In 1911, a British scientist named C. T. R. Wilson1 was studying cloud formations by tramping regularly to the summit of Ben Nevis, a famously damp Scottish mountain, when it occurred to him that there must be an easier way. Back in the Cavendish Lab in Cambridge he built an artificial cloud chamber – a simple device in which he could cool and moisten the air, creating a reasonable model of a cloud in laboratory conditions. The device worked very well, but had an additional, unexpected benefit. When he accelerated an alpha particle through the chamber to seed his make-believe clouds, it left a
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Invention of Particle detector by CTR Wilson
