Ernest Rutherford
20 Kirkwood Avenue, Upper Riccarton, Christchurch 8041, New Zealand
In 1889, Rutherford won a University scholarship and joined Canterbury College. He was a bright student and took interest in debates and rugby.
L to R. Dr. Ernest Walton (1903-1995), Lord Rutherford (1871-1937), Nobel prize winner for chemistry (1908), and Dr. John Cockcroft (1897 -1967) who have split the atom. Cockcroft and Walton later won the Nobel prize for physics (1951) for their work. (Photo by Central Press)
Portrait of New Zealand born British physicist and chemist Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937), who was awarded the 1908 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, early twentieth century. (Photo by Interim Archives)
1908
Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937), New Zealand atomic physicist. (Colourised black and white print). Artist Unknown. (Photo by The Print Collector)
1910
New Zealand born British physicist and chemist Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937), Nobel laureate in 1908. (Photo by Hulton Archive)
1925
British physicist and 1st Baron, Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937). (Photo by Topical Press Agency)
1908
Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937), New Zealand atomic physicist. (Colourised black and white print). Artist Unknown. (Photo by The Print Collector)
1910
New Zealand born British physicist and chemist Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937), Nobel laureate in 1908. (Photo by Hulton Archive)
1925
British physicist and 1st Baron, Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937). (Photo by Topical Press Agency)
20 Kirkwood Avenue, Upper Riccarton, Christchurch 8041, New Zealand
In 1889, Rutherford won a University scholarship and joined Canterbury College. He was a bright student and took interest in debates and rugby.
L to R. Dr. Ernest Walton (1903-1995), Lord Rutherford (1871-1937), Nobel prize winner for chemistry (1908), and Dr. John Cockcroft (1897 -1967) who have split the atom. Cockcroft and Walton later won the Nobel prize for physics (1951) for their work. (Photo by Central Press)
Portrait of New Zealand born British physicist and chemist Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937), who was awarded the 1908 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, early twentieth century. (Photo by Interim Archives)
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1904
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2014
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2014
Ernest Rutherford was born on August 30, 1871, in Nelson, New Zealand, the fourth child and second son in a family of seven sons and five daughters. His father, James Rutherford, was a farmer from Scotland and his mother, Martha Thompson, was a schoolteacher from England.
At the age of 10, Rutherford was handed his first science book. It was a pivotal moment for Rutherford, given that the book inspired his very first scientific experiment. The young Rutherford constructed a miniature cannon, which, to his family's surprise, promptly and unexpectedly exploded. Despite the outcome, Rutherford’s interest in academics remained unfaltering.
Rutherford initially studied at Havelock School and at the age of 16, entered Nelson Collegiate School. Later in 1889, he won a University scholarship and joined Canterbury College, University of New Zealand, Wellington. He was a bright student and took an interest in debates and rugby.
In 1890 Rutherford landed another scholarship - this time to Canterbury College in Christchurch, New Zealand. At Canterbury College, Rutherford's professors fueled his enthusiasm for seeking concrete proof through scientific experimentation. Rutherford obtained both his Bachelor of Arts and his Master of Arts degrees there, and managed to achieve first-class honors in math and science. In 1894, still at Canterbury, Rutherford conducted independent research on the ability of high-frequency electrical discharge to magnetize iron. His research earned him a Bachelor of Science degree in just one year's time in 1894.
In 1895, as the first research student at the University of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory in London, Rutherford identified a simpler and more commercially viable means of detecting radio waves than had been previously established by German physicist Heinrich Hertz.
Also while at Cavendish Laboratory, Rutherford was invited by Professor J.J. Thomson to collaborate on a study of X-rays. German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen had discovered X-rays just months before Rutherford arrived at Cavendish, and X-rays were a hot topic among research scientists. Together, Rutherford and Thomson studied the effects of X-rays on the conductivity of gases, resulting in a paper about dividing atoms and molecules into ions. While Thomson went on to examine what would later be called an electron, Rutherford took a closer look at ion-producing radiations.
Focusing on uranium, Rutherford discovered that placing it near foil resulted in one type of radiation being easily soaked up or blocked, while a different type had no trouble penetrating the same foil. He labeled the two radiation types "alpha" and "beta." As it turns out, the alpha particle was identical to the nucleus of a helium atom. The beta particle was, in fact, the same as an electron or positron.
Rutherford left Cambridge in 1902 and took up a professorship at McGill University in Montreal. At McGill in 1903, Rutherford and his colleague Frederick Soddy introduced their disintegration theory of radioactivity, which claimed radioactive energy was emitted from within an atom and that when alpha and beta particles were emitted at the same time, they caused a chemical change across elements. Rutherford and Yale Professor Bertram Borden Boltwood went on to categorize radioactive elements into what they called a "decay series." Rutherford was also credited with discovering the radioactive gas radon while at McGill. Achieving fame for his contributions to the understanding of radioelements, Rutherford became an active public speaker, published numerous magazine articles, and wrote the most highly regarded textbook of the time on radioactivity.
In 1907, Rutherford returned to England, transferring to a professorship at the University of Manchester. Through further experimentation involving firing alpha particles at foil, Rutherford made the groundbreaking discovery that nearly the total mass of an atom is concentrated in a nucleus. In so doing, he gave birth to the nuclear model, a discovery that marked the inception of nuclear physics and ultimately paved the way to the invention of the atom bomb. Aptly dubbed the "Father of the Nuclear Age," Rutherford received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1908.
With the advent of World War I, Rutherford turned his attention to antisubmarine research. By 1919 he had made another monumental discovery: how to artificially induce a nuclear reaction in a stable element. Nuclear reactions were Rutherford's main focus for the rest of his scientific career.
Amongst other honors, he received the Rumford Medal (1905), the Hector Memorial Medal (1916), and the Copley Medal (1922). He also received the Bressa Prize of the Turin Academy of Science (1910), the Albert Medal of the Royal Society of Arts (1928), the Faraday Medal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (1930), and the T. K. Sidey Medal of the Royal Society of New Zealand (1933).
Rutherford received honorary 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.
Rutherford was knighted in 1914; in 1925, he was admitted to the Order of Merit and in 1931, he was raised to First Baron Rutherford of Nelson, New Zealand, and Cambridge.
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.
During his lifetime Rutherford was awarded many scientific prizes and honorary degrees from many countries and Fellowships of many societies and organizations. Among other honors, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1908 and was decorated with the Order of Merit (1925).
An element on the periodic table has been named Rutherfordium after Ernest Rutherford.
Death did not stop public acclamation. Many buildings in many countries have been named in his honor. He has appeared on the stamps of at least eleven countries: Sweden (1968), Canada (1971), Russia (1971) Romania (1971), New Zealand (1971 and 2000). Congo (2001), Djibouti (2006), Antigua&Barbuda (2008), Guine-Bissau (2009), Britain, and Ivory Coast (2016). Curiously, he never featured on a British stamp until he appeared in a 2010 series of Fellows of the Royal Society to mark the Royal Society's 350 anniversary.
In 1991 the Rutherford Origin was built on the site of his birth in rural Nelson. It incorporates into a garden setting a permanent outdoor display of information about his life and work and is open all hours. In 2003 the Pickering/Rutherford/Havelock Memorial was opened at Havelock in the Marlborough Sounds.
In November of 1992, he featured on the new NZ$100 banknote. Because it is the highest denomination banknote his image regularly appears as background on TV news items, and TV and newspaper advertisements, involved with finance.
People who worked with Ernest Rutherford said he didn't mention any religious beliefs; he was described as indifferent to religion.
Although liberal-minded, Rutherford customarily side-stepped political issues.
In the early 1900s, many scientists believed that the atom was one substance throughout. But scientist Ernest Rutherford thought the atom was made of smaller particles, and he conducted experiments to prove this theory.
Scientists already had a clear picture that all objects were made of atoms. Rutherford's theory built on that knowledge, claiming that the atom is not one solid substance, but that it's made of different parts - a nucleus with positively charged protons and neutral neutrons surrounded by negatively charged electrons. To see if atoms were one big particle or if they were made of multiple smaller particles, Rutherford experimented with pure gold foil.
He passed what he called alpha particles through the foil (an alpha particle is the same as the nucleus of a helium atom). If atoms were one solid particle, they would be packed together like a bag of marbles. The alpha particles, which are smaller, would pass between the atoms and come out the other side. However, if there was an object in the center of the atom, some of the alpha particles would be bounced back. This last scenario is what occurred. The alpha particles were bouncing back because they were hitting the nucleus of the gold atom, proving that an atom is made up of different parts.
It is now known that the nucleus of an atom is made of two different particles - protons and neutrons. The protons carry a positive charge, and the neutrons carry a neutral charge. Adding up the mass of the protons and neutrons gives us the mass of that atom, which is called atomic mass. For example, helium has two protons and two neutrons and, therefore, an atomic mass of four.
The size of an atom is very small, but the size of the nucleus is even smaller. If an atom was the size of a football field, the nucleus would be the size of a grain of sand. Most of the atom is actually empty space.
According to Rutherford's theory, orbiting the nucleus is a third particle called electrons. Rutherford confirmed the existence of electrons by running a second experiment. He followed the same procedures as before but used beta particles instead of alpha particles. The beta particles detected the electrons of the gold atoms, just as the alpha particles detected the nucleus.
Quotations:
"All science is either physics or stamp collecting."
"If your experiment needs a statistician, you need a better experiment."
"We haven't got the money, so we'll have to think."
Ernest Rutherford did not exactly conform to the scientific stereotype. He was a direct, no-nonsense man, who spoke his mind. He was not overly concerned with his appearance; some people mistook the great scientist for a farmer.
Rutherford was well-known for his limitless reserves of energy and enthusiasm, which left a number of his workers exhausted.
Physical Characteristics: Ernest Rutherford suffered from a strangulated hernia.
Quotes from others about the person
J. J. Thomson: "I have never had a student with more enthusiasm or ability for original research than Mr. Rutherford."
Frederick Soddy: "I abandoned all to follow him (Rutherford). For more than two years, scientific life became hectic to a degree rare in the lifetime of an individual, rare perhaps in the lifetime of an institution."
Niels Bohr: "Rutherford is a man you can rely on; he comes regularly and enquires how things are going and talks about the smallest details - Rutherford is such an outstanding man and really interested in the work of all the people around him."
Otto Hahn: "Rutherford's enthusiasm and abounding vigor naturally affected us all. To work in the laboratory in the evening was the rule rather than the exception, particularly for us Germans, whose stay in Montreal was limited... He had a great, hearty laugh which echoed through the whole laboratory."
James Chadwick: "Even the casual reader of Rutherford's papers must be deeply impressed by his power in experiment... He was, in my opinion, the greatest experimental physicist since Faraday."
In summer 1900, Rutherford sailed for New Zealand to marry Mary Georgina Newton, whom he had become engaged to while living in Christchurch. They had one child, Eileen Mary, born in 1901. When she was 20, Eileen married the renowned physicist Ralph H. Fowler. Eileen died in 1930, nine days after giving birth to her fourth child. Rutherford and his wife outlived their daughter, taking solace in their grandchildren, all of whom became academics.
