ool in 1877 and his teacher immediately noticed his aptitude for mathematics and when he was only eight his father found his son standing on the porch in a rainstorm one night conducting an early scientific experiment, “’Ernest, what’s up, my boy:’ he called. ‘I’m counting,’ the boy replied. ‘Counting?’ Another rumble shook the house. ‘Yes. If you count the seconds between the flash and the thunderclap and allow 1200 feet for each second for the sound to travel, you can tell how close you are to the storm center’” (Foxhill 4).
At family gatherings Ernest would be found lost deep in thought during dinner and other events. The parents encouraged Ernest’s natural curiosity, providing him with books and conversation as they believed education was a path to betterment. Yet, much of Ernest’s pre-college life was also devoted to the hard work and chores necessary to maintain a farm. He and his brothers worked on their uncle’s farm and Ernest was also fond of music and, of course, the books his family shared with him and the spelling bees they routinely conducted. The fourth son of seven sons of the Rutherfords did not experience a childhood without tragedy. Two of his brothers were drowned in a boating accident. After his early education in government schools, Ernest was admitted to the Nelson Collegiate School when he was sixteen. Two years later he was granted a scholarship and traveled to the University of New Zealand, Wellington, attending Canterbury College. He would lead a distinguished academic career from this point on in his life:
He graduated M.A. in 1893 with a double first in Mathematics and Physical Science and he continued with research work at the College for a short time, receiving a B. Sc. Degree the following year. In 1894 he was awarded the 1851 Exhibition Science Scholarship, enabling him to go to Trinity College, Cambridge, as a research student at the Cavendish Labora...