Ernest Rutherford 
The natural and artificial disintegration of the elements [EPUB ebook] 
An address by Professor Sir Ernest Rutherford

It is not my intention in this paper to give a detailed account of the natural disintegration of the radio elements or of the methods employed to effect the artificial disintegration of certain light elements. I shall assume that you all have a general knowledge of the results of these investigations, but I shall confine myself to a consideration of the bearing of these results on our knowledge of the structure of the nuclei of atoms.
(The Author – 1924)