MIRACLES OF THE MIGHTY ATOM.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3144, 20 November 1922, Page 8

MIRACLES OF THE MIGHTY ATOM.

Will man soon have tinder his control a force which will perform for him the entire work of the world This i* what would be meant by the liberation of the atom —a possibility which was discussed by l)r Asliton in a paper read before the British Association at Hull lately. I)r Ashton prefaced his lecture by describing the minuteness of the atom. "If," be said, "a tiny hole were made in the side of an evacuated electric light bulb, so that molecules, of air could pass in at a rate of 1.000.000 (a second, it would take 1.000.000,000 years before the bulb was full; and there are tumblers of water in the of air. Similarly, suppose we could label each molecule contained in a tumbler of water so that they could be recognised again; suppose further that the. contents of the tumbler were thrown into the sea so that they became, mixed with all the waters of the earth. If then we drew a tumbler of ordinary tapwater wo should expect to find in 'it about 2000 labelled molecules, since there are about 2000 times more molecules ill a tumbler of water than there are lumbers of waters in the whole world." Ar Aston described how Professor Rutherford had discovered that all atoms were simply different combinations of electricity. The positive particles were cemented together by the negative particles. A certain number of these negative particles circulate round the centre as planets move round the sun. Consequently, even the atom itself is divisible: ( "Professor Rutherford," he said, "succeeded in arranging a collision between the centre portions - of two atoms. The result was the transmutation of thb atoms into entirely different forms of matter. The possibility of such transmutations on any scale is of enormous•'• importance. If the amount of hydrogen which goes to constitute a tabiesponnful of water were transmuted' into helium, the energy liberated would be 200.000 kilowatt hours (one-seventh of the total amount of electricity used in Greater London in a day for lighting purposes and as power in factories and for driving tube trains, trains, etc.). The possibility has been discussed." said Dr Aston. "that this energy when first liberated will be out of human control. In that vase, if all the hydrogen on earth and .ill its inhabitants would be dissipated into space, and the successful experiment would 1 be published throughout the universe as the birth of a new star. The. probability of this catastrophe is practically negligible." He said that the liberation of the atom would rank with what has up to the present been the .greatest and most beneficent scientific discovery of all time- the agency of fire.

An all-Australian meat stall, leased lo .Messrs l<\ P. Walker, Ltd.. the meat exporters. Sydney, has been opened in the Smithlield market, London. It takes Australian meat one step nearer to the JJritish consumer, and is regarded by the trade interests as marking a most important step in advance in the sale of Australian meat in Britain. Advices by cable stated that the opening sales were a complete success, about oHU quarters of Australian beef and 500 carcases of Australian mutton being sold.