Ernest Rutherford
1871 - 1937
"
All science is either physics or stamp collecting." (Ernest Rutherford)
“
Ernest Rutherford is one of the most illustrious scientists of all time. He is to the
atom what Darwin is to evolution, Newton to mechanics, Faraday to electricity and
Einstein to relativity.” (John Campbell,
Canterbury University)
In Brief:
Ernest Rutherford was a
Nobel award winning
New Zealand physicist who proposed
radioactive decay,
radiometric dating and discovered the
structure of the atom. His main achievements are shown in
bold.
The Early Years of Ernest Rutherford
Ernest Rutherford was born in
Nelson, New Zealand on August 30, 1871. He was the fourth child (second son) in a family of 12 children. His father, James Rutherford, was a
Scottish wheelwright who had emigrated to New Zealand in 1842, his mother, Martha (née Thompson) was an
English school
teacher who emigrated in 1855.
Ernest was educated in
New Zealand Government schools during his early education, then entered
Nelson College*
aged 16. In 1889, he won a scholarship to the
University of New Zealand (Wellington), where he attended Canterbury College (Christchurch, but administered from Wellington).
Ernest achieved a M.A. in 1893, as first in both
Mathematics and
Physical Science. He did some research work for the College for a short while, and received a B.Sc. by 1894. He was also awarded an 1851
Exhibition Science Scholarship that allowed him to go to
Trinity College,
Cambridge, where he studied as a research student under
J.J. Thomson (who would discover the
electron) at the
Cavendish Laboratory. In 1897, he received the B.A. Research Degree and the
Coutts-Trotter Studentship. He left England in 1898 to become the
Macdonald Chair of Physics at
McGill University,
Montreal,
Canada.
The Middle Years
Ernest Rutherford was elected Fellow of the
Royal Society in 1903 and was its
President from 1925 to 1930. In 1907, Rutherford returned to England to take the position of
Langworthy Professor of Physics at the
University of Manchester... then in 1919 became
Cavendish Professor of Physics at Cambridge. He also became
Chairman of the Advisory Council,
H.M. Government,
Department of Scientific and Industrial Research;
Professor of Natural Philosophy,
Royal Institution,
London; and
Director of the Royal Society Mond Laboratory, Cambridge. He was also knighted in 1914. This
knighthood was followed, in 1925, by an appointment to the
Order of Merit, and a
peerage (First
Baron Rutherford of Nelson, NZ and Cambridge) in 1931.
Ernest Rutherford, during this period, also had many new accolades:
- Rumford Medal (1905, Royal Society)
- Bressa Prize (1910, Turin Academy of Science)
- Copley Medal (1922, Royal Society)
- Albert Medal (1928, Royal Society of Arts)
- Faraday Medal (1930, Institution of Electrical Engineers)
- D.Sc. (University of New Zealand)
- ...not to mention honourary doctorates from the Universities of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, McGill, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Melbourne, Yale, Glasgow, Giessen, Copenhagen, Cambridge, Dublin, Durham, Oxford, Liverpool, Toronto, Bristol, Cape Town, London and Leeds!
The Later Years and Private Life
Ernest Rutherford married Mary Newton in 1900, and the couple had one child, Eileen (who, just for interest, married a physicist,
R.H. Fowler). Ernest was interested in
golf and
motoring when he was not doing scientific experiments.
Lab partner
C.D. Ellis said of Rutherford "
the majority of the experiments at the Cavendish were really started by Rutherford's direct or indirect suggestion", and Rutherford also taught many other chemists and future Nobel prize winners. He worked in chemistry all his life.
Rutherford never forgot his
homeland of New Zealand, and returned many times during his life. He was quick to spot young
Kiwis with scientific talent and to take them to England for an education. Rutherford retired in
Christchurch, NZ.
He died in Cambridge on October 19, 1937. His ashes were buried in the
nave of
Westminster Abbey, just west of
Sir Isaac Newton's tomb and by that of
Lord Kelvin.
Scientific Discoveries, Theories, Papers, Experiments etc
Ernest Rutherford began his researches while he was still in New Zealand, and
experimented with the
magnetic properties of iron exposed to
high-frequency
oscillations (thesis =
Magnetization of Iron by High-Frequency Discharges), then
completed a second paper (
Magnetic Viscosity) which described a piece of equipment
that would be able to
measure tiny time intervals (down to a hundred-thousandth of a
second).
When Rutherford arrived at Cambridge, Professor Thomson encouraged him to study
the newly-discovered
X-ray. The two scientists observed the behaviour of
ions in
X-ray treated gas, the mobility of ions in relation to the strength of
electric fields and
other topics (such as the
photoelectric effect) in 1897.
It was during this time at the Cavendish Laboratory that Rutherford also invented a
detector for
electromagnetic waves, which relied on a
magnetizing coil with tiny
bundles of
magnetized iron wire.
In 1898, Rutherford reported the existence of
alpha and beta rays in
uranium
radiation, and hypothesised some of their propeties.
When he moved to Montreal to take a position at McGill, he continued his work on
alpha rays and
radioactive bodies in the Macdonald Lab. With
R.B. Owens, he studied
thorium, and discovered a
new noble gas (an isotope of
radon, now known as
thoron).
Rutherford, working with
Frederick Soddy, created the
disintegration theory of
radioactivity, did a lot of experimentation and discovered a number of
new
radioactive substances. Just for interest, Otto Hahn, who would discover
atomic
fission, worked under Rutherford at the Montreal Lab. Rutherford discovered
gamma rays in 1900.
Back at Manchester, Rutherford continued his previously described research, and
joined with
H. Geiger to discover a
method of detecting a single alpha particle and counting the number of emitted from radium was devised (this, of course, was the
Geiger counter... Rutherford was a humble man, and many theories, instruments, experiments and papers that should be at least partially credited to him are, in fact, not).
One of Ernest Rutherford's more famous experiments was held in 1910, when he noted whilst that alpha particles thrown at a sheet of
gold leaf would mainly pass through, some where reflected back at an almost 180
degree angle. He investigated the scattering of the alpha rays, and the inner
structure of the atom, and finally developed the concept that atoms had a
nucleus... this would be his greatest contribution to the world of physics. He then theorised that all of the positive charge and nearly all the mass of an atom was concentrated in the centre of the atom. He came up with a picture of an atom - electrons orbiting the nucleus, held in place by their
angular velocity and the electromagnetic attraction to the nucleus (remember his work with magnetics?).
Niels Bohr joined forces with Rutherford in 1912, and together they developed Rutherford's
nuclear structure to
Max Planck's
quantum theory to come up with the basic
atomic structure we know so well today.
Or, as Fruan has said: (stolen with permission)
"Niels Bohr, however, found fault with this model (ie Rutherford's original picture), because for the electrons to stay in suchs orbits the would be losing energy constantly, and thus fall into the nucleus. This led to the "Rutherford-Bohrs" model, which relied on fixed energy orbitals, only allowing the electrons to give off energy in certain '
quanta', in this case
photons.
Erwin Schrodinger later refined this model futher, adding more
funky quantum shit that really doesn't belong in this write up."
In a nutshell : Rutherford proved, through a series of experiments,
John Dalton's
atomic theory.
With
H.G. Moseley, in 1913, Rutherford bombarded the atoms of various elements with
cathode rays, and proved that each element could be assigned an
atomic number (as the inner structures of the elements corresponded with a group of lines characterising the elements), and this atomic number could define the properities of the element.
In 1919, his last year at Manchester, he figured out that the nuclei of
light elements (like
nitrogen) could be "disintegrated" by alpha particles from a
radioactive source hitting the nuclei, and that fast protons were emitted during this process.
Blackett later proved that the nitrogen was transformed into an
isotope of
oxygen, so Rutherford was the first to
transmute an element.
During his time at various
academic institutions, Ernest Rutherford also published a number of books:
Rutherford was active during
World War I, but did not actually condone the fighting. He was highly frustrated by the fact that scientists working under him (many who were on their way to a Nobel prize) kept being sent to the war front and getting killed. Rutherford's contribution to the
Allies' war effort was research into
detecting submarines via sonar.
Summing Up
Ernest Rutherford was an extremely important man in the field of science, and his works still stand today. He proved John Dalton's atom, and followed the work of
Pierre and
Marie Curie, experimenting with radiation. He did extremely important research, much of which is not attributed to him, but is most famous for
splitting the atom. He discovered the
half-life of radioactive elements and applied this discovery to studies of
age determination of rocks by measuring the
decay period of
radium to
lead-206. He also
coined a whole bunch of terms that are in common scientific usage, to do with radiation.
Sources: Nobel e-museum; Kiwi Web; pbs.org; rutherford.org.nz and stuff gained through a search on xrefer.com
* Discrepancy - some sources say Nelson Collegiate
Because this is node 150, I'm going to do a dedication... to TheBooBooKitty for mentoring me through 110 nodes - thank you!; to Fruan for making me do this node as 150 (although we all know you just want to delete yours so you can get an even higher node-fu hahaha) and to sid for telling me to take my time with this one, no matter how much pressure a certain couple of previously-mentioned people might be putting on me :)