Harkins, William Draper (1873-1951), was an American chemist who helped to clarify thinking on the nature of the atom. In 1927, Harkins described a particle of matter, now called the neutron, that he reasoned must exist within the atom. Harkins believed that the neutron could be formed from a positively charged proton and a negatively charged electron, which combined in a way that neutralized their charges. The English physicist James Chadwick’s discovery of the neutron in 1932 confirmed this theory. Harkins was born on Dec. 28, 1873, in Titusville, Pennsylvania, and died on March 7, 1951.
