A Young New Zealander at Home.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7652, 10 June 1896, Page 4

A Young New Zealander at Home.

The brilliant success of Mr Marris, formerly of Canterbury College, in the last Indian Civil Service examination in England has been equalled, if not eclipsed (says the Press), by the efforts of another young New Zealauder, Mr B. K. Rutherford, who wa' also at one time a student at Canterbury College. Mr Rutherford gained his M.A. degree here with double first-class honors in physics and mathematics, and winning a science scholarship awarded for original research went home to England and pursued his studies at the Cavendish Laboratory. He has made a speciality of electricity, and has performed some remarkable experiments, which, besides being of intense interc :t to scientists, may be of great commercial value. Ho first directed his pnergies to his " Periodometer," an instrument for measuring the periods of veiy rapidly alternating currents. He then turned his attention to the study of Hertzian wave 3, using his detector for the purpose. This detector surpasses in sensitiveness all previous ones, and Mr Rutherford has been able to detect electrical waves at a distance of 100 yards, the radiation having to pass through ton walls. At a conversaziono held * n tne Cavendish Laboratory, he was able t0 detect radiation passing through five walls at a distance of forty yards. Sir Robert Ball, Astronomer Koyal of Ireland, takes a great interest in the detector, and thinks that some such means may be used for signalling ships at sea in time of fog. Sir Robert Ball has also offered Mr Rutherford the use of the observatory for his experiments. Other eminent scientists, such as Sir Q. G. Stokes, and Mr J. J- Thomson, have W»» great interey j» his wo* Mr Rutherford's lette™ h rf i not Ohnstchuroh stake a * >J and he seems to be t t f cl / arly joy ' ful up in his work. He is i , •> J,: over the fact that he is free from ™'" stions, which he terms "the f ße « modern academical education. Mr Rutherford might have let some less successful student make that remark. Coming from a man to whom examinations appear to have hid so few terrors, and who attained such honors by their means it sounds decidedly ungrateful.