Rutherford Scientist Supreme
John Campbell
AAS Publications, 1999
Hardback.
ISBN 0-473-05700-X
515 pages.
16 colour plates, 32 B/W plates,
96 illustrations imbedded within the text.
First published Nov 1999 in New Zealand.
Reprinted March 2000 for release overseas.
Purchasing Details.
Purchase online as below. For the USA first email books [at) ask-a-scientist.net to see if a book is in place there for mailing internally.
If so, the total cost, which includes their cheap rate postage for mailing books, will be much reduced.
My Comments on This Book
This is the only large biography of Rutherford currently in print and is the result of 20 years of archival research and
interviews covering 14 countries. It is the first book to draw on original archives in New Zealand and, surprisingly, on many archives in
Canada and the UK. The work had the blessing of the Rutherford family in England and New Zealand. The emphasis is from the
New Zealand point of view. When I commenced this work there were 26 nephews and nieces of Rutherford still alive. All are now dead. I
attempted to track down the descendents of every student close to Rutherford at Canterbury College and
had a policy of working only from original sources, not second hand sources as these are notorious for errors.
Ernest Rutherford is New Zealand's most famous son.
It is amazing that no New Zealander
had previously studied Rutherford and that a country could give out such a flawed image of
its most famous son. Prior to this
reseach and book we used to have the Rutherfords arrive in New Zealand
9 years prior to the year the ship they were said to arrive in was
built; we married him off to his mother-in-law; we projected his later
fame back to make a genius of a normal Kiwi kid; we had him start at
university a year later than reality; and we couldn't
give a correct account of the research he did in New Zealand. One large
corporation, which had named its high profile building in honour of Ern,
for decades worshipped a framed "painting" of Lord Rutherford,
not knowing that the portrait, which had been given to
them by a branch of the Rutherford family, was actually just a torn out from a book fronterspiece photo of the author, the
curator of the Otago Museum.
Not surprisingly, the book is New Zealand
centered. 206 of its 515 pages covering his life
and times before leaving New Zealand. These were his formative years and
it should not be forgotten that he left New Zealand in 1895 at age 23,
with three degrees from the University of New Zealand
and two years research at the forefront of the electrical technology of
the day. His brilliance at experimental research was already obvious.
Several later events are told from the New Zealand perspective, often
through letters written home to his parents and mother-in-law. This book
gives the first full account of the circumstances of Rutherford's
Nobel Prize and consideration as to why he received only the one Nobel
Prize.
The Stout Trust donated a copy of this book
to the library of every intermediate and secondary
school in New Zealand. The Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind
have read the book into their Talking Books series for
members. (20.5 hours, the reader is Paul Barrett.)
Errors Noted.
1st and 2nd Print. p 310 and p 316 Dec 10th is Nobel's death day, not birth day.
p 368 (facing) B25a photo caption. Thompson should be Thomson.
p 449 31 signatories to the letter to the editor (not 29).
p 336 the statement re the unit the Curie should read "With the unit named in her late husband's honour".
p346 Wilmslow Road not Street. (line 20). Thanks to Gordon Whitham.
p385 Frederick Aston should be Francis William Aston (also in index). Thanks to Kevin Downard.
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Contents
Patrons of the Research |
|
vii
|
Author's Notes |
|
viii
|
Foreword |
Professor Sir Mark Oliphant |
ix
|
Preface |
|
xi
|
Chapter 1 |
|
|
1 |
Lucky Infant - Carefree Child |
Nelson to 1883 |
1
|
2 |
Tragedies and Triumphs |
Havelock 1881-1889 |
17
|
3 |
Earnest Schoolboy |
Nelson College 1887-1889 |
43
|
4 |
Academia |
Canterbury College 1890 |
69
|
5 |
Senior Undergraduate |
Canterbury College 1891-1892 |
91
|
6 |
Apprenticeship in Research |
Canterbury College 1893 |
119
|
7 |
Planning for the Future |
Canterbury College 1894-1895 |
149
|
Interlude |
|
193
|
8 |
Wireless Signalling |
Cambridge University 1895-1896 |
207
|
9 |
The New Physics |
Cambridge University 1896-1898 |
225
|
10 |
Natural Alchemy |
McGill University 1898-1903 |
249
|
11 |
Consolidating a Nobel Prize |
McGill University 1903-1907 |
279
|
12 |
The Nobel Prize |
Stockholm and Manchester 1907-1908 |
305
|
13 |
Counting Atoms |
Manchester University 1907-1908 |
321
|
14 |
The Atom Unveiled |
Manchester University 1909-1914 |
331
|
15 |
TheWorld at War |
Manchester and New Zealand 1914-1919 |
349
|
16 |
Broadening Research |
Cambridge University 1919-1929 |
379
|
17 |
Triumphal Tour of Home |
New Zealand 1925 |
397
|
18 |
Death and Glory |
Cambridge University 1930-1931 |
415
|
19 |
Birth of the Atom Smashers |
Cambridge University 1932 |
433
|
20 |
Elder Statesman of Science |
Cambridge University 1930-1937 |
447
|
21 |
Sundown |
1937 |
463
|
Epilogue |
|
477
|
List ofIllustrations |
Colour Photographs |
495
|
|
|
Black/White Photographs |
496
|
Sources of Information |
Including illustrations within the text |
497
|
Index |
|
507
|
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Reviews
To date there have been 18 reviews in New Zealand and 14 overseas.
New Zealand
Northern Advocate |
3/11/99 |
Des Bell |
Hawkes Bay Today |
20/11/99 |
Jim Eagles |
Chem NZ |
p44-5 Nov 1999 |
Arthur Williamson |
Waikato Times |
27/11/99 |
Dale Carnegie |
Listener |
27/11/99 |
Geoff Austin |
North and South |
p128-9 Dec 1999 |
Michael King |
NZ Herald |
13/11/99 |
Lydia Austin |
The Press |
4/12/99 |
Arthur Williamson |
Otago Daily Times |
15/12/99 |
Ron Tyrrell |
Nelson Mail |
8/1/00 |
Graham Spencer |
Breakin |
Jan/Feb 2000 |
John Walker |
University of Canterbury Chronicle |
24/2/00 |
Arthur Williamson |
Evening Post |
4/8/00 |
Ray Henwood |
Marlborough Express |
?/00 |
Ralph Ballinger |
Dominion |
19/8/00 |
Alan Samson |
Evening Standard |
28/8/00 |
Denis Dwyer |
Archifacts p66-69 |
Oct 2000 |
Garry Tee |
Canterbury Science |
Nov 2000 |
John Walker |
The Daily News (New Plymouth) |
8/12/01 |
David Bruce |
Opunake and Coastal News News |
27/7/06 |
Rolland McKellar |
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Overseas
The Australian Physicist (Jan/Feb) |
37 36 2000 |
Colin Keay |
New Zealand News |
26/8/00 |
Louise Cunningham |
Cern Courier (Sept) |
40/7 48-9 2000 |
Gordon Fraser |
American Journal of Physics (Sept) |
68 873 2000 |
Jim Cederberg |
Cambridge Evening News |
16/9/00 |
Chris Elliott |
Chemistry in Britain |
p56 Sept 2000 |
Michael Sutton |
Physics World |
p50 Oct 2000 |
Jeff Hughes |
Physics in Canada (Nov-Dec) |
56 338-9 2000 |
David Lockwood |
Endeavour |
24 178 2000 |
Lawrence Badash |
Int J of the Spec Soc of Canada |
45 115 2000 |
Don Ramsay |
Canadian Chemical News |
54/212 2000 |
Don Ramsay |
J Chem Ed |
78 313 2001 |
John Turner |
Chem 13 News (Univ of Waterloo) |
No 291 (Feb) 1 2001 |
Don Ramsay |
Physics Today |
p61-2 Feb 2001 |
Sam Devons |
Structural Chemistry |
12/3-4 343-4 2001 |
Don Ramsay |
The Physics Teacher |
Mar 2001 |
John Hubisz |
European J Physics |
22 191 2001 |
H Rechenberg |
Historical Records of Australian Science |
13 364-5 2001 |
John Jenkin |
Short Book Reviews of the International Statistical Institute |
21 21 2001 |
Don Ramsay |
Angewandte Chemistry (in German) |
113 3589 2001 |
Gunter Herrmann |
Angewandte Chemistry (Int Ed ie in English) |
40 3479 2001 |
Gunter Herrmann |
Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London |
55 494-5 2001 |
Sir Brian Pippard |
Annals of Science |
59 99-101 2002 |
Arne Hessenbruch |
Contemporary Physics |
59 211-213 2002 |
R Gilmore |
Canadian Nuclear Society Bulletin |
28 57 2007 |
Jim Arsenault |
Reviews available to all via the web
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