Lord Rutherford, 1871–1937

LORD RUTHERFORD 187I-1937 E. F. BURTON O N October 25, 1937, were interred in the Nave . . of Westminster Abbey,,the ,ashes of Rutherfordbeside the remains of Newton, Faraday, and Kelvin; and thus the pinna'de of earthly greatness in science was the last reward of the New Zealand lad who had entered Nelson College in his native land almost fifty years before. Coming from the smallest of the overseas Dominions, with no prestige of family or wealth, this boy had risen to be 'the dominating figure in science in the British Empire and a recognized leader of physics in the whole world. Many honours came to Rutherford: in 19I4 he was knighted; in 1925 he was awarded the highest gift from the King, the Order of Merit; and in 1931 he was raised to the peerage as First Baron Rutherford of Nelson. At a centenary celebration in honour of Galvani at Bologna, which opened the day after Rutherford 's death, Professor Niels Bohr paid this .remarkable tribute: "His achievements are indeed so great that, at a gathering of physicists, like the one here assembled in honour of Galvani, where recent progress in our science is discussed, they provide the background of almost every word that is spoken." A comprehensive view of Rutherford's life and scientific accomplishments can be presented best perhaps in four natural qivisions, viz., (1) Rutherford the student in New Zealand, and at Cambridge, (2.) as Macdonald Professor of Physic'S at McGill University, Montreal, 18981907 , (3) as Langworthy Professor of Physics at the University of Manchester, 1907-19, and (4) as Professor of Experimental Physics and Director '·of the Cavendish 329 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY Laboratory 'at Cambridge from 1919 until his untimely death, on October 19, 1937. RUTHERFORD, THE STUDENT The fourth child in a family ,of twelve, Ernest Rutherford ' was born in the small, town of Brightwater, near Nelson, New Zealand, on August 30, 1871, and at the age of sixte~n entered, with a scholarship, Nelson College~ one of the constituent colleges of the University of New Zealand, itself but "an examining body which grants honours, degrees, and scholarships." The scholarship held by Rutherford was from government 'grants set apart for primary and secondary schools. After three years, Rutherford gained a second scholarship to the more advanced Canterbury College, at Christchurch, about two hundred miles south-east of his 'h.ome-townhis first step from home to fame. In 1893, after three years at Christchurch, he took his M.A. degree from the University of New Zealand, ob-:taining first-class honours in physics and mathematics; in the following year, he took the B.Sc. degree, and was awarded an 1851 Exhibition Scholarship, under which he proceeded to Cambridge University, for his graduate work. He had already given great promise, not 'only in his studies but also in original experimental investigation. At the age of twenty-three he had devised a magnetic ,detector for wireless telegraphic waves and was able to receive signals through space from a small induction coil over a distance of two Iniles-a world record at that time. Sir J. J. Thomson says of the newcomer from the Antipodes : "He had not worked [at the Cavendish] for more than a very few weeks before I became convinced that he was a student of quite exceptional ability." 330 LORD RUTHERFORD, 1871-1937 In the -early nineties, two quite independent steps were taken by two quite independent educational authorities , which have conspired to do wonders for the. growth of science in Great Britain and even throughout the English-speaking world. About 1892 the Commissioners of the Exhibition of 1851 decided to offer -annually a series of valuable scholarships to nOlninees _ of certain approved universities, both home and colonial, to enable students to proceed to some European university for the purpose of carrying on scientific research. The majority of such students proceeded to English universities, but many went to Germany; and apparently there is no bias as to the destination of the student, provided adequate means are available for research work at the institution chosen. The money at the dispo~al of the Commissioners is from the balance left...