2. Growing Up Ernest Rutherford was born on August 30, 1871 and grew up in a poor, rural area in New Zealand called Brightwater. He was the fourth child and second son of twelve children by James and Martha Rutherford. He lived the typical life of a child living in the country. His family chores ate up time after school. Chores such as milking cows and gathering firewood. On Saturdays, Rutherford went swimming and bird’s-nesting with his brothers to raise money for kite string and slingshot rubber. At age 10, he received his first science book. This book contained many experiments that caught the interest of young Ernest. But there was one experiment that particularly interested him. It was about using the speed of sound to determine the distance to a firing cannon. The knowledge he gained from performing this experiment gave him the ability to estimate the distance to a lightning flash. This surprised his family.
3. Educational Background Rutherford received an early education from the government and at the age of sixteen attended Nelson Collegiate School. In 1895, Rutherford left New Zealand having earned three degrees from the University of New Zealand. He became professor of physics at McGill University (1898-1907) and professor and director of the physical laboratory at the University of Manchester (1907-1919) after working under J.J. Thomson at Cambridge. At the end of this time, he succeeded Thomson as professor and director of the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge.
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7. Ernest Rutherford was recognized in many countries for his scientific discoveries and accomplishments. These countries honored him by featuring him on their stamps and/or their money.
8. Rutherford, a native son and national hero in New Zealand, is featured on the country's hundred dollar bill (U.S. $40.50).
9. Rutherford's profound discoveries have inspired commemorative postage stamps in three countries. (Canada, New Zealand, Soviet Union) The Canadian stamp remembers his Nobel Prize-winning work on radioactivity he conducted in Canada.
10. This New Zealand stamp recognizes the world's first successful alchemist who converted nitrogen atoms into oxygen atoms.
11. The USSR issued this stamp in 1971. It highlights Rutherford's alpha-scattering experiments, which revealed the dense, miniscule atomic nucleus surrounded largely by empty space and distant electrons.
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15. .::Rutherford, the unit::. Ernest Rutherford created the unit, Rutherford (rd) It is an obsolete unit of radioactivity defined as the activity of a quantity of radioactive material in which one million nuclei decay per second.
16. Historical Background of the Period Rutherford lived in the period in which World War I took place. He had a part in helping out in this war. During the war, Rutherford worked on acoustic methods of detecting submarines. He was a strong supporter of scientific research and education but he was also aware of how people are able to misuse science. During World War I, he hoped that an efficient way of extracting the energy of the atom would not be discovered until everyone was at peace again. And before World War II, he argued to ban the use of aeroplanes in the war.
