Ernest Rutherford

                    Ernest Rutherford

Also Listed In: Physicists

Famous As: Physicist, Chemist

Nationality: New Zealand,British

Born On: 30 August 1871    Famous 30th August Birthdays

Zodiac Sign: Virgo    Famous Virgos

Born In: Brightwater, New Zealand

Died On: 19 October 1937

Place Of Death: Cambridge, England

Father: James Rutherford

Mother: Martha Thompson

Spouse: Mary Georgina Newton

Children: Eileen Mary

Education: University of Cambridge (1895–1898), University of New Zealand, Trinity College, Cambridge, University of Canterbury, Nelson College

Works & Achievements: Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1908), Discovered radioactive half life, named alpha and beta radiation differently

Awards: 1905-RumfordMedal 

                          1908-NobelPrizeinChemistry 

                        1910 - Elliott Cresson Medal 

Ernest Rutherford is a prominent figure in the field of nuclear physics. He is known for his discoveries of chemical relations between radioactive substances. Rutherford is known for his scattering of atom which is popularly known as Rutherford model which he achieved through his brilliant Rutherford scattering and gold foil experiment. Rutherford attained great heights while researching on radioactivity and discovering and coining the terms alpha, gamma and beta which are different types of radiation. Rutherford received his knighthood, Order of Merit and was made the Baron Rutherford of Nelson, of Cambridge in the County of Cambridge for his outstanding atomic and nuclear findings. Such was the brilliance of Rutherford that most of the researching students working under him achieved great heights and were awarded Nobel Prizes. Rutherford's experiments were regarded as the finest and most controlled ones for which he will always be remembered as one of the greatest scientists ever after Sir Isaac Newton. Rutherford's tomb lies next to Newton's which says how much he is respected and how greatly he is remembered

Work, Research andContribution

It was in 1898 when Rutherford was made to hold the chair of Macdonald Professor of physics at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, succeeding Hugh Longbourne Callendar. It was here Rutherford gained all his researching highs. His works in McGill won him his Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908.

Rutherford was deeply immersed in his research and investigation of radioactivity. It was while doing this that he coined the terms alpha and beta in 1899. These were radiation emitting rays which were described by Rutherford as two distinct (easily differentiable) emissions by thorium and uranium. Rutherford clearly explained how the rays could be differentiated on the basis of their penetrating power.

In 1900 he received his DSc from the University of New Zealand. During the period 1900 to 1903 Rutherford had a young and new researcher joining him at McGill, Frederick Soddy with whom Rutherford collaborated in a research project which was on transmutation of elements. Rutherford found and rightly explained that radioactivity resulted from spontaneous disintegration of atoms. Rutherford minutely observed and recorded that a sample of radioactive material took same time for half the sample to decay which he later called as ‘half-life’. Rutherford’s discovery was further made and developed into a practical application that was based on constant rate of decay as a clock, which was used to determine the age of the Earth, which was found to be much older than the previously held belief of most scientists.

In 1903 Rutherford found that the radiation (already discovered) emitted by radium which was not named (discovered by French chemist Paul Villard in 1900) had a point of difference (from alpha and beta rays) that was not yet represented. He also found that the distinct ray had a very high penetrating power so Rutherford did not waste much time to name this third type of radiation as gamma ray.

In 1907 Rutherford was appointed to the chair of physics at the University of Manchester. While staying in Manchester, Rutherford continued his quest for alpha radiation. He collaborated with Hans Geiger and developed zinc sulphide scintillation screens and ionisation chambers that were developed to keep a count on alphas. 
 

In 1907 Rutherford along with Thomas Royds carried out a chemical test that involved allowing of alpha rays to penetrate a very thin window into an evacuated tube. The rays invariably sparked the tube into discharge resulting in a spectrum that changed its nature as the alpha rays accumulated in the tube. Further the experiment showed how the clear spectrum of helium gas started to appear. This went on to prove that alphas were in the minimum possibilities ionised helium atoms or probably helium nuclei.

In 1909 Rutherford joined hands with Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden to carry out Geiger–Marsden experiment which was to find and demonstrate the actual nuclear nature of atoms. This experiment was carried out to get proper formulated results on alpha particles. Rutherford had asked Geiger and Marsden to find alpha particles having very high deflection angles (no predetermined types were expected as there were no previous theories of matter propounded earlier to this experiment). Deflections were found but were rare and had a smooth and a high-order function of the deflection angle. The interpretations and the result-achieving experiment inspired Rutherford to bring out his Rutherford model of the atom in 1911. This theory stated that even a small nucleus when positively charged had electrons orbiting around it.

In 1919 Rutherford took over the Cavendish laboratory in Cambridge where he transmuted one element into another (for the first time ever by anyone) converting nitrogen into oxygen through the nuclear reaction. Rutherford carried out his experiment with Niels Bohr and made a theory about the existence of neutrons and also the fact that they could compensate for the repelling effect of the positive charges of protons by initiating an attractive nuclear force which resulted the nuclei from not breaking apart.

In 1932 Rutherford’s neutron theory was proved by James Chadwick who went on to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery in 1935.

Awards and Honours

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908 for making path breaking discoveries and successful investigations into the process of elements’ disintegration and the related chemistry of radioactive substances. Rutherford was made the Knight in 1914. In 1916 Rutherford received the Hector Memorial Medal award. In 1919 Rutherford returned to Cavendish laboratory in Cambridge where he was made the Director. While being the Director at Cavendish, Rutherford supervised several researchers, the notable ones being James Chadwick, John Douglas Cockcroft, Edward Victor Appleton and Thomas Sinton Walton all of whom won Nobel Prizes for their atomic reactions, neutron discoveries, demonstrations and chemical experiments on articles and ionospheres. In 1925 Rutherford was honoured with the Order of Merit. In 1931 Rutherford was honoured with the title of Baron Rutherford of Nelson, of Cambridge in the County of Cambridge.

Even after his death, Rutherford has been held in high honour by keeping him in a tomb in Westminster Abbey, alongside J. J. Thomson, and near Sir Isaac Newton.