2026-10-09 Nature: Rutherford and Compton 1919

URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/104412c0 (Chrome; abstract only, full letter behind paywall). Query: Rutherford Compton 1919 "Radio-activity and gravitation" Nature.

Abstract quoted [web: URL above]: "IN connection with the interesting letter of Prof. Donnan in NATURE of December 18, it may be of interest to mention some experimental results which have a bearing on this question. Some years ago Dr. Schuster suggested to one of us that it would be of interest to test whether the rate of transformation of radio-active substances was influenced by the intensity of gravitation. An accurate method of testing the rate of decay of radium emanation over a period of about a hundred days was developed, and it was intended to compare the rate of decay of samples which had been transported to suitable portions of the earth's surface. The outbreak of the war interfered with this plan." Related: A. H. Compton 1920, "Radioactivity and the gravitational field", Phil. Mag. (cited in an IOP review on G and radioactivity; not opened). WashU special collections holds the offprint. Bears on claim 7: links to Radio-activity 2nd ed. 1905 sec. 270, where gravity is the one force Rutherford says is "not under our control". The result of the 1919 test is not read; the letter body is the record to obtain. Result: positive (partial text).