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Family moves to New Zealand
Ernest Rutherford's father, a wheelwright, moved from Scotland to New Zealand with his entire family. -
Rutherford is Born
Ernest Rutherford is born in Nelson New Zealand and is fourth out of twelve children. -
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The Life of Ernest Rutherford
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Rutherford going to school
Ernest recieved his early education in Government schools and at the age of 16 entered Nelson Collegiate School -
Rutherford goes to College
awrded a University scholership and he proceeded to the University of New Zealand,Wellington, where he entered Canterbury College. -
Rutherford graduates with degrees in Math & Physical Science
After he graduated, Rutherford stayed at the College to study how the magnetic properties of iron changed when they were exposed to oscillation. His thesis was "Magnetization of Iron by High-Frequency Discharges," and he was one of the first people to design neew experiments with alternating currents. -
Scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge (Cavendish Lab)
Became a research student under J.J. Thomson. Invented a detector for electromagnetic waves and studied gas ions that had been treated with X-rays. -
Published his second paper
Published "Magnetic Viscosity," which has a description of a machine that could measure time intervals of a hundred-thousandth of a second. -
After graduation, moved to Canada
He reported his discovery of alpha & beta rays then became the MacDonald Chair of Physics at McGill University in Montreal. He discovered a new noble gas, an isotope of radon, that was later named Thoron. -
Married
Married Mary Newton, and their only child, Eileen, eventually married a physicist. Rutherford's chief recreations were golf and motoring. -
Elected Fellow of the Royal Society
He served as President from 1925-1930. -
Published the book, "Radioactivity."
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Employed Otto Hahn
Hahn later discovered atomic fission. -
Returned to England
Became the Langworthy Professor of Physics at the University of Manchester. Worked with H. Geiger (who later invented the Geiger Counter) to find a way of detecting and counting single alpha particles that were emitted from radium. -
Won Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Awarded Nobel Prize for his "investigations into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances (Nobelprize.org, 2012)." -
Discovered the nucleus
He investigated what was inside the atom that would make alpha rays scatter and figured out that there must be a nucleus. This was his greatest contribution to physics. He also said that almost the whole mass of the atom and all of the positive-charged particles are in the nucleus. -
Niels Bohr joined the lab
Bohr adapted Rutherford's atomic structure to fit Max Planck's quantum theory and thus created a more advanced theory of atomic structure. -
Figured out Atomic Numbers
With H.G. Mosely, he showed that the inner atomic structures are different for each element, so each element could be assigned an atomic number and, more importantly, the properties of each element could be defined by this number. -
Rutherford was knighted.
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First to change one element into another.
Succeeded J.J. Thomson as Cavendish Professor of Physics at Cambridge and found that alpha particles could break apart the nuclei of some light elements, like nitrogen, to create a different element, like oxygen. This was later proven by Blackett. -
Became a Baron
He became the FIrst Baron Rutherford of Nelson, New Zealand, and Cambridge. -
Died in Cambridge
Still working at age 66, he died and his ashes were buried in the nave of Westminster Abbey, just west of Sir Isaac Newton's tomb and by that of Lord Kelvin. -
Unit of Radioactivity Named in his honor
A unit of radioactivity was named Rutherford in his honor.
