LORD RUTHERFORD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22831, 16 March 1936, Page 2

LORD RUTHERFORD

THE FARADAY LECTURE \

(From Our Own Correspondent) (By Air Mail)

LONDON. February 15. Lord Rutherford delivered the Faraday lecture of the Chemical Society at the' Royal Institution this week. Every seat in the lecture theatre, in winch many world-famous scientists have unfolded the results of their investigations, was occupied. People were seated on the steps between the seats, both on the main floor and in the gallery Lord Rutherford was in his usual good form. He spoke with the aid ot only a few notes. He told the story of his experiments at the Cavendish Laboratory since in 1895 he began investigations ot X-rays and the radiations from radoactive substances. The original diagrams illustrating tllcse early experiments were shown on a lantern screen, and as Lord Rutherford came to each stage where new facts were proved his audience applauded with enthusiasm. . The study of atomic radio-activity, said Lord Rutherford, had been extraordinarily fruitful in extending our knowledge of the nature and varieties of atoms and of the way in which one atom could be changed into another. By the different methods employed today, he said, they had been enabled to extend widely their knowledge of the modes of transformation of the elements. In some cases the nuclei of the atoms could be caused, to break up with explosive violence, giving rise to new stable elements. In other cases new radioactive bodies were produced which corresponded to unstable isotopes of the elements. More than 50 of these artificiallyproduced radioactive bodies were now known, and no doubt many more would be found in the near future. “The subject or radioactivity has, indeed, been born anew, and has entered again on a new and vigorous phase of life,” Lord Rutherford added. "The opening up of this new territory has only been made possible by the development of new and powerful electric methods of producing intense streams of bombarding particles with high speeds, and by the improvement of the automaic methods ol counting swift particles” At the end of his lecture, Lord Rutherford was a little regretful. Ho hoped that new “ families ” of radioactive elements would be discovered, and his only regret was that he was not young again to help to unravel their complexities.