FAMOUS SCIENTIST

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 20 October 1937, Page 6

FAMOUS SCIENTIST

LORD RUTHERFORD DEAD FOLLOWING ABDOMINAL OPERATION [Utipcil Ptss AHsomalion— H.v Electric Telegraph—Unpv riijlit 1 (Received 20th October, 1.5 p.m.) LONDON. l!)tli October. The death is announced following an abdominal operation of Lord Rutherford of Nelson, aged (id years. Lord Rutherford of Nelson was created a Baron in 1931. He was born at Nelson. New Zealand, in 1871, being a son of the late James and the late Martha Rutherford, Taranaki, New Zealand. Educated at Nelson College, Canterbury College and the New Zealand University, Lord Rutherford proceeded in Cambridge University to continue his studies, lie received his M.A. degree with Ist class honours in mathematics and physics in 189 J, and also the B.Sc. degree in 1894. He entered Trinity College (Cambridge) and prosecuted physical science research at Cavendish Laboratory, the results of which made him world famous. Lord Rutherford, during liis career, was the recipient of many awards and medals for his research work, including the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1908. At the time of his death Lord Rutherford was Professor of Experimental Physics and Director of Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge. Director of tire Royal Society Mond Laboratory, Cambridge, and Chairman of the Advisory Council of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Lord Rutherford was married in 1900 (o Mary G. Newton, a daughter of Arthur and Mary De Renzy Newton, of Christchurch, New Zealand. HIS LIFE’S WORK FOR SCIENCE Lord Rutherford honoured this district of his birth by associating Nelson with his name. As a Brightwater boy. and an Old Boy of Nelson College, his name has very close and personal associations with tlie district. Lord Rutherford took his M.A. degree at Canterbury College in 1894. He gained a Junior University Scholarship at Nelson College and a Senior Scholarship at Canterbury College, next year taking first-class honours in mathematics and physics. He went to England in 1895, having won an Exhibition Scholarship. While still at Canterbury Colleeg he succeeded in making some notable experiments in the young science of wireless telegraphy. On reaching England he joined the Cavendish Laboratory. where Sir J. J. Thompson was professor, and in 1896 he read a paper to the Royal Society of London on his researches on electro-magnetic waves. It is difficult to realise that twentyseven years have passed since Lord Rutherford received a Nobel Prize. On 10th December, 1902, he received the prize, not for physics, as might generally have been expected, but for chemistry. The award was for his researches on radioactivity, and at that time many regarded the study of radioactivity as belonging to chemistry. The phenomenon of radioactivity presented great psychological difficulties to the early investigators (according to the scientific correspondent of the “Manchester Guardian”). The human mind has a natural tendency to try to interpret newly-discovered phenomena by the principles which have served to interpret known phenomena. Perhaps Lord Rutherford’s greatest contribution to the fin t period of radioactive research was free thinking on novel facts. But

this quality was only a part of his contribution. He combined it with an astonishing power of work. Students of physics who have read the sequence of papers Lord Rutherford published between 189 G and 1907 must often have wondered how such a multitude of experiments could have been done in the time.

Seven years after the discovery of radioactivity fie was able to give, in conjunction with Soddy, the theory of spontaneous atomic disintegration which provided the complete interpretation of the known facts and the basis for all subsequent research.

This first period of Lord Rutherford’s career closed with his departure from Montreal for Manchester in 1907 and his reception of the Nobel Prize in 1908. He was then thirty-seven years old, and had completed what might legitimately have been regarded as a lifework. The second period of his career was spent in Manchester between 1907 and 1919. This proved even greater than the first. While at Manchester he worked out the nuclear theory of the atom. Once more his conceptual originality was decisive, for he had to adopt a model for the atom which could not work according to accepted mechanical principles. He proved experimentally that the atom must be a roomy structure in which nearly all of the mass was concentrated in a tiny central nucleus. This was the key to what is named atomic physics.

By this time Rutherford had attracted research students from many lands. Among them was Moseley, who discovered that the number of elements must be limited. He was killed in the war at the age of twenty-eight. But, most remarkable of all. there was Niels Bohr. The student of the history of science reflects with never-ending excitement on the destiny that brought together in Manchester the master experimenter from New Zealand and the theoretical genius from Denmark. In 1914 Manchester University had Rutherford as professor and Bohr as lecturer in physics. Rutherford had provided the model for the atom, and Bohr gave the mechanics by which it could work. Armed with the Rutherford-Bohr conception of the atom, physicists started a campaign,

which still advances with unabated triumph on the investigation of matter. The third period of Lord Rutherford’s career began as Cavendish Professor of Experimental Physics at Cambridge in 1919. In 1919 he announced that he had accomplished the first artificial disintegration of an atom. He was the first to arrange the transmutation of an element. After this he began a detailed study of the structure of the atomic nucleus. For a number of years new knowledge was accumulated without any striking discovery. The fire seemed to have settled a little. Then in 1932 came the announcement from the Cavendish Laboratory of the discovery of the neutron by Chadwick. A few weeks later Cockcroft and Walton announced the first disintegration of an atom by a machine of human construction, and a few months later Blackett announced that he had definitely confirmed the discovery of the positive electron by Anderson of Pasadena. The third period has proved the equal of i the first and of the second.