Rutherford's curriculum vitae, 1894-1907.
A single page, handwritten document was discovered when the Macdonald Physics building of McGill University in Montreal was gutted in 1978. This proved to be the draft of Ernest Rutherford's curriculum vitae (C.V.) covering the years 1894-1907, probably written in the autumn of 1906 when Rutherford was preparing to leave McGill. The C.V. contains 21 headings in chronological order, referring to research and other activities of Rutherford and his coauthors (especially Soddy and Barnes), plus a further set of headings relating to the associated investigations of Rutherford's team, including Eve and Hahn. A transcript of the document is provided, although in several places, Rutherford's handwriting is difficult to interpret, and the significance of his abbreviations is not always clear. Each of the items in the C.V. is discussed briefly in this review, in the light both of Rutherford's personal career and of the contribution of his team to the development and understanding of radioactivity. This contribution included the cause and nature of radioactivity (with Soddy), energy aspects of radioactive decay (with Barnes), elucidation of the uranium-radium, thorium and actinium series (Godlewski and Hahn), the radioactivity of the earth and atmosphere (Eve), the nature of the gamma rays (Eve) and, perhaps most important of all, the nature and properties of the alpha particle (Rutherford himself). The latter investigations led directly to Rutherford's later work in Manchester, including the nuclear model of the atom and artificial disintegration of the nucleus.
Cohen
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Department of Physics, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
D004739:England; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D008280:Magnetics; D010825:Physics / Q000266:history* / Q000295:instrumentation; D011792:Quebec; D011827:Radiation; D011883:Radium; D014501:Uranium
D014501:Uranium; D011883:Radium