BEYOND THE ELECTRON

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 189, 12 May 1928, Page 24

BEYOND THE ELECTRON

FURTHER SURPRISING

DISCOVERIES

No one knows more about the ultimate constiution of matter than _ Professor J. J. Thomson, master ol Trinity, Cambridge. When he spt*.:s it is with authority. Lecturing al Giron College recently he deserbed a series of experiments made by his namesake, Professor G. P. Thomson, which throw an astonishing light upon the constitution not only of matter, but of the electron (writes' the correspondent of the “Argus”). Recent research has assumed electrons to be ndivisible units of negative electricity which united themselves to a nucleus or positive electricity to make up an atom of ordinary matter. The electron itself was conceived as a point-charge ji negative electricity, surrounded by a structureless medium. Professor G. P. Thomson, however, has been forcing electrons through very thin films of metal, and has found that a uniformly moving electron is accompanied by a train of waves, which precede and guide it, the electron following in the wake of the waves. As the master of Trinity said, this makes it evident that the electron, like light, has a dua' structure. The part containing the energy is corpuscular, whereas the part* controlling and guiding its; path is undulatory. Professor J. J. hornson went on:—“The waves which accompanied the electron vibrated far more rapidlv than the hardest Rontgen rays; the only rays approaching them in' this respect were the gamma rays from radio-active substances. The vibrations were quicker when the- electron moved fast than when it moved slowlv, but however slowly it might move" the waves never made fewer than a very large number of vibrations a second. Short as these waves were their lengths were more than. 10,009 times the diameter usually ascribed to the electron. These results showed that the early conceptiou of lhe electron as a point-charge of negative electricity surrounded by a stiuctureless medium could not be adequate; the electron or its surroundings must be much more complex; there must be something beyond the electron. If, however, they supposed that the electron did not represent the final stage in the structure of matter, but that it was itself composed of, or surrounded bv, something which might be regarded as a mixture of sub-electrons and sub-protons, it might be shown that its properties would resemole those which it had lately been shown to possess. Through such surroundings energy would" be accompanied and guided by waves, and the connection between the speed with which the energy moves and the wave length of the waves would be the same as that found in Professor G. P. Thomsons experiments.” . x < . English scientists are also excited by tidings of Dr. W. D. Coolidge’s experiments with the electron at the. General Electric Company’s laboratories in America. Dr. Coolidge is worldfamous as a maker of X-ray tubes, and has facilities for carrying out large-scale experiments with electrons which cannot be approached by any other laboratory. Sir William Crookes and Dr. Lenard carried out early experiments of the kind, but whereas Lenard used 20,000 or 30,000 volts as the “driving force”, when electrons were expelled from his tube, Dr Coolidge is using nearly 1,000,000 volts The. glow of the escaping electrons fills space around the Coolidge cathode tube for several feet, and can be observed by watchers only from behind safety screens. From his cathod* tube at Schenectady, Coolidge is getting as manv electrons as would be obtainable from a ton of radium Dr. Have, of the National Physics Laboratory, at Teddington, has seen Coolidge’s experiments, but he says that it "is too early to speak of their precise scientific value. Sir William Bragg is of the same opinion, though he describes the early results as startling. For instance, electrons, moving at tremendous speeds and in great quantities have broken down molecules, producing such a product as vitamin Din food. Some solids turn into gases; the fur of animals changes colour; insects and bacteria are killed. The National Physical Laboratory is installing nlant at Teddington to carry forward similar investigations mto the mysteries of the electron, though the cost will make it impossible to follow Dr. Coolidge’s example in respect of the size of "the apparatus. ________

upon the person for whom the incantation was being said was ordered to leap “so that Tvchon will tie the knot of Lupus Cneius,” followed by an un-

translatable insult. He found the ladder plainly indicated from which the sorcerer’s client was supposed to jump. Among the objects not otherwise easily explained, such as the curiousshaped pebbles with holes through them, Hr. Julian describes these as tops which the sorcerers threw in the air during the incantations. Altogether the excavations have disclosed several hundred objects, among them pieces of fossilised bone. The whole field will be carefully uncovered in an attempt to get a reasonable explanation for the finding of objects, ostensibly made several tliouasnd years apart, ail in the same archaeological stratum. The excavations have already revealed such a surprising collection that the whole of the field, when opened up, may spring even more disconcerting surprises which are now lying only a foot or two under the surface of the sunny hillside.

Glozel has made the whole archaeological'’w’drld' dotibt the' accuracy of its theories. Until Glozel is definitely classified no archaeologist studying the last ten thousand years of the histaiy or mankind can do so with a tranquil mind-