edited by A Lakhtakia (Pennslyvania State Univ.)

Atomic theory began more than two and a half millenia ago in Greece and India; but scientific details have emerged — albeit very rapidly — only in our century. This book conveys a glimpse of the grandeur of 20th century physics through nine essays and one interview on the models and modelers of a basic element of matter: the hydrogen atom. The basic ideas are simply presented and illustrated, the mathematical treatments are of a tutorial nature, and facsimile reproductions of ten key papers are included. Using the simple hydrogen atom, educators may use this book to initiate high school students into the grandeur of physics or motivate university students to become science-literate.

• Greek Metaphysics and Thales from a Modern Perspective (D Rose)
• J J Thomson's Atom: A Number of Negatively Electrified Corpuscles Enclosed in a Sphere of Uniform Positive Electrification (M Barón)
• Niels Bohr -Through Hydrogen Towards the Nature of Matter (D S Robertson)
• Heisenberg and Hydrogen (J D Edmonds, Jr)
• Erwin Schrödinger, Wave Mechanics and the Hydrogen Atom (O L de Lange)
• Dirac and the Emergence of Quantum Mechanics (V Y Rajopadhye)
• Hans Sallhofer Speaks (A Lakhtakia)
• The Hydrogen Atom: The Rutherford Model (H B Tilton)
• Arnold Sommerfeld (W B White)
• Electron Spin and Samuel Goudsmit (T Biswas)
• On the Structure of the Atom (J J Thomson)
• The Scattering of α and β particles by Matter and the Structure of the Atom (E Rutherford)
• On the Constitution of Atoms and Molecules (N Bohr)
• Zur Theorie des Zeeman-Effekts der Wasserstofflinien, mit einem Anhang über den Stark-Effekt (A Sommerfeld)
• Spinning Electrons and the Structure of Spectra (G E Uhlenbeck & S A Goudsmit)
• Über das Wasserstoffspektrum vom Standpunkt der neuen Quantenmechanik (W Pauli, Jr)
• Quantisierung als Eigenwertproblem (Erst Mitteilung) (E Schrödinger)
• The Quantum Theory of the Electron (P A M Dirac)
• The Quantum Theory of the Electron. Patt II (P A M Dirac)
• Hydrogen in Electrodynamics. VI. The General Solution (H H Sallhofer)