Henry Moseley killed at Gallipoli
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.031024
On this day 100 years ago the physicist Henry Moseley was killed during the Battle of Gallipoli in Turkey. Although he was only 27 at the time of his death, Moseley had already established himself as one of the foremost experimental physicists of the time. Using the then-new technique of x-ray spectroscopy, he demonstrated the physical basis for atomic number and, with it, the physical basis of Dmitri Mendeleev’s periodic table. Moseley had volunteered for military service. After his untimely death, the British government changed the eligibility requirements for combat. In the next world war, Britain’s scientists waged war from their labs, not on the battlefield.
Date in History: 10 August 1915
