Rutherford performed a famous experiment where he fired alpha particles at very thin gold foil.
The experiment was set up with detectors both in front and behind the gold foil. Alpha particles are relatively heavy but small particles, like a helium atom without electrons.
Rutherford proved in this experiment that the atom consisted mainly of space (most of the alpha particles went through the gold foil) but with extremely dense nuclei (some of the alpha particles were deflected or even bounced back they way they had come).
This was a leap forward in knowledge about the structure of the atom at the time. The atom wasn't a uniform structure with particles evenly distributed in it. Rutherford proved and believed that the atom had a heavy, dense nucleus with electrons relatively far away.
The (cell) nucleus is generally believed to have been discovered by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek. The nucleus of the atom was discovered by Ernest Rutherford.
The gold-foil experiment
When Rutherford discovered the positive charge in an atom was concentrated in the nucleus, the neutron had yet to be discovered. There are no neutrons in Rutherford's model.
rutherford
Rutherford discovered the atomic nucleus, proposed a nuclear model of the atom also he isolated nitrogen.
Rutherford believed that the center of an atom, called the nucleus, contains positively charged particles called protons, which are surrounded by negatively charged electrons in orbit around it.
The (cell) nucleus is generally believed to have been discovered by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek. The nucleus of the atom was discovered by Ernest Rutherford.
Rutherford
Ernest Rutherford was the man you are thinking of. He was the first person to 'split the atom'.
The gold-foil experiment
split the atom
The nuclear atom was discovered by Ernest Rutherford. He did it with a gold foil experiment.
In 1920, Rutherford gave the name proton to the positively charged particles in the nucleus of an atom.
When Rutherford discovered the positive charge in an atom was concentrated in the nucleus, the neutron had yet to be discovered. There are no neutrons in Rutherford's model.
Rutherford discovered in the early 1900s that most of an atom's mass is located in its nucleus.
Rutherford imagined the atom to be a particle with a thickly concentrated positive nucleus and electrons moving around it.
Rutherford pictured the atom as a miniature solar system, with a dense positively charged nucleus at the center and electrons orbiting around it in fixed paths. This model is known as the Rutherford model of the atom.