A Young Ernest

Rutherford

Ernest Rutherford was born at Spring Grove in rural Nelson, New Zealand,
on August 30th, 1871. He was the fourth child and second son (of 12
children) to his parents James Rutherford and Martha Thompson. Ernest's
father was an all purpose laborer in that he was a mechanic, wheelwright,
engineer, flax-miller and a farmer. Ernest's mother was a school teacher
before marriage and was able to give her children an education (in addition
to the local schooling) that was as good as any that could be provided at the
time. Both James and Martha stressed the importance of education to their
children throughout their lives: partly because Martha had an education
and knew what opportunities it offered, and partly because James lacked
an education and wanted his children to surpass his limited potential. In
any case, the Rutherford children were always assured that All knowledge is
power.
As can be expected, Ernest demonstrated unique arithmetical abilities and
an unusual desire for learning at a very early age. Considering the fact that
Ernest grew up as a young country boy in a rural part of New Zealand, the
teachers of the local schools greatly encouraged such curiosity. At the age of
ten Ernest at long last acquired his first science text book from the Foxhill
School. From this divine book he was able to acquire an idea that soon
turned into his first recorded experiment.

Ernest's first experiment was the construction and testing of a home-made

cannon. Many may be wondering: "How could a ten year old country boy
build a cannon?" Well, the answer to this question is quite simple: the boy
was Ernest Rutherford, end of story. In any case, this primitive canon was
constructed from the brass tube of a hat-peg, used a marble for a ball, and
used a dose of gunpowder as a source of ignition. Rutherford may have
been anbright child, but it seems that he didn't inherit his father's
engineering skills; because the canon exploded and failed to hit the target
that was eloquently placed twenty meters away.

Luckily, Rutherford survived his first experiment and was able to survive
his pre-mature experiments and scientific inquiries long enough for him to
attend secondary school. At that time the Scholarship to Nelson College was
the only scholarship available for children of Rutherford's rural and poor
background. Needless to say, competition was over abundant. Upon his
second attempt, Rutherford was finally able to win the scholarship in 1887
and begin his secondary education.

Rutherford spent his next three years at Nelson College and came under the
tuition of the master William Littlejohn. In addition to being head boy and a
member on the school rugby team, Rutherford managed to top his class in
every subject during his final year at Nelson. At the end of that year
Rutherford won one of ten nationwide Junior Scholarships to the
University of New Zealand (currently the University of Canterbury) in 1889
(once more on his second attempt). Rutherford remained in New Zealand
and continued to pursue various degrees until he left for Cambridge
University at the age of twenty three. Soon afterwards Rutherford
befriended J.J. Thomson (who acted not only as a helpful colleague but also
as a mentor) and began his insightful career as both physicist and chemist.
The rest of this story is written down in all types of science text books and
will remain in such books until the end of time.
 The Rutherford
Timeline

1871: Born at Spring Grove (now Brightwater), Nelson

Province, New Zealand, 30th Aug 1871.

1877-83: Attended Foxhill School, Nelson Province.

1883-6: Attended Havelock School.

1887: Won a Marlborough Scholarship to Nelson College.

1889: Won a University of New Zealand Junior Scholarship.

1890-4: Attended Canterbury College, University of New

Zealand, in Christchurch

1892: Joined the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, now the

Canterbury Branch of the Royal Society of New Zealand.
 1892: Completed BA.

1893: First original research on the high frequency

magnetisation of iron. Developed a timing device which could
switch circuits in less than one hundred thousandth of a second.

1893: Completed MA with double First Class Honours; in

Mathematics and Mathematical Physics, and in Physical
Science.

1894: Completed BSc in Chemistry and Geology. Extended

his research to higher frequencies using discharging Leyden
jars and a Hertzian oscillator. Developed a magnetic
detector of very short current pulses.

1895: Awarded an Exhibition of 1851 scholarship to go

anywhere in the world to carry out research of importance to
New Zealand's industries.

1895: Measured the high frequency dielectric properties of

materials. Used his magnetic detector as part of a frequency
meter.

1896: Sets the world record for the distance over which
'wireless' waves were detected.

1898: Discovers rays from radioactive materials are of two

main types, which he names alpha and beta.

1899: Demonstrates the principle which is the basis of the

modern smoke detector.

1899: Discovers a radioactive gas, later to be named radon.

1900: Marries Mary Georgina Newton in Christchurch, New

Zealand.

1901: DSc from the University of New Zealand. Now Dr

Rutherford.

1902: Announces formally that radioactivity is a

manifestation of sub-atomic change.
 1903: Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of London.

1904: Awarded the Rumford Medal, his first major science

prize.

1908: Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

1911: Announces the nuclear model of the atom.

1914: Knighted. Now Sir Ernest Rutherford.

1915-17: Pioneer work on acoustic methods of detecting

submarines.

1917: Becomes the world's first successful alchemist,

changing nitrogen into oxygen (he splits the atom).

1920: Predicts the existence of the neutron.

1925-30: President of the Royal Society of London.

1925: Order of Merit.

1929-37: Chairman of the Advisory Council of the Department

of Scientific and Industrial Research.

1931: Raised to the Peerage at New Year, Now Ernest, Lord

Rutherford of Nelson.

1931-33: President of the Institute of Physics.

1937: Died 19th Oct 1937. Ashes interred in Westminister

Abbey.

An Overview of Radiation
and Radioactivity
Even though Ernest Rutherford was by trade a physicist, a lot of his research
served to shed light on once unknown aspects of radioactivity and nuclear
chemistry. Of his many contributions to these fields is his classification and
description of alpha particles. As will be discussed in subsequent pages,
Rutherford didn't necessarily discover alpha particles as much as he recognized
their existence. However, a base understanding of the history of radiation and
radioactivity must be obtained before Rutherford's contributions are discussed. I
shall therefore start from the beginning.

The first steps into deciphering radiation were taken by Wilhelm Rntgen in
1895 when he placed his hand in front of a radioactive source to discover that a
shadowed outline of the bones of his hand was being projected onto the screen
behind him. Rntgen was so thrilled by this discovery that he isolated himself
from everyone he knew (with the exception of brief comments to his wife) so that
he could experiment with this unknown form of radiation. Unbeknownst to him
at the time, Rntgen was directly exposing himself to high amounts of hazardous
radiation; which couldn't had been good for his health. But despite such
consequences, Rntgen was able to publish his research soon after the discovery
and called the radiation "X-rays."

*Note- For more information on Wilhelm Rntgen's discovery and

experimentation with X-rays, click here.

*Note- The image below portrays an early experimental tube that is

similar to those that Roentgen and others used to investigate the
nature of light.
Rntgen's discovery was worth mentioning because his research catalyzed other
scientists into searching for other forms of radiation. One such scientist was
Henri Becquerel, who was so intrigued by the Rntgen's discovery that he
decided to search for luminescent objects that could produce rays that were
similar to X-rays. His early experiments were largely oriented around uranium
and its exposure to sunlight (which was done in order to make uranium
luminescent). Eventually, (and almost by pure accident), Bacquerel realized that
his samples of uranium were radiating regardless as to whether or not they had
been stimulatedby a light source. The importance of this discovery was that it
inspired research into the concept of radioactivity (or radioactive decay) by both
the husband and wife pair of Pierre and Marie Curie and our very own Ernest
Rutherford.

*Note- Additional information on both Henri Becquerel and

Pierre/Marie Curie can be found here.
 Alpha
Particles
In case any one hasn't noticed, the previous page did not focus on the
discoveries of Ernest Rutherford (the topic scientist of this site). Such
attention was given to the discoveries of other scientists because the subject
of radiation and radioactivity can not be attributed to just one person. For
example, the research of Rntgen prompted Becquerel's research, which
prompted Rutherford's research. In other words, I provided the general
history of the discoveries in this field in hopes that Rutherford's research
could be more easily understood. Now that this background has been
established, Rutherford's discoveries and contributions can be discussed
with the attention that they deserve.

Rutherford began measuring the electric current of gases ionized by

Rntgen's X-rays and ultraviolet light soon after he began collaborating
with J.J. Thomson (who acted as a mentor to the young and promising
scientist for many years). After committing himself to this study for some
time, Rutherford began to wonder if the uranium rays that Becquerel
discovered would ionize the gas just as X-rays and ultraviolet light were
observed to do. With this inquiry in mind, he devised an experiment to test
the characteristics of uranium rays by placing two metal plates parallel to
one another (with one of course being above the other). The two plates were
connected to a battery and the lower plate was coated with uranium
powder. Rutherford proceeded to measure the electric current between the
plates and discovered that the rays were in fact ionizing the gas.

To further characterize the rays, Rutherford covered the uranium with

metal foils of various degrees of thickness to see whether the rays would be
blocked by the foil or just pass right through it. While several of
the rays were in fact blocked by the foil, some of them still managed to pass
through with relative ease. This was perhaps the most crucial point of
Rutherford's experiment because it showed that uranium radiation was
composed of two different types of rays: one that was easily absorbed and
another that was more penetrative.

In 1898 Rutherford published a scientific article in which he described the

existence of the two different uranium rays. He also termed the easily
absorbed rays as alpha and the more penetrating rays as beta. Upon
additional experimentation, Rutherford discovered that these rays were
actually composed of tiny alpha and beta particles.

Even though Rutherford worked with both alpha and beta particles (which
were later identified as being helium nuclei, He^(+2), and electrons;
respectively), his work with alpha particles tends to be emphasized since
they were primary components of several of his more commonly known
experiments. In fact, the foundation for his Gold Foil Experiment (perhaps
one of his greatest scientific achievements) was laid down when he began
measuring the specific charge of alpha particles by deflecting them in
electric and magnetic fields.
*Note- Above is an image that depicts alpha particle radiation. Even
though the process at which these particles are formed wasn't necessarily
described by Rutherford, the image provides some incite as to what exactly
Rutherford was working with.

Rutherford's initial desire for these tests was to find the deflection of the
alpha particles by measuring their position on a photographic film.
However, while he was making the appropriate measurements he noticed
that the images on the film became blurred when the particles passed
through a thin piece of mica. The images were clear and distinct when
the mica plate was removed, but became slightly blurred every time the
plate was inserted in the particle pathway. Seeing how Rutherford had an
extremely inquisitive mind, he could not help but ask the all important
question of "why?".

Incidentally, the images that Rutherford saw were blurred because the
small alpha particles were being deflected at slight angles by the nuclei of
the atoms in the mica sheet. At this point in time the nucleus of an atom had
not been discovered, so Rutherford had no way of explaining why he was
seeing what he was seeing. However, Rutherford was by nature a scientist
and could not be content with just not knowing. Thus in his quest for
knowledge he performed the most well known of all of his experiments: The
Gold Foil Experiment.
The Gold Foil
Experiment
Before Ernest Rutherford's landmark experiment with a few pieces of
metal foil and alpha particles, the structure of the atom was thought to
correspond with the plum pudding model. In summary, the plum
pudding model was hypothesized by J.J. Thomson (the discoverer of the
electron) who described an atom as being a large positively charged body
that contained small, free-floating, negatively charged particles called
electrons. The plum pudding model also states that the negative charge of
the electrons is equivalent to the positive charge of the rest of the atom.
The two charges cancel each other causing and cause the electrical charge
of the atom to be zero (or neutral). The faulty aspect of this model is that it
was construed before the nucleus of an atom (and its composition) was
discovered; which is where Rutherford's research comes in.

*Note- For more information on the research of J.J. Thomson

and the plum pudding model, click here.
A large portion of Rutherford's research has always included the use and
study of alpha particles ever since he classified them in 1898 (Rutherford's
association with alpha particles was discussed here). Starting sometime
around 1909, Rutherford began to notice that alpha particles would not
always behave in accordance to the plum pudding model of an atom when
fired at a piece of gold foil. These observations stimulated further research
that was eventually published in 1911 and has been known ever since as
Rutherford's Gold Foil Experiment.

Throughout the course of his experiment, Rutherford had his two

associates (Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden) aim a beam of alpha
particles at a piece of gold foil that was approximately 8.6 x 10^(-6)
centimeters thick. To be more accurate Rutherford actually included a
wide variety of different foils (such as: aluminum, iron, and lead), but his
use of gold foil is most commonly spoke of. In accordance to the J.J.
Thomson model of an atom, the alpha particles should have passed directly
through the gold foil for all instances. Therefore to confirm this activity, a
zinc sulfide screen was placed behind the foil as a backdrop for the alpha
particles to appear upon. Directly above this screen was a microscope that
allowed one of the two experimenters (only Geiger and Marsden actually
performed the experiment, Rutherford just explained the results) to
observe any contact made between the alpha particles and the screen. In
order for the light of the alpha particles to be observed, the experiment
was performed in complete darkness. Also, to further enhance the
accurateness of the observations the experimenter that was charged with
looking through the microscope sat in the dark of the lab room for at least
one hour before performing the experiment. This was done in order to
allow the experimenter's eyes to reach maximum visual acuity.

After the experiment had been set up in accordance to the speculations

described above, Geiger and Marsden would fire the beam of alpha
particles through the piece of foil and observe the location at which the
particles landed on the screen. As explained above, each particle should
have gone directly through the foil if the plum pudding model was correct
(meaning that an atom was a vast amount of empty space and could easily
be passed through by any particle). For the most part, the alpha particles
corresponded with this hypothesis and passed straight through the gold
foil. There were, however, a small hand full of particles that deflected
slightly from the straight path by about one or two degrees. But the biggest
discovery was made when 1 in 20,000 particles would deflect
approximately 90 degrees or more from the parent beam. In fact, an
occasional particle even fired right back at the experimenter. Perhaps
Rutherford described the awe inspiring nature of the discovery best when
he said: "It was as if you fired a 15-inch shell at a sheet of tissue paper and
it came back to hit you." To help illustrate what Geiger and Marsden
observed, a small demonstration is presented below.
The results of this experiment gave Rutherford the means to arrive at two
conclusions: one, an atom was much more than just empty space and
scattered electrons (J.J. Thomson model argued), and two, an atom must
have a positively charged center that contains most of its mass (which
Rutherford termed as the nucleus). Since alpha particles are relatively
heavy, positively charged particles, the fact that the occasional particle
would be deflected by either a small or large margin proved that a portion
of an atom was both positively charged (particles of identical charges repel
one another while particles of opposite charges attract one another) and
relatively heavy by atomic standards. Since only a small number of alpha
particles veered slightly when passed through the foil and since even fewer
bounced back at the experiment, Rutherford reasoned that this positively
charged center was relatively small in reference to the total size of the
atom. Therefore J.J. Thompson was slightly correct in his assumption that
atoms are primarily composed of empty space.

Given below is an illustration that compares the plum pudding model of an

atom to what Rutherford observed in his experiment. The top structure
shows how the alpha particles would have passed through the gold foil
atoms if the plum pudding model was correct in its assumptions. The
bottom structure shows what Rutherford and his collogues observed and is
the true depiction of an atom's structure.
With the disproof of the plum pudding model and with Rutherford's
discovery of an atom's nucleus, it was now possible for Neils Bohr to
construct his model of an atom's structure. Bohr conversed with
Rutherford on several occasions and was able to use the knowledge he
gained from the encounters to create what is now called the quantum
mechanical model of an atom. To explain briefly, Bohr described the
hydrogen atom as a nucleus with an electron circling around it, much as a
planet orbits the sun. The problem with Bohr's model is that it only works
soundly for the hydrogen atom (this and other facts about Bohr's research
and the quantum mechanical model can be found here). Even though
Bohr's model was not entirely correct in its application, the point to grab
here is that Rutherford's experiment with gold foil and his discovery of the
nucleus had a huge contribution to the development of today's atomic
theory(s). Yes another scientist probably would have made the same
discovery given the opportunity of a few years, but Rutherford had the
intelligence and the incite to put the ideas together when he did.
Essentially, putting ideas together is really what science is all about.
Refer
ences
 Home Page

Text:
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A Young Ernest
Rutherford
Text:
http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/rutherford.htm
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http://www.rutherford.org.nz

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