Page:EB1922 - Volume 32.djvu/359

Rh RUTHERFORD, SIR ERNEST (1871- ), British physicist, was born at Nelson, New Zealand, on Aug. 30 1871. He was educated at Nelson College and Canterbury College, Christchurch. After graduating at the New Zealand University (M.A. 1893 and B.Sc. 1894), he proceeded with an 1851 science exhibi- tion to Cambridge, where he entered Trinity College and prose- cuted researches in the Cavendish laboratory, Sir J. J. Thomson being then the Cavendish professor. He published numerous researches upon the conduction of electricity through gases, for which he obtained the B.A. Research degree and the Coutts- Trotter studentship in 1897. In the following year he was appointed Macdonald professor of physics in McGill University, Montreal. There he carried out a series of brilliant investigations, in conjunction with Soddy, which established upon a firm basis the existence and nature of radioactive transformations. In 1903 he was elected F.R.S. In 1907 he succeeded Sir Arthur Schuster as Langworthy professor of physics in the university of Manchester, and he attracted there a large school of radioactive research workers. In collaboration with several of these the science of radioactivity was rapidly developed: among other work the production of helium as a product of disintegration of radium was shown spectroscopically, the spectrum of the emana- tion measured, the number of a particles (charged helium atoms) during a disintegration process counted, the properties of numer- ous radioactive products and the radiations accompanying their formation examined. Among the most important of the re- searches emanating from his laboratory was that of the experi- mental demonstration of the nuclear nature of the atom. It was also in his laboratory that Moseley determined the X-ray spectra of a number of elements. Rutherford was knighted in 1914 and in 1919 succeeded Sir J. J. Thomson as Cavendish pro- fessor of experimental physics in the university of Cambridge. Many British and foreign honours and degrees were bestowed upon him: the Rumford Medal of the Royal Society (1905), the Barnard Medal (1910), Bressa Prize (1908), and Nobel Prize for chemistry (1908). In 1920 he was appointed professor -of physics at the Royal Institution, London. His works include Radioactivity (1904), Radioactive Transformations (1906), Radio- active Substances and their Radiations (1912).

RUTHERFORD, MARK [WILLIAM HALE WHITE] (c. 1830- 1913), English author (see 23.940), died at Groombridge March 14 1913. His eldest son, SIR WILLIAM HALE WHITE (b. 1857), who was created K.B.E. in 1919, became a well-known physician, and during the World War was a colonel in the R.A.M.C.

RYAN, JOHN DENIS (1864- ), American capitalist, was born at Hancock, Mich., Oct. 10 1864. He was educated in the public schools, for eight years was clerk in an uncle's store, and at the age of 25 went to Denver, where he was employed as a salesman of lubricating oils. In 1901 he secured an interest in a bank at Butte. In 1904 he was made manager of the Amalga- mated Copper Co. in Montana, and after the death of Henry H. Rogers, in 1908, he succeeded him as president. He had been elected president of the Anaconda Copper Mining Co. in 1905, and after the merging of the Amalgamated interests in the Anaconda in 1910 he continued as president of the latter until 1918. He developed large water powers in Montana, and in 1913 electrified the railway between Butte and Anaconda (too m.), the success of which led to a wide introduction of electrification. By 1920 hydroelectric power from the Montana Power Co. organized by Ryan was used in most of the mines of Montana and for lighting in all parts of the state. During 1917-8 Ryan was a member of the war council of the American Red Cross and after 1918 of its central committee. After the failure of America's aircraft programme had led to a reorganization, he was appointed in April 1918 head of the Aircraft Board of the Committee of National Defence, and in Aug. was appointed second assistant-secretary of war and director of air service of the U.S. army. After the signing of the Armistice in Nov. he resigned. Official investigation was made later, and Ryan was both attacked and defended. It was generally felt that the newly organized board fell heir to popular criticism of past failures for which it was not responsible, and the short time before the Armistice scarcely afforded opportunity to develop efficient production. In 1919 Ryan was elected chairman of the board of directors of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, and he took a prominent part in connexion with other commercial and financial concerns.

RYDER, ALBERT PINKHAM (1847-1917), American painter (see 23.949), died at Elmhurst, Long Island, March 28 1917.