German physicist Gustav Hertz, born on 22nd July 1887 in Hamburg, won the Nobel Prize in 1925, for the Franck-Hertz Experiment conducted in 1914 with James Franck, who shared the Nobel honour.
Gustav Ludwig Hertz and James Frank established the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom through their ground-breaking experiment.
After the publication of Niels Bohr’s theory on the structure of the atom, Gustav Hertz and James Franck studied the movements of free electrons in various gases, and the impacts these electrons have on an atom’s functions. They conducted an experiment in 1913 to verify Bohr’s theory. A potential difference was applied to a tube containing a low-pressure gas. The potential difference increased the free electrons’ mobility until, at a certain energy level; they jumped to a higher-energy orbit instead.
Hertz was a Member of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin, Corresponding Member of the Gottingen Academy of Sciences, and a Foreign Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Gustav Hertz died in 1975 and James Franck in 1964.
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