2026-10-09 Papers Past (National Library of New Zealand)

URL: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz (Chrome only; script access returned a 212-byte refusal). Queries: Rutherford "atomic energy", 1903-1937 (118 results); "Professor Rutherford" radium energy atom, 1902-1907 (50); "Le Bon" Rutherford radium, 1903-1912 (4).

Articles read [web]: - Levin Daily Chronicle, 13 Sept 1933, "Secret of Atomic Energy Still Unrevealed / Expectant hopes proved 'moonshine'" (https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/LDC19330913.2.68): cable from London, 11 Sept: Rutherford told the British Association that "though the atom had been split into at least 80 constituents, the experiments had proved to be 'moonshine' to the hopes of those expecting that splitting would release the mighty energy of nature." (Same cable in Manawatu Times MT19330913.2.45.) - Press (Christchurch), 13 Sept 1921, "Atomic Energy" (https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19210913.2.57): Professor Richardson at the British Association, "Can we harness the atom?": Rutherford's discoveries at Cambridge made "the artificial transmutation of chemical elements an established fact. If atomic energy could be intensified and controlled, we would have at our disposal an illimitable supply of power". OCR noisy. - New Zealand Herald, 14 Nov 1904, "Professor Rutherford" (https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19041114.2.53): Royal Society Rumford Medal "for the discovery of the existence of gaseous emanations from bodies in a state of radio activity" and their properties; Curie's radium heat and Rutherford and Soddy's work summarized. - Otago Witness, 30 Dec 1903, "Science Notes" (OW19031230.2.166): matched "Le Bon" and Rutherford, but the visible text did not reach the passage before the time cap. Other titles listed, not opened: "Mystery of Radium" (TC19031109.2.19), "Heating effect of radium emanation" (OW19040120.2.38.5), "The Miracle of Radium" (ODT19031112.2.89 and reprints), "British Association's meeting of 1903" (CHP19031031.2.35), "Harnessing an Atom" (MEX19210913.2.55.2), "Illimitable Power" (NA19210913.2.42), "Sir Ernest Rutherford" (FS19220406.2.73), "A famous New Zealand scientist's work" (AS19220401.2.142). Bears on: claims 2 and 6 (Rutherford's own public view of atomic power in 1933, beside the 1921 expectations of others); historical record. Result: positive.