material. Ramsay later suggested "niton", from the
Latin word "nitens" meaning "shining".[7] In 1923 the name was again changed, this time to radon by an
international body of scientists.
Marshall and Marshall have examined the original papers leading to radon's discovery and their work
should be consulted for a full treatment and extensive references.[8] They conclude that it is actually
Rutherford who should be awarded credit for radon's discovery since he was the first to detect the
element being emitted from any radioisotope (thorium) and the first to demonstrate radon's gaseous
nature. Rutherford was also the first to integrate his own work on radon with that of others on radon's
atomic mass, its spectrum, and its position on the periodic table.

References
1. The position of ordinarius professor outranks that of extraordinarius professor, which is
comparable to that of associate professor.
2. Jungnickel and McCormmach, 1990b: p. 37
3. In Germany, until the early twentieth century, experimental physics had priority over
theoretical physics, and therefore such positions were considered to be higher in rank. This
changed with the rise of German theoretical physics in the early twentieth century, especially
through the activities of Max Born at the University of Göttingen and Arnold Sommerfeld at
the University of Munich, who adroitly used experimental physics to test and develop their
theories.
4. Jungnickel and McCormmach, 1990b: p. 293
5. Dorn, F. E. (1900). "Die von radioactiven Substanzen ausgesandte Emanation".
Abhandlungen der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft zu Halle. 23: 1–15.
6. Rutherford, E. (1906). Radioactive Transformations. New Haven: Yale University Press.
pp. 70–94.
7. Ramsay, W. (1915). The Gases of the Atmosphere (https://archive.org/details/atmospherega
s00ramsrich) (4 ed.). London: Macmillan. pp. 283 (https://archive.org/details/atmospheregas
00ramsrich/page/n320).
8. Marshall, James L.; Virginia R. Marshall (2003). "Ernest Rutherford, The "True Discoverer"
of Radon" (http://acshist.scs.illinois.edu/bulletin_open_access/v28-2/v28-2%20p76-83.pdf)
(PDF). Bulletin for the History of Chemistry. 28 (2): 76–83. Retrieved 2021-03-16.

Further reading
Jungnickel, Christa and Russell McCormmach. Intellectual Mastery of Nature: Theoretical
Physics from Ohm to Einstein, Volume 1: The Torch of Mathematics, 1800 to 1870.
University of Chicago Press, 1990a.
Jungnickel, Christa and Russell McCormmach. Intellectual Mastery of Nature: Theoretical
Physics from Ohm to Einstein, Volume 2: The Now Mighty Theoretical Physics, 1870 to
1925. University of Chicago Press, 1990b.
Marshall, James L.; Virginia R. Marshall (2003). "Ernest Rutherford, The "True Discoverer"
of Radon" (https://web.archive.org/web/20100621022117/http://www.scs.uiuc.edu/~mainzv/
HIST/awards/OPA%20Papers/2003-Marshall.pdf) (PDF). Bulletin for the History of
Chemistry. 28 (2): 76–83. Archived from the original (http://www.scs.uiuc.edu/~mainzv/HIST/
awards/OPA%20Papers/2003-Marshall.pdf) (PDF) on 2010-06-21. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
Weeks, Mary Elvira (1933). "The Discovery of the Elements. XIX. The Radioactive
Elements". Journal of Chemical Education. 10 (2): 79–90. Bibcode:1933JChEd..10...79W (ht
tps://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1933JChEd..10...79W). doi:10.1021/ed010p79 (https://doi.o
rg/10.1021%2Fed010p79).
Wigand, A. (1916). "Ernst Dorn". Phys. Z. 17: 299.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Friedrich_Ernst_Dorn&oldid=1222385627"

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