Rutherford: Scientist Supreme John Campbell AAS Publications, Christchurch, New Zealand, 1999. $40.00 (516 pp.). ISBN 0-473-05700-X
John Campbell’s biography of Ernest Rutherford—who may surely be designated as New Zealand’s greatest son—is unquestionably a labor of love, of steadfast devotion on the part of a loyal, energetic, and enterprising physicist who shares with Rutherford both New Zealand birth and Scottish descent. Campbell, has for many years been teaching physics at Canterbury College in Christchurch, New Zealand, the college at which Rutherford studied and worked from 1890 to 1895.
The purpose of this biography, as Campbell explains, is to redress “New Zealand’s tremendous disservice to [Rutherford]” in its presentation of an incorrect and inadequate image of him—one with which “no New Zealand children can identify.” This lack is not surprising, because not one of the several dozen biographical works on Rutherford had been written by a New Zealander. Campbell has now corrected this lapse—and also, he hopes, other errors of both omission and commission in the Rutherford legacy.
In this context, it is not surprising to find about half of Campbell’s book devoted to the first 24 years of Rutherford’s life (1871–95), which were spent in New Zealand. The remaining half covers 40-plus years of his great scientific career in Cambridge, England; Montreal, Canada; Manchester, England; and Cambridge (again). Campbell invariably relates even this latter part to a New Zealand context; indeed, few of the 400 or so textual pages lack some reference or relationship to New Zealand.
Campbell’s biography is the result of more than two decades of assiduous research: collecting and recovering records, interviewing relatives or descendents of relatives, and scrutinizing hearsay and legends. All is fully and faithfully displayed and recorded, with a wealth of illustrations of people, laboratories, artifacts, tokens, and medals.
The geographical, social, and economic background of a relatively raw and far-distant colony in the 19th century and, more specifically, the background of Rutherford’s forebears, family, childhood, and early education all emerge vividly in this biography. They heighten the great drama of a youth from a remote frontier transposed to the opposite part of the globe, to emerge with astonishing speed as one of the world’s greatest scientists. As a fellow student observed soon after Rutherford’s arrival at Cambridge: “We’ve got a rabbit here from the Antipodes, and he’s burrowing mighty deeply.”
Despite the very limited resources of Canterbury College, it was in New Zealand that Rutherford first demonstrated his ability to make the most of any and every opportunity. So when he arrived in the scientific world of Cambridge—Trinity College and the Cavendish Laboratory—he already had considerable experience and accomplishment in the newly opened field of the production and detection of “Hertzian” waves. Rutherford’s work on this topic, more demonstrative of scientific enthusiasm, insight, and perseverance than of precocity, is the essential bridge linking two major phases of Rutherford’s life. It is fully presented in Campbell’s account, but in personal rather than scientific terms.
To remind us that we are dealing close-up with one whose childhood was shared with 11 siblings and many dozen first cousins, whose most devoted, lifelong relationship was with his mother (of little formal education), and who became a scientist of unique eminence, Campbell invariably refers to Rutherford as “Ern.” He does not use Rutherford’s formal title Lord Rutherford of Nelson; or Sir Ernest (he was knighted in 1911); or “the Prof,” as he was known to countless disciples and students at Montreal, Manchester, and Cambridge; or simply as Rutherford, as his name appeared in the scientific literature. He was simply “Ern.”
The second half of this book can deal only briefly with the highlights of a career covering more than 40 years. Campbell tries to keep Ern, the person, closely in view at all times. Indeed, he reminds us that, despite the great shifts of locale and personal and professional growth, Rutherford’s vigorous personality is recognizable and unchanged always.
Rutherford was not a particularly modest person. (“He had so little to be modest about!”) He did recognize his debt to his forebears and to opportunity; at a youthful age, he had composed an essay on the topic of the relative importance of inheritance, education, and experience. But later, at the height of his career, when a colleague commented that he was fortunate “to have ridden such a powerful wave” of science, Rutherford retorted, “Well, I made the wave myself, didn’t I?”
Campbell addresses his writing to the youth of New Zealand, but there is much here to interest and intrigue those of other generations and from other parts of the world. It is enlightening to observe that, in such a different social milieu and more than a century ago, there were serious concerns about how science might be taught and debates about its social role. And it is illuminating and challenging in this age of “multiple choice” to read the examination questions set at Canterbury College.
This book contains intriguing details. Where else could one learn that Rutherford (Ern) was not aware of his correct name (Ernest) until age 24 when, on his departure from New Zealand, he had to produce his birth certificate? Or that the news that he had received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in November 1908 had to compete (unfavorably) in the Nelson Evening Mail with the more eagerly awaited news about the result of the 34th week of the Nelson Poultry Association’s egg-laying competition?
John Campbell’s task—to complete and correct the image of Rutherford in the eyes of his compatriots—was no mean one. And if, in these labors, he has produced something that will add new lore and piquancy to the image that we all have of one of the great creators of modern physics (and chemistry), then we can all be grateful that he has labored so long and so faithfully and produced this biography sui generis.