Atlas Trail
Credit Where Credit Was Due
Five results everyone half-remembers, and the fuller story behind who actually did the work: Scheele, Priestley and Lavoisier on oxygen; Rosalind Franklin's Photograph 51; Harvey Fletcher's uncredited share of the oil drop experiment; Eddington's eclipse data put to the test decades later; and phonology's real, less-famous founder.
Stop 1 of 5.
Experiments
Scheele isolated oxygen first but published late; Priestley published promptly and is usually credited; Lavoisier recognised what it actually was.
Stop 2 of 5.
Experiments
The X-ray photograph that let Watson and Crick see a helix, shown to them without Franklin's knowledge.
Stop 3 of 5.
Experiments
A landmark measurement of the elementary charge, and a co-experimenter's authorship dispute that surfaced only after both men had died.
Stop 4 of 5.
Experiments
Challenged as unreliable for decades, then vindicated by a 1979 re-analysis.
Stop 5 of 5.
Concepts
The field's real, often-unacknowledged founder, a generation before the more famous Prague School.
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