LORD OF THE AT M

Ernest Rutherford grew up in rural New Zealand in the late 1800s, progressing from the first XV to such lasting scientific achievement that Einstein called him “a second Newton”.

The ancient Greeks believed that all matter was composed of tiny, indivisible particles called atoms (meaning ‘cannot be cut’). More than two thousand years later a rurally raised New Zealander, now known as “the Father of nuclear physics”, proved that this fundamental building block was itself made up of even tinier particles –establishing the atomic model (electrons orbiting a dense nucleus) which we all know today.

Years after Rutherford was awarded the Nobel Prize came the achievement for which he is most recognised. Knocking particles out of the atomic nucleus of nitrogen, he converted it into an isotope of oxygen. Scientific alchemy had been achieved by “splitting the atom”.

The young Rutherford enrolled at Havelock School in 1873. The building has been preserved as the Rutherford Backpackers hostel.

(Alistair Hughes)

In choosing his coat of arms, Rutherford utilised New Zealand elements. The motto means “To seek the first principles of things”.

Ernest Rutherford is born at Spring Grove, near Nelson. He was the fourth of 12 children of James and Martha Rutherford.

Attending university in Christchurch, the young Rutherford first met his future wife Mary Newton, the daughter of his suffragette landlady. (Supplied)

Rutherford attends the University of New Zealand at Canterbury College on a junior scholarship, where he meets his future wife Mary Newton and graduates with double first-class honours in maths and physics.

The Rutherford family move to Havelock, Marlborough, where Ernest attends school before being awarded a scholarship to Nelson College.

Rutherford accepts Professorship of Physics at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and marries Mary.

After some postgraduate research, Rutherford wins a scholarship to the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, England. He begins his research into radioactivity.

The statue of young Ernest Rutherford (‘Ern’), in Brightwater. Stolen in 2022, the memorial was quickly recovered by local police and returned. (Alistair Hughes)

As New Zealand’s greatest scientist, Rutherford’s face adorns our most valuable bank note, the $100 bill.

Rutherford gave a highly successful speaking tour when he visited New Zealand in 1925.

(Alistair Hughes) enabled him to work as a research assistant at Trinity College, Cambridge. Using the magnetic detector he had invented as a student to set the world distance record for radio wave transmission, Rutherford’s abilities were quickly recognised. Turning to the study of radiation, Rutherford established that there were different forms which he named after letters of the Greek alphabet. So even Marvel comics owes our most famous scientist a debt for their legendary green, gamma-irradiated character, the Hulk. Offered a professorship in Montreal, Canada, it was here that his further work into the nature of radiation and the atomic transformation of heavy elements led to world recognition and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. But more importantly, before taking up his post in Canada, Rutherford first came home to New Zealand and married his student sweetheart, Mary.

Made Head of Physics at Manchester University, Rutherford generously mentors many younger scientists.

Rutherford’s reputation grows and he is appointed DSc at the University of New Zealand, becoming ‘Dr Rutherford’.

His research leads to the concept of the atomic nucleus, and the ‘Rutherford model of the atom’ is born.

Rutherford becomes the first New Zealander to be awarded the Nobel Prize (in chemistry) for his investigations into radioactivity.

He is raised to the peerage, becoming Lord Rutherford of Nelson, and insists on a New Zealand title and imagery in his coat of arms.

Knighted in 1914, Sir Ernest Rutherford ‘splits the atom’, causing a nitrogen atom to emit a proton and transmute into an isotope of oxygen atom.

The’ Father of Nuclear Physics’ dies on October 19, in Cambridge. His ashes are interred at Westminster Abbey.

Eventually returning to Britain in 1907, the nowacclaimed world changer was on something of a roll, inventing a device for the measurement of radioactivity with his assistant Hans Geiger, (which would lead to the famous Geiger counter), and developing his groundbreaking model of the atom. Becoming director of the Cavendish Laboratories where his own career had begun, he was widely acknowledged as an inspiring and generous leader. With further discoveries, honours began firing at him like his own experimental charged particles. Knighted in 1914, he was then awarded the Order of Merit a decade later. When made Baron Rutherford of Nelson in 1931, Lord Rutherford ensured his coat of arms included a kiwi and a Māori warrior in its design. But it is important to note that, like fellow Kiwi Edmund Hillary, he remained the humble and honest man he had always been. Conscientiously ensuring that his assistants always received due credit, he mentored and guided many future famous scientists towards their own successes. Remaining active until the end, the former New Zealand farm boy, who the New York Times called “the leading explorer of the vast, infinitely complex universe within the atom,” passed away suddenly after gardening at his weekend cottage in 1937.

It was his ‘everyman’ relatability amidst the sometimes abstract achievements which award winning children’s author Maria Gill wanted to highlight in her new book Ernest Rutherford: Just an Ordinary Boy.

“I could see there was a great underlying message within Ernest’s life story about not giving up on your dreams. I wanted readers to realise he was just an ordinary kid like them, who worked hard to get where he ended up and persevered even when he encountered ‘roadblocks’.”

Maria’s book, a richly illustrated retelling for younger readers, launched at the beginning of the month at the Christchurch Arts Centre. She recounts that this is also where the project began: “I was lucky enough to get an Arts Centre residency and to immerse myself in the Rutherford Den Museum, soaking up the atmosphere where Ernest Rutherford went to university. His story came easily, it just flowed from my fingers.”

Ernest Rutherford: Just an Ordinary Boy, Upstart Press. RRP 24.99

To be into win one of two copies of this book email editor@nelsonmag.co.nz