STUDYING THE COSMIC RAY

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 139, 7 March 1936, Page 11

STUDYING THE COSMIC RAY

Installation of Meter WHAT IT MAY REVEAL TO SCIENCE After working day and night for ten days, Professor P. W. Burbidge, of Auckland University College, and Mr J, AV. Beagley, of the Christchurch Magnetic Observatory, have completed the erection and adjustment of the cosmic ray meter in Dagley Park, Christchurch. Records taken lute on Wednesday night and developed in the early hours of Thursday morning proved that the meter was working satisfactorily, and Professor Burbidge, who was required in Auckland for tlie opening of the university term, left by. aeroplane on Thursday. Before lie left, Professor Burbidge described the startling developments that might be expected from the study of the rays. Observations showed,. he said, that when they made direct impacts with the atoms of tlie materials that constituted the earth and its atmosphere they destroyed those atoms. From knowledge so gained, scientists might eventually be enabled to change the structure of atoms and create elements as they pleased. “It is the old question of ‘What is the use of a new-born baby?’” said Professor Burbidge when questioned, at the conclusion of his work, as to what results were to be expected from the observations taken with the aid of the meter, It was a question that could not be answered, he said. There would be three immediate results from the recordings of cosmic rays, lie said. In the first place, the strengths of the rays at the five stations around the world would be measured.

Iu the second place, the variations in the recordings would bo correlated, first among the stations, and secondly with any influences that might produce variations in tlie manner in which the rays reached the earth. Such influences were magnetic ' effects, atmospheric electricity effects and barometric pressure. The few records already taken on the Christchurch meter showed that barometic pressure bml just as big an effect as had been observed in other parts of the world. In the third place, from these comparisons it might be possible to ascertain whether variations occurred simultaneously over the whole world, and hence to gain some idea of the origin of the rays. Records taken ou Wednesday, said Professor Burbidge, had shown the presence of what were known as “bursts” or “showers.” These were sudden effects produced in tlie measuring instrument from the explosion of atoms by the cosmic rays. When a ray impacted and shattered an atom belonging to the earth, a shower of electrically charged particles was produced, which, on passing through the bomb of the meter, caused a sudden large increase in ionisation. The importance of this fact in the studv of pure physics was very great, Professor Burbidge continued, because It gave a new line of attack on the atom. The cosmic ray had the greatest known energy for its size. “It is the livelist bundle of energy that we know,” he said. “By studying the effect of the cosmic ray on atoms, we will be able to do things with atoms that we could not do before.”