Charles Rugeley Bury (29 June 1890 – 30 December 1968) was an English physical chemist who proposed an early model of the atom with the arrangement of electrons, which explained their chemical properties, alongside the more dominant model of

Niels Bohr Niels Henrik David Bohr (; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. B ...

. In some early papers, the model was called the "Bohr-Bury Atom". He introduced the word ''transition'' to describe the elements now known as

transition metal In chemistry, a transition metal (or transition element) is a chemical element in the d-block of the periodic table (groups 3 to 12), though the elements of group 12 (and less often group 3) are sometimes excluded. They are the elements that can ...

s or transition elements. Bury was born in Henley-on-Thames and grew up in Ellfield, Wotton-under-Edge. His father had studied law but did not continue in the field and died when he was young. A grandmother in Leamington took care of him and his early education was at

Malvern College Malvern College is an Independent school (United Kingdom), independent coeducational day and boarding school in Malvern, Worcestershire, Malvern, Worcestershire, England. It is a public school (United Kingdom), public school in the British sen ...

. He then went to

Trinity College, Oxford (That which you wish to be secret, tell to nobody) , named_for = The Holy Trinity , established = , sister_college = Churchill College, Cambridge , president = Dame Hilary Boulding , location = Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BH , coordinates ...

where D.H. Nagel was a tutor. His chemistry teachers included Harold Hartley. Bury worked as a demonstrator in Balliol and Trinity College labs. In 1912 he went to

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

and worked with Walther Nernst. He then joined the chemistry department at the

University College of Wales, Aberystwyth , mottoeng = A world without knowledge is no world at all , established = 1872 (as ''The University College of Wales'') , former_names = University of Wales, Aberystwyth , type = Public , endowment = ...

in 1913 and volunteered with the

Gloucestershire Regiment The Gloucestershire Regiment, commonly referred to as the Glosters, was a line infantry regiment of the British Army from 1881 until 1994. It traced its origins to Colonel Gibson's Regiment of Foot, which was raised in 1694 and later became the ...

in 1914. He saw action in

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...

and returned in 1919. In 1921 Bury proposed a model of the atom which suggested that electrons were distributed symmetrically over the surface of concentric spheres which could hold 2, 8, 18, and 32 electrons. He proposed that an outer layer of electrons can contain a maximum of 8 electrons (s²p⁶ in modern notation), and that for inner layers there occurs a ''transition series'' of elements during the change from 8 to 18 (or 18 to 32) electrons. This was the first use of the word ''transition'' in the context of electron configurations. In July 1943, Bury moved to the

Imperial Chemical Industries Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was a British chemical company. It was, for much of its history, the largest manufacturer in Britain. It was formed by the merger of four leading British chemical companies in 1926. Its headquarters were at M ...

to worked with colleague M.P. Appleby and retired from there in 1952. His other works were on the chemistry of colour, freezing points, and on micelles. He married Margaret Adams in 1922 and they had a son and a daughter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bury, Charles Rugeley 1890 births 1968 deaths English chemists