Ernest Rutherford

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Lord Rutherford" redirects here; not to be confused with Lord Rutherfurd or Andrew
Rutherford, 1st Earl of Teviot.

The Right Honourable

The Lord Rutherford of Nelson

OM FRS

Rutherford, c. 1920s

44th President of the Royal Society

In office
1925–1930

Preceded by Charles Sherrington

Succeeded by Frederick Hopkins

Personal details

Born 30 August 1871

Brightwater, Nelson Province, Colony

of New Zealand

Died 19 October 1937 (aged 66)

Cambridge, England, UK

Resting place Westminster Abbey, London

Monuments Ernest Rutherford memorial,

Brightwater

Education Nelson College

Canterbury College (BA, MA, BSc)

Alma mater
Trinity College, Cambridge (BA)

Known for Discovery of the atomic nucleus

Discovery of radon
Discovery of the proton
Theory of the neutron
Mary Newton
Spouse

(m. 1900)

Children 1

Relatives Ralph Fowler (son-in-law)

Awards Rumford Medal (1904)

Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1908)
Elliott Cresson Medal (1910)
Matteucci Medal (1913)
 Hector Medal (1916)
Copley Medal (1922)
Franklin Medal (1924)
RSA Albert Medal (1928)
IEE Faraday Medal (1930)
Wilhelm Exner Medal (1936)

Scientific career

Fields Atomic physics

Nuclear physics
Radiochemistry

Institutions McGill University (1898–1907)

Victoria University of
Manchester (1907–1919)
University of Cambridge (1919–1937)

Academic advisors Alexander Bickerton[1]

J. J. Thomson[2]

Doctoral students See list

Other notable See list

students
 Signature

Ernest Rutherford, Baron Rutherford of Nelson (30 August 1871 – 19 October 1937)
was a New Zealand physicist and chemist who was a pioneering researcher in
both atomic and nuclear physics. He has been described as "the father of nuclear
physics"[8] and "the greatest experimentalist since Michael Faraday."[9] In 1908, he was
awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his investigations into the disintegration of
the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances." He was the
first Oceanian Nobel laureate, and the first to perform Nobel-awarded work in Canada.

Rutherford's discoveries include the concept of radioactive half-life, the radioactive

element radon, and the differentiation and naming of alpha and beta radiation. Together
with Thomas Royds, Rutherford is credited with proving that alpha radiation is
composed of helium nuclei.[10][11] In 1911, he theorised that atoms have
their charge concentrated in a very small nucleus.[12] He arrived at this theory through his
discovery and interpretation of Rutherford scattering during the gold foil
experiment performed by Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden. In 1912, he invited Niels
Bohr to join his lab, leading to the Bohr model of the atom. In 1917, he performed the
first artificially induced nuclear reaction by conducting experiments in which nitrogen
nuclei were bombarded with alpha particles. These experiments led him to discover the
emission of a subatomic particle that he initially called the "hydrogen atom", but later
(more precisely) renamed the proton.[13][14] He is also credited with developing the atomic
numbering system alongside Henry Moseley. His other achievements include advancing
the fields of radio communications and ultrasound technology.

Rutherford became Director of the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of

Cambridge in 1919. Under his leadership, the neutron was discovered by James
Chadwick in 1932. In the same year, the first controlled experiment to split the nucleus
was performed by John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton, working under his direction. In
honour of his scientific advancements, Rutherford was recognised as a baron of the
United Kingdom. After his death in 1937, he was buried in Westminster
Abbey near Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton. The chemical
element rutherfordium (104Rf) was named after him in 1997.

Early life and education

Ernest Rutherford was born on 30 August 1871 in Brightwater, New Zealand,[15] the
fourth of twelve children of James Rutherford, an immigrant farmer and mechanic
from Perth, Scotland, and Martha Thompson, a schoolteacher from Hornchurch,
England.[15][16][17] Rutherford's birth certificate was mistakenly written as 'Earnest'. He was
known by his family as Ern.[15][17]

When Rutherford was age 5, he moved to Foxhill, New Zealand, and attended Foxhill
School. At 11 in 1883, the Rutherford family moved to Havelock, a town in
the Marlborough Sounds. The move was made to be closer to the flax mill Rutherford's
father developed.[17] Ernest studied at Havelock School.[18]

In 1887, on his second attempt, he won a scholarship to study at Nelson College.[17] On

his first examination attempt, he had the highest mark of anyone from Nelson.[19] When
he was awarded the scholarship, he had received 580 out of 600 possible marks.
[20]
After being awarded the scholarship, Havelock School presented him with a five-
volume set of books titled The Peoples of the World.[21] He studied at Nelson College
between 1887 and 1889, and was head boy in 1889. He also played in the school's
rugby team.[17] He was offered a cadetship in government service, but he declined as he
still had 15 months of college remaining.[22]

In 1889, after his second attempt, he won a scholarship to study at Canterbury

College, University of New Zealand, between 1890 and 1894. He participated in
its debating society and the Science Society.[17] At Canterbury, he was awarded a
complex B.A. in Latin, English and Maths in 1892, a M.A. in Mathematics and Physical
Science in 1893, and a [Link]. in Chemistry and Geology in 1894.[23][24]

Thereafter, Rutherford invented a new form of a radio receiver, and in 1895 he was
awarded an 1851 Research Fellowship from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of
1851,[25][26] to travel to England for postgraduate study in the Cavendish Laboratory at
the University of Cambridge.[27] In 1897, he was awarded a B.A. Research Degree and
the Coutts-Trotter Studentship from Trinity College, Cambridge.[23]

Career and research

 Rutherford in 1892, aged 21
When Rutherford began his studies at Cambridge, he was among the first 'aliens' (those
without a Cambridge degree) allowed to do research at the university, and was
additionally honoured to study under J. J. Thomson.[2]

With Thomson's encouragement, Rutherford detected radio waves at 0.5 miles (800 m),
and briefly held the world record for the distance over which electromagnetic waves
could be detected, although when he presented his results at the British
Association meeting in 1896, he discovered he had been outdone by Guglielmo
Marconi, whose radio waves had sent a message across nearly 10 miles (16 km).[28]

Radioactivity
Again under Thomson's leadership, Rutherford worked on the conductive effects of X-
rays on gases, which led to the discovery of the electron, the results first presented by
Thomson in 1897.[29][30] Hearing of Henri Becquerel's experience with uranium, Rutherford
started to explore its radioactivity, discovering two types that differed from X-rays in their
penetrating power. Continuing his research in Canada, in 1899 he coined the terms
"alpha ray" and "beta ray" to describe these two distinct types of radiation.[31]

In 1898, Rutherford accepted the Macdonald Chair of Physics at McGill University in

Montreal, Canada, on Thomson's recommendation.[32] From 1900 to 1903, he was joined
at McGill by the young chemist Frederick Soddy (Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1921) for
whom he set the problem of identifying the noble gas emitted by the radioactive
element thorium, a substance which was itself radioactive and would coat other
substances. Once he had eliminated all the normal chemical reactions, Soddy
suggested that it must be one of the inert gases, which they named thoron. This
substance was later found to be 220Rn, an isotope of radon.[33][23] They also found another
substance they called Thorium X, later identified as 224Rn, and continued to find traces of
helium. They also worked with samples of "Uranium X" (protactinium), from William
Crookes, and radium, from Marie Curie. Rutherford further investigated thoron in
conjunction with R.B. Owens and found that a sample of radioactive material of any size
invariably took the same amount of time for half the sample to decay (in this case,
111⁄2 minutes), a phenomenon for which he coined the term "half-life".[33] Rutherford and
Soddy published their paper "Law of Radioactive Change" to account for all their
experiments. Until then, atoms were assumed to be the indestructible basis of all
matter; and although Curie had suggested that radioactivity was an atomic
phenomenon, the idea of the atoms of radioactive substances breaking up was a
radically new idea. Rutherford and Soddy demonstrated that radioactivity involved the
spontaneous disintegration of atoms into other, as yet, unidentified matter.[23]

In 1903, Rutherford considered a type of radiation, discovered (but not named) by

French chemist Paul Villard in 1900, as an emission from radium, and realised that this
observation must represent something different from his own alpha and beta rays, due
to its very much greater penetrating power. Rutherford therefore gave this third type of
radiation the name of gamma ray.[31] All three of Rutherford's terms are in standard use
today – other types of radioactive decay have since been discovered, but Rutherford's
three types are among the most common. In 1904, Rutherford suggested that
radioactivity provides a source of energy sufficient to explain the existence of the Sun
for the many millions of years required for the slow biological evolution on Earth
proposed by biologists such as Charles Darwin. The physicist Lord Kelvin had
argued earlier for a much younger Earth, based on the insufficiency of known energy
sources, but Rutherford pointed out, at a lecture attended by Kelvin, that radioactivity
could solve this problem.[34] In 1907, he returned to Britain to take the Langworthy
Professorship at the Victoria University of Manchester.[35]

In Manchester, Rutherford continued his work with alpha radiation. In conjunction

with Hans Geiger, he developed zinc sulfide scintillation screens and ionisation
chambers to count alpha particles. By dividing the total charge accumulated on the
screen by the number counted, Rutherford determined that the charge on the alpha
particle was two.[36][37]: 61 In late 1907, Ernest Rutherford and Thomas Royds allowed
alphas to penetrate a very thin window into an evacuated tube. As they sparked the
tube into discharge, the spectrum obtained from it changed, as the alphas accumulated
in the tube. Eventually, the clear spectrum of helium gas appeared, proving that alphas
were at least ionised helium atoms, and probably helium nuclei.[38] In 1910 Rutherford,
with Geiger and mathematician Harry Bateman published[39] their classic paper[40]:
94
describing the first analysis of the distribution in time of radioactive emission, a
distribution now called the Poisson distribution.

In 1908, Rutherford was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his investigations
into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances." [41]

Model of the atom

See also: Rutherford–Bohr model and Rutherford scattering
 Top: Expected results: alpha particles passing
through the plum pudding model of the atom undisturbed.
Bottom: Observed results: a small portion of the particles were deflected, indicating a
small, concentrated charge. Diagram is not to scale; in reality the nucleus is vastly
smaller than the electron shell.
Rutherford continued to make ground-breaking discoveries long after receiving the
Nobel prize in 1908.[37]: 63 Under his direction in 1909, Hans Geiger and Ernest
Marsden performed the Geiger–Marsden experiment, which demonstrated the nuclear
nature of atoms by measuring the deflection of alpha particles passing through a thin
gold foil.[42] Rutherford was inspired to ask Geiger and Marsden in this experiment to
look for alpha particles with very high deflection angles, which was not expected
according to any theory of matter at that time.[43][44] Such deflection angles, although rare,
were found. Reflecting on these results in one of his last lectures, Rutherford was
quoted as saying: "It was quite the most incredible event that has ever happened to me
in my life. It was almost as incredible as if you fired a 15-inch shell at a piece of tissue
paper and it came back and hit you."[45] It was Rutherford's interpretation of this data that
led him to propose the nucleus, a very small, charged region containing much of the
atom's mass.[46]

In 1912, Rutherford was joined by Niels Bohr (who postulated that electrons moved in
specific orbits about the compact nucleus). Bohr adapted Rutherford's nuclear structure
to be consistent with Max Planck's quantum hypothesis. The resulting Bohr model was
the basis for quantum mechanical atomic physics of Heisenberg which remains valid
today.[23]

Piezoelectricity
During World War I, Rutherford worked on a top-secret project to solve the practical
problems of submarine detection. Both Rutherford and Paul Langevin suggested the
use of piezoelectricity, and Rutherford successfully developed a device which measured
its output. The use of piezoelectricity then became essential to the development
of ultrasound as it is known today. The claim that Rutherford developed sonar, however,
is a misconception, as subaquatic detection technologies utilise Langevin's transducer.
[47][48]

Discovery of the proton

Together with H.G. Moseley, Rutherford developed the atomic numbering system in
1913. Rutherford and Moseley's experiments used cathode rays to bombard various
elements with streams of electrons and observed that each element responded in a
consistent and distinct manner. Their research was the first to assert that each element
could be defined by the properties of its inner structures – an observation that later led
to the discovery of the atomic nucleus.[23] This research led Rutherford to theorise that
the hydrogen atom (at the time the least massive entity known to bear a positive
charge) was a sort of "positive electron" – a component of every atomic element. [49][50]

It was not until 1919 that Rutherford expanded upon his theory of the "positive electron"
with a series of experiments beginning shortly before the end of his time at Manchester.
He found that nitrogen, and other light elements, ejected a proton, which he called a
"hydrogen atom," when hit with α (alpha) particles.[23] In particular, he showed that
particles ejected by alpha particles colliding with hydrogen have unit charge and 1/4 the
momentum of alpha particles.[51]

Rutherford returned to the Cavendish Laboratory in 1919, succeeding J. J. Thomson

as Cavendish Professor, a position he held until his death in 1937.[52] During his tenure,
Nobel prizes were awarded to James Chadwick for discovering the neutron (in
1932), John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton for an experiment that was to be known as
"splitting the atom" using a particle accelerator, and Edward Appleton for demonstrating
the existence of the ionosphere.

Development of proton and neutron theory

In 1919–1920, Rutherford continued his research on the "hydrogen atom" to confirm
that alpha particles break down nitrogen nuclei and to affirm the nature of the products.
This result showed Rutherford that hydrogen nuclei were a part of nitrogen nuclei (and
by inference, probably other nuclei as well). Such a construction had been suspected
for many years, on the basis of atomic weights that were integral multiples of that of
hydrogen; see Prout's hypothesis. Hydrogen was known to be the lightest element, and
its nuclei presumably the lightest nuclei. Now, because of all these considerations,
Rutherford decided that a hydrogen nucleus was possibly a fundamental building block
of all nuclei, and also possibly a new fundamental particle as well, since nothing was
known to be lighter than that nucleus. Thus, confirming and extending the work
of Wilhelm Wien, who in 1898 discovered the proton in streams of ionised gas,[53] in
1920 Rutherford postulated the hydrogen nucleus to be a new particle, which he
dubbed the proton.[54]

In 1921, while working with Niels Bohr, Rutherford theorised about the existence
of neutrons, (which he had christened in his 1920 Bakerian Lecture), which could
somehow compensate for the repelling effect of the positive charges of protons by
causing an attractive nuclear force and thus keep the nuclei from flying apart, due to the
repulsion between protons. The only alternative to neutrons was the existence of
"nuclear electrons", which would counteract some of the proton charges in the nucleus,
since by then it was known that nuclei had about twice the mass that could be
accounted for if they were simply assembled from hydrogen nuclei (protons). But how
these nuclear electrons could be trapped in the nucleus, was a mystery.

In 1932, Rutherford's theory of neutrons was proved by his associate James Chadwick,
who recognised neutrons immediately when they were produced by other scientists and
later himself, in bombarding beryllium with alpha particles. In 1935, Chadwick was
awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery.[55]

Induced nuclear reaction and probing the nucleus

In Rutherford's four-part article on the "Collision of α-particles with light atoms" he
reported two additional fundamental and far reaching discoveries.[37]: 237 First, he showed
that at high angles the scattering of alpha particles from hydrogen differed from the
theoretical results he himself published in 1911. These were the first results to probe the
interactions that hold a nucleus together. Second, he showed that α-particles colliding
with nitrogen nuclei would react rather than simply bounce off. One product of the
reaction was the proton; the other product was shown by Patrick Blackett, Rutherford's
colleague and former student, to be oxygen:

N + α → 17O + p.
14

Rutherford therefore recognised "that the nucleus may increase rather than diminish
in mass as the result of collisions in which the proton is expelled".[56] Blackett was
awarded the Nobel prize in 1948 for his work in perfecting the high-speed cloud
chamber apparatus used to make that discovery and many others.[57]

Personal life and death

In the late 1880s Rutherford made his grandmother a wooden potato masher, which
is now in the collection of the Royal Society.[58][59]

In 1900, at St Paul's Anglican Church, Papanui in Christchurch, Rutherford married

Mary Georgina Newton (1876–1954),[60] to whom he had been engaged before
leaving New Zealand.[61][62] They had one daughter, Eileen Mary (1901–1930); she
married the physicist Ralph Fowler, and died during the birth of her fourth child.
Rutherford's hobbies included golf and motoring.[23]
For some time before his death, Rutherford had a small hernia, which he neglected
to have repaired, and it eventually became strangulated, rendering him violently ill.
He had an emergency operation in London, but died in Cambridge four days later,
on 19 October 1937, at the age of 66, of what physicians termed "intestinal
paralysis."[63] After cremation at Golders Green Crematorium,[63] he was given the
high honour of burial in Westminster Abbey, near Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin,
and other illustrious British scientists.[23][64]

Recognition
Memberships

Country Year Institute Type Ref.

United
1903 Royal Society Fellow [65]

Kingdom

American Philosophical International

United States 1904 [66]

Society Member

Awards

Country Year Institute Award Citation Ref.

"For his researches on

radioactivity, particularly for
United Rumford his discovery of the existence
1904 Royal Society [67]

Kingdom Medal and properties of the gaseous

emanations from radioactive
bodies"

Royal "For his investigations into the

Nobel Prize
Swedish disintegration of the elements,
Sweden 1908 in [41]

Academy of and the chemistry of

Chemistry
Sciences radioactive substances"

Elliott
United Franklin "For distinguished work in
1910 Cresson [68]

States Institute electrical theory"

Medal
 Accademia dei Matteucci
Italy 1913 [69]

XL Medal

Royal Society Hector

New
1916 of New Memorial [70]

Zealand
Zealand Medal

"For his researches in

United Copley
1922 Royal Society radioactivity and atomic [71]

Kingdom Medal
structure"

"For knowledge of the

United Franklin Franklin
1924 chemical elements, their [72]

States Institute Medal

constitution and relationship"

United Royal Society RSA Albert

1928 [73]

Kingdom of Arts Medal

Institution of IEE
United
1930 Electrical Faraday [74]

Kingdom
Engineers Medal

Austrian Wilhelm
Austria 1936 Trade Exner [75]

Association Medal

Chivalric titles

Country Year Monarch Title Ref.

United Kingdom 1914 George V Knight Bachelor [76]

United Kingdom 1931 George V Baron [77]

Chivalric orders
 Country Year Monarch Order Ref.

United Kingdom 1925 George V Order of Merit [78]

Legacy

A statue of a young Ernest Rutherford at his

memorial in Brightwater, New Zealand.
At the opening session of the 1938 Indian Science Congress, which Rutherford had
been expected to preside over before his death, astrophysicist James Jeans spoke
in his place and deemed him "one of the greatest scientists of all time", saying:

In his flair for the right line of approach to a problem, as well as in the simple
directness of his methods of attack, [Rutherford] often reminds us of Faraday, but he
had two great advantages which Faraday did not possess, first, exuberant bodily
health and energy, and second, the opportunity and capacity to direct a band of
enthusiastic co-workers. Great though Faraday's output of work was, it seems to me
that to match Rutherford's work in quantity as well as in quality, we must go back to
Newton. In some respects he was more fortunate than Newton. Rutherford was ever
the happy warrior – happy in his work, happy in its outcome, and happy in its human
contacts.[79]
Nuclear physics
Rutherford is known as "the father of nuclear physics" because his research, and
work done under him as laboratory director, established the nuclear structure of the
atom and the essential nature of radioactive decay as a nuclear process.[8][80]
[29]
Patrick Blackett, a research fellow working under Rutherford, using natural alpha
particles, demonstrated induced nuclear transmutation. Later, Rutherford's team,
using protons from an accelerator, demonstrated artificially-induced nuclear
reactions and transmutation.[81]

Rutherford died too early to see Leó Szilárd's idea of controlled nuclear chain
reactions come into being. However, a speech of Rutherford's about his artificially-
induced transmutation in lithium, printed in the 12 September 1933 issue of The
Times, was reported by Szilárd to have been his inspiration for thinking of the
possibility of a controlled energy-producing nuclear chain reaction.[82]

Rutherford's speech touched on the 1932 work of his students John

Cockcroft and Ernest Walton in "splitting" lithium into alpha particles by
bombardment with protons from a particle accelerator they had constructed.
Rutherford realised that the energy released from the split lithium atoms was
enormous, but he also realised that the energy needed for the accelerator, and its
essential inefficiency in splitting atoms in this fashion, made the project an
impossibility as a practical source of energy (accelerator-induced fission of light
elements remains too inefficient to be used in this way, even today). Rutherford's
speech in part, read:

We might in these processes obtain very much more energy than the proton
supplied, but on the average we could not expect to obtain energy in this way. It was
a very poor and inefficient way of producing energy, and anyone who looked for a
source of power in the transformation of the atoms was talking moonshine. But the
subject was scientifically interesting because it gave insight into the atoms.[83][84]
The element rutherfordium, Rf, Z=104, was named in honour of Rutherford in 1997.
[85]

In popular culture
Andrew Hodwitz portrays Rutherford in episode 11 of season 13 "Staring Blindly into
the Future" (January 13, 2020) of the Canadian television period detective
series Murdoch Mysteries.

Publications
Books

 Radio-activity (1904),[86] 2nd ed. (1905), ISBN 978-1-60355-058-1

 Radioactive Transformations (1906), ISBN 978-1-60355-054-3
 Radioaktive Substanzen und ihre Strahlungen. Cambridge: University press.
1933.
 Radioaktive Substanzen und ihre Strahlungen (in German). Leipzig:
Akademische Verlaggesellschaft. 1913.
 Radioactive Substances and their Radiations (1913)[87]
 The Electrical Structure of Matter (1926)
 The Artificial Transmutation of the Elements (1933)
 The Newer Alchemy (1937)
Articles

 Ernest Rutherford (1899). "Uranium Radiation and the Electrical conduction

Produced by it". Philosophical Magazine. 47 (284): 109–163.
 Ernest Rutherford (1903). "XV. The Magnetic and Electric Deviation of the easily
absorbed Rays from Radium". Philosophical Magazine. 6. 5: 177-187.
 Ernest Rutherford (1906). "The Mass and Velocity of the α particles expelled
from Radium and Actinium". Philosophical Magazine. Series 6. 12 (70): 348–
371. doi:10.1080/14786440609463549.
 Ernest Rutherford; Thomas Royds (1909). "XXI. The nature of the α particle from
radioactive substances". The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical
Magazine and Journal of Science. 17 (98): 281–
286. doi:10.1080/14786440208636599. ISSN 1941-5982.
 Ernest Rutherford (1911). "The Scattering of α and β Particles by Matter and the
Structure of the Atom" (PDF). Philosophical Magazine. Series 6. 21 (125): 669–
688. doi:10.1080/14786440508637080.
 Ernest Rutherford (1912). "The origin of β and γ rays from radioactive
substances". Philosophical Magazine. Series 6. 24 (142): 453–
462. doi:10.1080/14786441008637351.
 Ernest Rutherford; John Mitchell Nuttal (1913). "Scattering of α-Particles by
Gases". Philosophical Magazine. Series 6. 26 (154): 702–
712. doi:10.1080/14786441308635014.
 Ernest Rutherford (1914). "The Structure of the Atom". Philosophical Magazine.
Series 6. 27 (159): 488–498. doi:10.1080/14786440308635117.
 Ernest Rutherford (1938). "Forty Years of Physics". In Needham, Joseph; Pagel,
Walter (eds.). Background to Modern Science: Ten Lectures at Cambridge
arranged by the History of Science Committee 1936. Cambridge University
Press.
 Ernest Rutherford (1913). Radioactive Substances and their
Radiations. Cambridge University Press.
 Ernest Rutherford (1936). "Radioactivity and Atomic Structure". Journal of the
Chemical Society. 1936: 508–516. doi:10.1039/JR9360000508.
 "Disintegration of the Radioactive Elements" Harper's Monthly
Magazine, January 1904, pages 279 to 284.
See also
 Bateman equation
 Hydrophone
 Magnetic detector
 Neutron generator
 Royal Society of New Zealand
 Rutherford (unit)
 Rutherfordine
 The Rutherford Journal
 List of presidents of the Royal Society
References
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(2006). "Physics in Developing Countries – Past, Present &
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Biography". [Link]. Archived from the original on 12 May 2020.
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emanation". Philosophical Magazine. Series 6. 16 (92):
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Atoms". Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and
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suggested as a suitable name for the unit of mass nearly 1, in terms of oxygen 16,
that appears to enter into the nuclear structure of atoms. The question of a suitable
name for this unit was discussed at an informal meeting of a number of members of
Section A of the British Association at Cardiff this year. The name "baron"
suggested by Professor Masson was mentioned, but was considered unsuitable on
account of the existing variety of meanings. Finally the name "proton" met with
general approval, particularly as it suggests the original term "protyle " given by
Prout in his well-known hypothesis that all atoms are built up of hydrogen. The need
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Further reading
 Badash, Lawrence (2008) [2004]. "Rutherford, Ernest". Oxford Dictionary of
National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University
Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35891. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK
public library membership required.)
 Cragg, R. H. (1971). "Lord Ernest Rutherford of Nelson (1871–1937)". Royal
Institute of Chemistry, Reviews. 4 (2): 129. doi:10.1039/RR9710400129.
 Campbell, John. (1999) Rutherford: Scientist Supreme, AAS Publications,
Christchurch, ISBN 0-4730-5700-X
 Marsden, E. (1954). "The Rutherford Memorial Lecture, 1954. Rutherford-His
Life and Work, 1871–1937". Proceedings of the Royal Society
A. 226 (1166): 283–305. Bibcode:1954RSPSA.226..283M. doi:10.1098/rspa.19
54.0254. S2CID 73381519.
 Reeves, Richard (2008). A Force of Nature: The Frontier Genius of Ernest
Rutherford. New York: W. W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-33369-8
 Rhodes, Richard (1986). The Making of the Atomic Bomb. New York: Simon &
Schuster. ISBN 0-671-44133-7
 Wilson, David (1983). Rutherford. Simple Genius, Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN 0-
340-23805-4
External links
External videos

Presentation by Richard Reeves on his book A Force of

Nature: The Frontier Genius of Ernest Rutherford,, January
 16, 2008, C-SPAN

 Biography and web exhibit American Institute of Physics

 Ernest Rutherford on [Link] including the Nobel Lecture, 11 December
1908 The Chemical Nature of the Alpha Particles from Radioactive Substances
 The Rutherford Museum
 Rutherford Scientist Supreme
 Newspaper clippings about Ernest Rutherford in the 20th Century Press
Archives of the ZBW
 "Ernest Rutherford, 150th anniversary". Retrieved 29 June 2024. Well-source
site with details on Rutherford's life.

Academic offices

Preceded by Langworthy Professor Succeeded by

at the University of Manchester
Arthur Schuster 1907–1919 Lawrence Bragg

Cavendish Professor of
Preceded by Experimental Physics, University Succeeded by
J. J. Thomson of Cambridge Lawrence Bragg
1919-1937

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