Working in the dark, the young physicist painstakingly counted the flashes produced when recently discovered alpha particles hit a piece of gold foil.<\/p>\n
Two years after his work was published his professor Lord Ernest Rutherford – credited with splitting the atom in 1932 – was able to assess the implications.<\/p>\n
Sir Ernest’s study found that only a tiny part of the atom is made up of a charge, rather than the whole atom, helping the understanding of how they attract each other.<\/p>\n
Nuclear physics was born, enabling new mathematical calculations and leading to many of the advances of the 20th Century.<\/p>\n
Sir Ernest died in 1970 aged 81 in New Zealand where he has worked as leading academic.<\/p>\n
The naming of the new street after him was proposed by Rishton councillors Kate Walsh and Bernard Dawson and backed by Hyndburn MP Sarah Smith.<\/p>\n
Councillor Walsh said: “While I am proud of our industrial heritage it would be lovely to give the children of Rishton a former resident to look up to whose scientific work was internationally recognised.<\/p>\n
“We aren’t just old mills and canals but renowned scientists too.”<\/p>\n