Ernest Rutherford in his Laboratory at McGill University ca. 1903.

Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937)

Ernest Rutherford is considered the father of nuclear physics. Indeed, it could be said that Rutherford invented the very language to describe the theoretical concepts of the atom and the phenomenon of radioactivity. Particles named and characterized by him include the alpha particle, beta particle and proton.

Even the neutron, discovered by James Chadwick, owes its name to Rutherford. The exponential equation used to calculate the decay of radioactive substances was first employed for that purpose by Rutherford and he was the first to elucidate the related concepts of the half-life and decay constant. With Frederick Soddy at McGill University, Rutherford showed that elements such as uranium and thorium became different elements (i.e., transmuted) through the process of radioactive decay. At the time, such an incredible idea was not to be mentioned in polite company: it belonged to the realm of alchemy, not science.

For this work, Rutherford won the 1908 Nobel Prize in chemistry. In 1909, now at the University of Manchester, Rutherford was bombarding a thin gold foil with alpha particles when he noticed that although almost all of them went through the gold, one in eight thousand would "bounce" (i.e., scatter) back. The amazed Rutherford commented that it was "as if you fired a 15-inch naval shell at a piece of tissue paper and the shell came right back and hit you."

From this simple observation, Rutherford concluded that the atom's mass must be concentrated in a small positively-charged nucleus while the electrons inhabit the farthest reaches of the atom. Although this planetary model of the atom has been greatly refined over the years, it remains as valid today as when it was originally formulated by Rutherford. In 1919, Rutherford returned to Cambridge to become director of the Cavendish laboratory where he had previously done his graduate work under J. J. Thomson. It was here that he made his final major achievement, the artificial alteration of nuclear and atomic structure. By bombarding nitrogen with alpha particles, Rutherford demonstrated the production of a different element, oxygen. "Playing with marbles" is what he called; the newspapers reported that Rutherford had "split the atom." After his death in 1937, Rutherford's remains were buried in Westminster Abbey near those of Sir Isaac Newton.

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The Need for Regulation

 (The First Radiation Safety Officer?)

Along with the great discoveries came the realization that radiation could cause biological damage.  As researchers, doctors, and scientists rushed to experiment with this new radiation, reports of injuries began to surface.  

Emile Grubbe, an American physicist experimenting with a Crookes tube similar to the one used by Roentgen, suffered severe burns to his hands as a result of holding the unshielded tube during an experiment.  Henri Becquerel developed a skin ulcer on his chest after carrying a tube containing radium salt in his vest pocket.  The tube was given to him by the Curies.  A man who had an early diagnostic radiograph taken of his skull suffered skin burns and loss of hair on the side of his face.  Then the first known casualty from x-rays - Clarence Madison Dally, a glass blower at Thomas Edison's Menlo Park lab.  He had suffered severe radiation "burns" in 1896, but continued to work with x-rays until his death in 1898.  His death caused Edison to discontinue radiation work in his lab.

But radiation work in other laboratories and hospitals continued.  Radiation was found to have beneficial effects.  

Emile Grubbe, mentioned above as a victim of radiation injury, also was one of the first users of radiation in the treatment of cancer when he irradiated a patient with cancer of the breast. His professor had noted the radiation dermatitis of his hands and had appreciated that these active rays might destroy a malignant as well as a normal cell. Grubbe protected the skin around the extensive lesion in the left breast with tin foil which he had taken from the lining of an old tea chest. He went on to become the world's first professor of roentgenology at the Hahnemann Medical College.

In 1899, X-rays were used to cure a basal cell carcinoma on the face of a woman.  As discoveries continued showing the usefulness of radiation in science and medicine, reports of radiation injuries also continued.  This caused the practitioners themselves to suggest a variety of safety rules.

The first organized action in radiation safety was taken in 1915 by the British Roentgen Society.  The X-Ray and Radium Protection Committee of the British Roentgen Society published further recommendations in 1921 and 1927.  This can be seen as the "birth" of radiation safety.

Today we have many organizations that recommend or enforce radiation safety practices.  Here are just a few:

At the Research Center, the Radiation Safety Committee regulates the use of all radiation and radioactive material.  The Radiation Safety Officer ensures the rules and regulations of the Research Center and the organizations listed above, as applicable, are strictly adhered to.

Chronology of the First Half Century of Radiation Protection

by R. Kathren and P. Ziemer

1895

1896