The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING “LUCEO NON URO” THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1937. Lord Rutherford

Southland Times, Issue 23336, 21 October 1937, Page 4

The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING “LUCEO NON URO” THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1937. Lord Rutherford

The death of Lord Rutherford, announced in a cable message this morning, ends the career of a great New Zealander. His achievements have not been of the kind that appeal directly to the imaginations of men, and New Zealanders who now accept radio as a commonplace of daily life do not always realize that his research in physics was an essential part of its development. As long ago as 1894 he was experimenting at Canterbury College with a detector which received ether waves from a distance of one mile; and it was by improving on this and a similar device invented by another scientist that Marconi was able to introduce wireless telegraphy. But the great work of Lord Rutherford’s life has been in the development of the atomic theory which for more than a hundred years has drawn the world’s best physicists into patient research. This theory was first put forward by Dalton; and in 1897 Professor J. J. Thomson discovered the electron. Lord Rutherford’s achievement was to break up an atom, and to advance the new theory of the proton—the positive nucleus of the atom. These are matters which may seem remote from the practical affairs of life. ’ In a message printed this morning the Prime Minister emphasizes the gap between the outlook of the man in the street and that of the scientist who spends his working hours in highly technical experiment. “It would be foolish of me, as it would be for many others,” states Mr Savage, “to pretend any claim to knowledge of the science in which this distinguished New Zealander won fame for himsqlf and for his country.”

This must be the normal reaction of those to whom Lord Rutherford has been little more than a name. There have been times when his career has been brought close to us by the announcements of discoveries and rewards, and by rumours of a fame confirmed in the opinions of contemporary scientists. But his work has been carried out in laboratories where only the few are qualified to understand the course of research, and although much has been written of the disintegration of the atom and of the transmutation of elements the plain man feels himself in the presence of a mystery, and is inclined to wonder what practical results may come from it. Yet it was the early study of radioactivity which made possible the transmission of sound waves, and every new stage in the long investigation of the constitution of matter is the basis of improvement in the equipment and products of industry. Beyond this, too, the studies of physicists have a formative influence on the thought of mankind. Their conception of matter is the foundation for that view of the universe which ultimately finds acceptance among the world’s thinkers, and is diffused thereafter across the intellectual climate of the age. At no other time in history has science contributed so much and in so many directions. But of the many who work in laboratories there are only a few with the insight into complex problems which comes with genius. In an age of scientific advance Lord Rutherford takes a high place. The future will claim him as a citizen of the world; but his fame is our fame also, and in the country of his birth and early training he will be remembered as a New Zealander who, like another great scientist before him, has had his voyaging “through strange seas of thought, alone.”