big balls that clack together make a good noice
Marcel Proust was a novelist, not a physicist. Joseph Proust was a French chemist who continued Lavoisier's (another French chemist who died in 1794 from radicals involved in the French Revolution) work. In 1799 Proust stated and proved the law of definite proportions (also called "Proust's Law"). This law soon helped John Dalton develop the law of multiple proportions. Always remember to specify which Proust you're talking about, because some people tend to think of Marcel(like I do) when they hear the name, (not to belittle Joseph), hence the first response to your query.
Antoine Lavoisier was a French nobleman and chemist. His contribution to the development of the modern atomic theory was his idea of the possibility of an Atomic Mass.
He determined the number of positive charges in the nucleus of an atom. He was the first one to bring the concept of atomic number.
The scientists who helped Dalton formulate his model were Antoine Lavoisier and Joseph Louis Proust. Research done by the two formed a basis for Dalton's Atomic Theory.
Henry Moseley showed elements in the periodic table should be in order by their atomic number instead of atomic mass.
Neil bohr has done research in quantum mechanics.
The contribution of anyone prior to about 1600 to the development of atomic theory might as well be "nothing whatsoever." Democritus and/or Leucippus contributed the name "atomos", but not much else; they were wrong about nearly every detail. John Dalton is just about the earliest scientist to have had any significant contribution to atomic theory, and most of what we now consider atomic theory was developed since about 1900.
I think it was that he theorized that when a new substance is made, the elemnts didn't change the atoms just rearranged. I'm not certain though. Galileo is more known for his research on planets.
Joseph Proust, based on experiments conducted at the end of the 18th Century claimed that elements combined in constant proportions. Dalton's atomic theory, (1903) built on this earlier work and put it into a theoretic framework.
atoms combine in whole numbers.
Dalton is credited for his expanding and formulating the modern atomic theory, but it was Jouseph Louis Proust and Antoine Lavoisier who are cited as initially discovering it.
Atomic Theory