SIR ERNEST RUTHERFORD

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 6 August 1919, Page 5

SIR ERNEST RUTHERFORD

TWELVF, YEARS' AYORK IN MANCHESTER.

RADIO-ACTIVITY

Ihe appointment of Sir Ernest utheiioru, V.R.ii., to tho Caveu-lish I i^tesso.i-i.im, ot Experimental l-iivsiug m -Cam .ridge Lmvei-sity, in eucces^iou iy b: r .J. j. Ihampson, Al'astei- of "Jim IV' £?*r ''«en announced by cable, and feir Knust will probably leave Manchester! i tllc> next Uimrei^ty

.Since 1907 <« ays the Manchester lel-c the AicGill tmiversity i n Montreil where he held the ChairVph^fe Jake up the duties of Langworthv l>io lessor of Physics in Manchester, The it h?i hp.m c Univeraty Moratory hcue been concerned chiefly with g,- mei vitS™,m?J^ if mdium and ™*W tuity and or the constitution of atoms and elements. So remarkable ra ?°h results obtained that in the k£ W year s 1 )( , ore the outbreak of wa fpr™ al,^ every country in Europe aionowith America and Australasia, had re presentataves working m the' 7le»uf "I W un^.Sir Ernst's direction s"^5"^ single alpha particles projected frog rndinm It was the first time ttint ™ Jected «Stt7 * mOti°n had been<£ tected By its means it was possible to determine the number of the mr! tides shot out trom a known ouantity "{ ij! dlUm al d to S»-e convincing S 3 um.S- rertneSS °f the at<"«Jc theory A few years after-his arrival in Manchester Professor Rutherford wa s forhS -f ",an )taillT S lOaU »f «^t Ji{it <i. gramme of«i-adium through the kindlier of the Vienna Academic BcS :in.i a great deal of the work "SS*}™*?* labora*«M 7 was only posMb,e by the use of it, though some mi por ant radKMiofeive residues wS e w" ™ >.v the Royal Society for speciaf in vo.«, S ations. The Arrival of the rad\^" 1«1 to a .systematic investigation of X P-opevfaes of the radium%manatLn^! the heavy radio-active eas which radium continuously emits." Wof^ or Rutherford and those working nndc • hm. fletermmed the volume of tho emanation, its spectrum and its conden mjou po,. ut Simultaneoudy Profetor Kotwooci, who had come over frSn J ale Lim-omty to work vrith them determined accurately the rate of the'nroW? th ,hehUm from Jad' i «™' Snd ■Sin ]t i vas iv clc^ conc°^ witti the amount predicted O^k,^, busied themselves 4h Xnatic^ n! jesf-rattons pf the different elements In the study ot different tyiK« of '.ui.um radiation exceedingly SelVl Richardson Dr F T Pm.n X i ■ F> O vr iJM ifci'Ssall Captain wic^' Ftoran^ and Mr J. chadmJt^l* 116 a? pha I )aj'fci rfefroin radium I)a^* through a thin volume of mit forn^ a ,fc tb t ttffie^f <n a , sm all volume of nucleus mA

lf ' rhe. sf l? dea*k of Henry G J jw ordinary mean" £*° '*• by msmsm

X-RAY SPEOTROSCOPY. When Lane, of ftTunk-h, furnished proof that X-rays are diffracted systematic investigations were at once bebnn by Moseley and C. J. Darwin—a grandson of Charles Darwin—who was in the department at the same time Jiito the.spectrum of X-rays emitted by several substances in a vacuum tube on. the passing of an electric charc 3 through it. These experiments, together with the results of a similar investigation at Leeds by Professor Bra™ —which were continued by Moseley and Darwin—were of a fundamental character and laid the foundation of the now' rapidly developing science of A-ray spectroscopy. "This new &tionce, Protessor Rutherford ooints one in an account of Moseley's work which has been published by the Royal Society, "has already had most important consequences in two main directions In the hands of Professo, Bragg and'his son che detraction of X-rays b y crystals has been employed with great success to unravel the mysteries of crystalline ttructure; while m the hands of Moseley and his successors the methods ha\e been employed to determine the fundamental mode of vibration of tho atoms :i.n,i to throw light on the constitution and the reunion of the dements. '

In continuation of this, work Moseley examined the X-ray spectra given b y a great number of the elements, and was able to show tnat the elements were dehncd b Y a whole number varied by unity passu, X through 0,.-c eie.nenr to another. I his whoUs number is beiicved to be a measure .»f the number «f units of eiectncJty composing the nucletis. rJhe resr.]" L was of groat valuo and HPporUntv?, an 3 ha.s l.ecu the start-ing-po!nt «f numerous researches and theories. (ho spej-t-.ini of the caiii^a rays eiKitteJ by i-.-idium—which are \- ra.ys of a j>enetracin S character-was deterininec by Andrade and Profe^or Rutheriord.

On the theoretical side of the work of the department J)r. Bohr, who was Reader m mathematical physics m the department and now hoids 'a profes*?" sh.p m the University of Copenhagen utilised the idea of the nucleus atom i-o explain the structure of the simple e!- Cments and to predict their spectra TIU jvas the first definite attempt, to' show the detailed constitution of atoms ~f innttor. and has had a large meLuo or success. Indeed, the. theories Ij liohv have exerc;sed a wide influei-r-e no only o ,i workers in thi ß count, y hut throughout the world "eneril'v

During the period of the war the - P rearoh .school at the Manchester Vniverl sity was completely s-oattered, and the amount of investigation naturally lias hern small as compared with the'veara immediately preceding but Dr G \ Hems:. lech .has published numerous optical papers with an important bearing en tht- interpretation of the spectrum given by the sun aad the stare