Rutherford, Ernest, Lord

Rutherford, Ernest, Lord (1871-1937), scientist, b. New Zealand.

Rutherford's family were poor but he won a scholarship to Cambridge University and they sent him to England.

He always used very simple equipment for his experiments and he said he did not need an expensive laboratory to do them in - he could do them at the North Pole!

His main interest was in atoms, the tiny particles all substances are made of.

By a famous experiment at Manchester in 1911, he showed that atoms are made up of two parts.

Later, he found out that atoms contained large amounts of empty space. He did this by projecting parts of helium atoms at a very thin sheet of gold. Most of them passed through it.

In 1919, Rutherford bombarded some nitrogen gas with helium atoms and turned it into a different chemical. He had 'split the atom' and this created a sensation, for many people had thought it was impossible.

Rutherford went on experimenting for forty-two years and he is sometimes called the 'Father of atomic science'.

He is buried in Westminster Abbey beside Sir Isaac Newton and Lord Kelvin.

See Radioactivity and Atomic Theory (From the Smithsonian Report for 1936, Pages 161-175) - Lord Rutherford