The Newer Alchemy

The Newer Alchemy: based on the Henry Sidgwick Memorial Lecture delivered at Newnham College, Cambridge, November 1936; by Lord Rutherford, O.M., F.R.S., Cavendish Professor of Experimental Physics in the University of Cambridge; Cambridge at the University Press, 1937. From the Preface – Since the early days of Radioactivity, the problem of the transmutation of the elements has occupied much of my attention, and I have followed with the greatest of interest and enthusiasm the remarkable increase in our knowledge that has come so rapidly in the last few years. This advance has been largely due to the development of new and powerful methods of attack on this general problem. For this reason, I thought it of interest to add a brief account of the new apparatus and methods which are now in common use in many Laboratories throughout the world. Dated February 1937. (tragically Rutherford died in October 1937). Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson (1871 – 1937), was a New Zealand physicist and chemist who was a pioneering researcher in both atomic and nuclear physics. He has been described as "the father of nuclear physics”. In 1908, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances." Rutherford became Director of the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge in 1919. Under his leadership, the neutron was discovered by James Chadwick in 1932. In the same year, the first controlled experiment to split the nucleus was performed by John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton, working under his direction. In honour of his scientific advancements, Rutherford was recognised as a baron of the United Kingdom. After his death in 1937, he was buried in Westminster Abbey near Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton. The chemical element rutherfordium (104Rf) was named after him in 1997. In 1999, he was named the tenth greatest physicist of all time. His portrait has been on the New Zealand one hundred-dollar note since 1999. This book, 67 pages is in near-fine condition, in a very-good dust jacket, that is now enclosed in a protective mylar wrap.…