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Characters in Rutherford's life

Alexander Bickerton.jpg

Alexander Bickerton 

(1842-1929)

  In spite of having been one of the three founding professors of Canterbury College in Christchurch, Alexander Bickerton had some trouble with this academic institution.

  His vision of teaching was the main reason for this: a fierce enemy of rote learning and defender of education by experience, he found himself very often in opposition to the educational dogmas of the time.

  For Ernest Rutherford, however, it was a model: the enthusiasm of the man all his students called "Bicky", his attachment to experimentation, his generosity were undeniable sources of inspiration for the future Nobel Prize winner.

  Rutherford attended his courses from 1890 to 1895. But he had other opportunities to meet him or to correspond with him. And above all, when Bicky had problems with his hierarchy, Ernest remembered the importance this man had in launching his scientific career. He then gave her his support.

Pictures:

  • Alexander Bickerton

  • Wainoni's "federative home"

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Both images are taken from a 1901 article in The Wide World Magazine.

Source: Canterbury Photography

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    However, Professor Bickerton was not just a teacher.

   Even though he was in charge of chemistry lessons, his real passion was astronomy. He developed an original idea, the Theory of Partial Impact, which explained how two colliding stars temporarily formed a third star.

  Unfortunately, the originality of this design had the main consequence that it was not recognized. Bickerton had to fight to try to get it accepted, traveling frequently to London to defend it, asking (and obtaining) the public support of Professor Rutherford, now based in Montreal .
  He published in 1901 a book which summarized his ideas and which he entitled "The Romance of the Heavens".
  Another negative consequence of this passion for astrophysics was its use by the Canterbury University administration to discredit Bicky's teaching work: in the early 1890s he was indeed accused of talking about stars during her chemistry class rather than focusing on the schedule.
  This assertion was totally false and several students, including Ernest Rutherford, testified to the quality of Professor Bickerton's teaching. Ernest even insisted on the usefulness that Bicky's passionate temperament could have in interesting his pupils.

  In fact, the main reason the Canterbury College Senate wanted to get rid of one of its first teachers was its socialist leanings. Besides the partial impact theory, Bickerton professed (and practiced) an unorthodox interest in the working classes: he set up scientific conferences open free of charge to the people of Christchurch; he created a community village, which he baptized Wainoni (Maori word which describes a curve of a river, in this case, the Avon). This place was not only a site of group life and sharing, bringing together a few dozen inhabitants, but it was also gradually transformed into an amusement park, with its lake, its woods, its aquariums, its rides, its cinema, its 7000-seat amphitheater, its fireworks (from the small factory that Bicky had created and that was managed by one of his sons).

Wainoni Park residents.jpg

  Fortunately for the right-thinking elite of Christchurch, all this mayhem came to an end: Bickerton, ill, went to convalesce in England, the university took the opportunity to exclude him without notice or compensation, the finances of the park plummeted until its closing.
  Alexander Bickerton died in 1929. A few decades later, the eastern district of Christchurch where his park was located was renamed Wainoni. In the early 2000s, a street in this neighborhood was named in honor of Alexander Bickerton. Late recognition.

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