Roentgen (unit) this derivative quantity the roentgen equivalent physical (rep) to distinguish it from the ICR roentgen. The introduction of the roentgen measurement unit, which relied upon measuring the ionisation of air, replaced earlier less accurate practices that relied on timed exposure, film exposure, or fluorescence. This led the way to setting exposure limits,and the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements of the United States established the first formal dose limit in 1931 as 0.1 roentgen per day. The International X-ray and Radium Protection Committee, now known as the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) soon followed with a limit of
Discovery of the neutron elements by neutron irradiation (1934) and the fission of uranium atoms by neutrons (1938). The discovery of fission led to the creation of both nuclear power and weapons by the end of World War II. Both the proton and neutron were presumed to be elementary particles until the 1960s when they were determined to be composite particles built from quarks. At the start of the 20th century, the vigorous debate as to the existence of atoms had not yet been resolved. Philosophers such as Ernst Mach and Wilhelm Ostwald denied that atoms were real, viewing them as a convenient mathematical