SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

Hokitika Guardian, 11 August 1924, Page 1

SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

SIR E. RH'IIKRFORD'S REVELATION. IXJBTKALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION. OTTAWA. Aug. !L •‘To Canada goes the c redit ol being the country where the foundations were laid of discoveries whieh are now revolutionising the theories ol chemistry and physics in all parts of the world, and which will exert a great effect on industrial life.” Thus spoke Sir Ernest Rutherford, when addressing the Rotary Club of Toronto. lie described tin* early experiments tit .McGill University of Montreal. He said ; “I I was in the Dominion of Canada that the first experiments in modern ideas of the structure ol matter were carried out. and the credit belongs in some measure to Canada. The result has been a veritable scientific revolution. The work Inis only commenced on the structure of inanimate objects, .such as gold, wood, and the air that we breathe, and the atoms of which it is formed. All, to begin with, were funned of the same substance. The discovery of these atomic* arrangements will enable men to gain a much greater degree of control over the on I ill.”

Professor RuthoiTnril also explained hie own theory of the structure of the at.on. He said that if the atom were the size of a house the research worker would find at its centre a core the mzc uf a man’s list, whieh controls the ai'raiigemeiis ..I the whole. The part of tie* atom outside this ciro was made up nl' a numb.*.' ol electron.-, rovi.lving about the centre, and governed by it. as the Sun governs th.* movements of the planet-.. The owe itself was made up of a immher of infinitely small particles, each two thousand titties 'heavier than an electron, and charged with electricity. There were small particles going to make up this cure, artaugccl in liill'erent ways. The key to the whole of sciencT* is hidden in the arrangement of tin- minute cole I*. each atom.”