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Who Started the Ernest Rutherford Transmutation Myth 87 Years Ago?

Jun 062019

June 6, 2019 — By Steven B. Krivit —

Sixth in a Series of Articles on the Rutherford Nitrogen-to-Oxygen Transmutation Myth

The myth that the discovery of the first artificial transmutation (nitrogen to oxygen) belonged to Sir Ernest Rutherford was one of the longest-running myths in the history of modern physics. Who caused nearly all physics and science history textbooks written in the last half-century to incorrectly attribute Rutherford as the world’s first successful alchemist? Who caused the Nobel Foundation, countless universities and science institutions to give the credit to Rutherford when it, in fact, belonged to a research fellow working in Rutherford’s Cambridge lab named Patrick Blackett?

Physicist Sir Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) is a legendary figure in science history. Some people consider Rutherford to be among the 10 greatest physicists in history. Some call him the father of modern physics. The world’s first confirmed artificial transmutation of one element into another has been described by many people as among Rutherford’s three greatest accomplishments. The discovery, however, belonged instead to a research fellow named Patrick Blackett, who worked in Rutherford’s lab at Cambridge University. Although a few historians recorded the discovery correctly, the myth that the discovery belonged to Rutherford was pervasive for 70 years. But how did this myth originate? This article answers that question. Continue reading »

University of Manchester to Celebrate Wrong Transmutation Discovery

Jun 052019

June 5, 2019 — By Steven B. Krivit —

Fifth in a Series of Articles on the Rutherford Nitrogen-to-Oxygen Transmutation Myth

This Saturday, the University of Manchester will host a one-day meeting titled “Centenary of Transmutation.” The purpose of the meeting is to “celebrate the centenary of the first experiments to successfully transmute one element into another.”

The meeting has been organized by the U.K. Institute of Physics History of Physics Group and the Royal Society of Chemistry, based on the long-held incorrect belief that, in 1919, at the University of Manchester, Rutherford had transmuted nitrogen into oxygen. This transmutation claim has been one of the longest-standing myths in the history of modern physics.

Sir Ernest Rutherford

According to the organizers, the meeting marks “100 years since publication of ‘Collision of Alpha-Particles with Light Atoms: I, II, III, IV,’ by Ernest Rutherford, June 1919” and is intended to “celebrate the centenary of Rutherford’s discovery of artificial transmutation by collision of alpha-particles with nitrogen.”

But the organizers, like most people in the past 70 years, were mistaken about this history. By now, however, most of the meeting organizers and top university officials know that the transmutation discovery belongs to Patrick Blackett, not Rutherford, that those experiments took place at the University of Cambridge, not the University of Manchester, and that they were published in 1925, not 1919. Some of these people have known for two years.

Rutherford Promoter Retracts Nitrogen-to-Oxygen Transmutation Claim

Jun 042019

June 4, 2019 — By Steven B. Krivit —

Fourth in a Series of Articles on the Rutherford Nitrogen-to-Oxygen Transmutation Myth

New Zealander John Campbell, a promoter of New Zealand-born physicist Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937), has agreed to stop asserting that Rutherford was the world’s first person to transmute elements by changing nitrogen into oxygen. The Rutherford transmutation claim has been one of the longest-standing myths in the history of modern physics. Campbell had been a leading proponent of the myth.

For decades, Campbell has also asserted that, because Rutherford made the nitrogen-to-oxygen transmutation discovery, Rutherford was the “world’s first successful alchemist.”

Excerpt from Campbell’s June 13, 2018, presentation at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

The Nobel Foundation’s Retraction of the Rutherford Transmutation Claim

May 192019

May 19, 2019 — By Steven B. Krivit —

Third in a Series of Articles on the Rutherford Nitrogen-to-Oxygen Transmutation Myth

For more than 70 years, legendary physicist Sir Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) had been mistakenly credited by most organizations and many scholars for accomplishing the world’s first confirmed artificial transmutation of one element into another. The Nobel Foundation, through its Nobel Prize Web site, was one of the organizations that had credited the discovery to Rutherford rather than the actual discoverer, Patrick Blackett.

I stumbled on this historical discrepancy in 2014 while I was writing my book Lost History. At the time, every Internet reference I found, as well as most print references, said that Rutherford was the one who had performed and reported this experiment.

The misunderstanding goes back many decades. Even some people close to Rutherford were mistaken. In a letter written in 1988, Irish physicist Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton (1903-1995) described his days working in Rutherford’s lab. He spoke about Rutherford’s “two greatest discoveries: the nuclear structure of atoms, and the transmutation of nitrogen into oxygen.” Continue reading »

Rutherford’s Reluctant Role in Nuclear Transmutation

May 182019

May 18, 2019 — By Steven B. Krivit —

Second in a Series of Articles on the Rutherford Nitrogen-to-Oxygen Transmutation Myth

Ernest Rutherford, 1908 Photo

Physicist Sir Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) is a legendary figure in science history. Some people consider Rutherford to be among the 10 greatest physicists in history. Some call him the father of modern physics. The world’s first confirmed transmutation of one element into another has been described by many people as among Rutherford’s three greatest accomplishments. The discovery, however, belonged instead to a research fellow named Patrick Blackett, who worked in Rutherford’s lab at Cambridge University. This article discusses in detail Rutherford’s role in the research that preceded Blackett’s discovery.

Although a few historians recorded the discovery correctly, the myth that the discovery belonged to Rutherford ran strong for 70 years. Blackett’s discovery is described in “The World’s First Successful Alchemist (It Wasn’t Rutherford).”

The Dawn of Atomic Science
The dawn of atomic science took place as the late 1800s moved into the early 1900s. Eventually, old ideas yielded to new ones. In 1897, Joseph John Thomson discovered the electron while experimenting with cathode rays. Thomson’s discovery challenged the prevailing view that the atom was the smallest component in nature and thus indivisible. Continue reading »

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