STUDY OF PHYSICS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16539, 5 January 1928, Page 10

STUDY OF PHYSICS

NEW LABORATORY. AT BRISTOL. SIR E. RUTHERFORD OX RESEARCH. LONDON, October “8. Sir Ernest Rutherford formally opened the new Henry Herbert Wilts Physics Laboratory at. Bristol,, one of the finest and best equipped in the world. It stands on the Royal Fort Estate, overlooking the city, and is therefore visible from all parts of Bristol. The late Mr. H. 11. Wills was the donor, his gift amounting to £200,000. Sir Ernest said it was little more than 50 years since special laboratories began to lie built, generally on a. small and modest scale, for study and research in experimental physics, and for the practical instruction of students. During the period physics in Bristol had been represented by three professors —first, for a short time, by the late Professor Sylvan us Thompson, whose contribution to science would long lie remembered; then by Professor Clintlock, who was held in high esteem by all his students ton the efficiency and inspiration of his teaching; on his retirement he was .succeeded by his pupil. Professor Tyndall, and he was sure that, it was not entirely an accident that the splendid laboratory had .its inception and completion during Professor Tyndall’s tenure of office. Sir Ernest Rutherford drew attention to res°arches in recent years on the life history of an ion, the avidity with which it seized on the molecules of water added to "a dry gas, and the still greater avidity for the heavy molecules of alcohol and the consequent sluggish movement of the loaded ion. (Laughter.) lONISATION OF GAS. ( On this aspect of the almost human behaviour of the gaseous ion,'the researches of Professor Tyndall and Ins students had given us, he said,, most valuable information. The ionisation of a gas by radium and X-rays gave into our hands a weapon of great power and range for studying quantitatively the nature of X-rays, and the rays from radioactive bodies. This had been largely instrumental in unravelling the wonderful sequence of transformations that occurred in radioactive matter, and had Ted to the discovery of more than 30 new unstable elements. In the second place, the information obtained of the mechanism of the passage of a current under tho simplest condition could be at once applied to more complicated forms of electric, discharge. It was soon recognised that the beautiful and varied •phenomena observed when an electric discharge passed through a gas at low ■pressure were a consequence of the ionisation of the gas by the strong electric, fields, similar to, but move complicated than, the discharge from a needle-point. One of the first results of 1 his study was the discovery of the electron, the mobile entity which we now knew was one of the ultimate units iu the structure of all atoms. Subsequently the Chancellor admitted to the degree of Doctor of Science honoris causa Professor Maxboni, of Gottingen, Sir William H. Bragg. Professor -A. S. Eddington. Professor Albert Fowler, Professor Paul Langcvin. of Paris, and Sir Ernest Rutherford. ,