1971 Lord Rutherford Centenary of Birth
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|
Cat. |
Mint Unhinged |
Fine Used |
1c |
Alpha Particle Trace / Structure of the Atom |
181a |
$0.45 |
|
$0.45 |
|
7c |
Nuclear Reaction Equation / Conversion of Nitrogen into Oxygen |
181b |
$0.90 |
|
$0.90 |
|
|
|
|
Set of 2 |
181c |
$1.30 |
|
$1.30 |
|
|
|
|
First Day Cover - 1 December 1971 |
181d |
|
|
$4.50 |
|
|
… Two Stamps : 1c (181a), 7c (181b) |
Two stamps were issued to commemorate the 100th anniversary
of Lord Rutherford's birth.
Lord Ernest Rutherford (30 August
1871 - 19 October 1937) was a New Zealand born scientist who graduated with
a B.Sc. in chemistry and geology from Canterbury College (now the
University of Canterbury). After also gaining a BA and MA, and doing two
years research into electrical technology, he travelled to England for
postgraduate study at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of
Cambridge. During the investigation of radioactivity he coined the terms
alpha and beta to describe the two distinct types of emitted
radiation.
In 1898 Rutherford was appointed to the chair of physics
at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. His work there earned him the
1908 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. From 1900 to 1903, Frederick Soddy and
Rutherford collaborated on research into the transmutation of elements.
Ernest Rutherford had demonstrated that radioactivity was the spontaneous
disintegration of atoms. He noticed that a radioactive sample invariably
took the same time for half the sample to decay — its
"half-life". He created a practical application for this
phenomenon, using this constant rate of decay as a clock to help determine
the actual age of the Earth. His estimates showed that the Earth was much
older than most scientists at that time believed.
In 1907 Rutherford
worked with Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden. It was his interpretation of
these experiments that led him to the Rutherford model of the atom having a
very small positively charged nucleus orbited by electrons. He became the
first person to transmute one element into another when he converted
nitrogen into oxygen.
His research, along with that of his protege
Sir Mark Oliphant, was instrumental in the convening of the Manhattan
Project to develop the first nuclear weapons.
He is famously quoted
as saying: "In science there is only physics; all the rest is stamp
collecting."
Bibliography
The Postage Stamps of New Zealand Volume VI
Edited by D. E. G. Naish FRPSNZ and K. J. McNaught FRPSNZ FRPSL
Publsihed 1975 by The Royal Philatelic Society of New Zealand Incorporated
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