Reference
- Rutherford, Ernest (1871-1937) 1st Baron Rutherford of NelsonNew Zealand-born British physicist who first explained that radioactivity is produced by the disintegration of atoms and discovered that alpha particles consist of helium nuclei. For these achievements, Rutherford was awarded the 1908 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Rutherford went on to make two more discoveries of fundamental importance to nuclear physics: he was the first to determine the basic structure of the atom and show that it consists of a central nucleus surrounded by electrons, and he also produced the first artificial transformation, thereby changing one element into another.
Rutherford was born near Nelson on South Island on 30 August 1871. His father was a wheelwright and farmer who, like his mother, had emigrated from the UK to New Zealand when a child. Rutherford did not show any great aptitude for science as a child and when he entered Nelson College in 1887, he exhibited an all-round ability. He went on to Canterbury College, Christchurch, in 1889, receiving a BA degree in 1892. He then embarked on a study of mathematics and physics, gaining his MA in 1893 and then a BSc in 1894. Rutherford investigated the magnetic properties of iron by high-frequency electric discharges for his science degree, and constructed a very sensitive detector of radio waves as a result of his research. This was only six years after Heinrich Hertz had discovered radio waves, and the same year that Guglielmo Marconi began his radio experiments.
In 1895, Rutherford went to the UK to study at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge. There he became the first research student to work under J J Thomson. Armed with his radio detector, Rutherford made a big impact on Cambridge, but under Thomson's guidance, he soon turned to the work in atomic physics that was to become his career. In 1898, helped by Thomson, Rutherford obtained his first academic position with a professorship in physics at McGill University, Montréal, Canada, which then boasted the best-equipped laboratory in the world. He was attracted back to the UK in 1907, when he succeeded Arthur Schuster (1851-1934) at Manchester, Schuster declaring that he would resign his chair only for Rutherford. Rutherford built up a renowned laboratory at Manchester, and it was there that he made his momentous discoveries of the nuclear atom and artificial transformation.
During World War I, Rutherford worked for the Admiralty on methods of locating submarines and then in 1919 moved to Cambridge to become professor of physics and director of the Cavendish Laboratory in succession to Thomson. He retained this position for the rest of his life, and was also professor of natural philosophy at the Royal Institution from 1921. Many honours were accorded to Rutherford in addition to the 1908 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. They included the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1922, the presidency of the Royal Society 1925-30, a knighthood in 1914, the Order of Merit in 1925, and a peerage in 1921, Rutherford taking the title Baron Rutherford of Nelson. In his last years, Rutherford was active in helping refugee scientists who had escaped from Nazi Germany. Rutherford died in Cambridge on 19 October 1937 and is buried in Westminster Abbey, London...
- Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
Credo Reference is an easy-to-use tool for starting research. Gather background information on your topic from hundreds of full-text encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, quotations, and subject-specific titles, as well as 500,000+ images and audio files and over 1,000 videos.
Perspectives
Ernest Rutherford
An engaging biography that captures the excitement of the early days of nuclear physics, Ernest Rutherford tells the story of the down-to-earth New Zealander who became one of the foremost pioneers of subatomic physics. Rutherford's achievements were numerous and included:* Inventing a detector for electromagnetic waves* Discovering the existence of alpha and beta rays in uranium radiation* Creating (with Frederick Soddy) the "disintegration theory" of radioactivity, which regards radioactive phenomena as atomic -- not molecular -- processes* Demonstrating that the inner structures of elements correspond with a group of lines that characterize them, which could then be assigned an atomic number and, more important, the properties of each element could be defined by this number* And his greatest contribution of all - he discovered that the atom had a nucleus and that it contained the positively charged protonFrom his early days as a scholarship student to the end of his life as he continued to work in his lab, Ernest Rutherford reveals the life and times of one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century.Oxford Portraits in Science is an on-going series of scientific biographies for young adults. Written by top scholars and writers, each biography examines the personality of its subject as well as the thought process leading to his or her discoveries. These illustrated biographies combine accessible technical information with compelling personal stories to portray the scientists whose work has shaped our understanding of the natural world.
The Collected Papers of Lord Rutherford of Nelson
This is the first of three volumes which together contain the complete range of Lord Rutherford's scientific papers, incorporating in addition addresses, general lectures, letters to editors, accounts of his scientific work and personal recollections by friends and colleagues. Volume one, first published in 1962, includes early papers written in New Zealand, at the Cavendish Laboratory and during the Montreal period (1894-1906), as well as an introduction to Rutherford's early work by Sir Edward Appleton, and some reminiscences of his time in Canada by Professors H.L. Bronson and Otto Hahn. In each volume can be found photographs of Rutherford and his collaborators, multiple graphs, tables, diagrams and charts, and also pictures of the original apparatus which is of historic interest.
The Collected Papers of Lord Rutherford of Nelson
This is the second of three volumes which together contain the complete range of Lord Rutherford's scientific papers, incorporating in addition addresses, general lectures, letters to editors, accounts of his scientific work and personal recollections by friends and colleagues. Volume two, first published in 1963, includes the papers published by Rutherford when professor of Physics at Manchester, 1907 to 1919. While the work of his laboratory ranged over the whole field of radioactivity, he himself devoted much effort to questions concerning the nature and properties of the α particle. Consideration of the scattering of α particles led him to the second of his outstanding achievements, the conception of the nuclear structure of the atom, which opened up a new era in Physics. In each volume can be found photographs of Rutherford and his collaborators, multiple graphs, tables, diagrams and charts, and also pictures of the original apparatus which is of historic interest.
The Collected Papers of Lord Rutherford of Nelson
This is the third of three volumes which together contain the complete range of Lord Rutherford's scientific papers, incorporating in addition addresses, general lectures, letters to editors, accounts of his scientific work and personal recollections by friends and colleagues. The final volume, first published in 1965, covers his period as Cavendish Professor from 1919 to 1937. Following on the immense fertility of his years in Manchester - only overshadowed towards the end by the war - we now turn to his last years as a world figure at the Cavendish Laboratory, where he continued his work on the properties of the α particle and the nature of the atom. In each volume can be found photographs of Rutherford and his collaborators, multiple graphs, tables, diagrams and charts, and also pictures of the original apparatus which is of historic interest.
Radioactive Decay
- Kanopy This link opens in a new window
Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity in 1896. Ernest Rutherford concluded that the number of protons in the nucleus of a radioactive element could change. The nucleus shrinks as alpha particles fly off. Radioactive decay is demonstrated in a cloud chamber. A BBC Production.
Discovery of the Nucleus/Uses of Radioactive Materials
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new window
Ernest Rutherford confirmed that radioactivity involves three different types of radiation. He used alpha radiation to reveal the structure of atoms as having a a central, positively charged nucleus. We learn that radioactive materials are widely used in medicine and in industry.
Into the Heart of Matter
- Kanopy This link opens in a new windowWith this lecture, you turn from relativity to explore the universe at the smallest scales. By the early 1900s, Ernest Rutherford and colleagues showed that atoms consist of a positively charged nucleus surrounded by negatively charged electrons whirling around it. But Rutherford's model could not explain all the observed phenomena.
Online Resources
- Ernest Rutherford, Avogadro's Number, and Chemical KineticsThe paper presents a way for students to use data from Rutherford's works (1908 - 1911) in order to determine one of the most precise values of Avogadro Constant available at the beginning of the century. A brief discussion of earlier and modern methods for the determination of this fundamental constant is followed by vast quotations from the works of Rutherford, Boltwood and Geiger. Then there are given a dozen of problems and questions for students about these classical experiments; they vary in complexity from rather simple to quite challenging. Additional information and hints are provided to help the students in solving the problems. The last part contains detailed answers and solutions to all problems. The article will be useful for students of general chemistry, radiochemistry and physical chemistry (kinetics).
- From isotopes to the stars: creating more exotic isotopes will reveal the stellar formation of atoms--a fitting tribute to Ernest RutherfordA hundred years have passed since Ernest Rutherford published his discovery of the atomic nucleus in May 1911 and started a journey to the centre of the atomic world. In Rutherford's famous experiment, a stream of a-particles was aimed at a very thin sheet of gold foil. Some of the particles were deflected at angles that suggested they had collided with a small, dense atomic core. As Rutherford remarked: "It was almost as if you fired a 15-inch shell at a piece of tissue paper and it came back and hit you." The experiment supported a planetary model of the atom--the idea that most of the mass is concentrated in a nucleus, with even smaller electrons orbiting it like planets around the Sun.
Looking Inside the Atom
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new windowIn 1909 Ernest Rutherford sees the atom as empty space with a few electrons orbiting randomly around a dense, positively charged nucleus. Niels Bohr suggested that electrons orbited the nucleus in fixed shells of energy. Prof. Khalil demonstrates on a football field. A BBC Production.