THE AMAZING ATOM.

Gisborne Times, Volume LX, Issue 9723, 5 June 1924, Page 6

THE AMAZING ATOM.

“ANYTHING MAY HAPPEN” IF HARNESSED. The amazing possibilities of atomic energy wore commented upon by Sir Richard Gregory, the well-known scientist. “The energy 7 in an atom is tremendous,” declared Sir Richard Gregory, “if once the means could be found of promoting the disintegration of the atom, all other sources of energy would bo almost infinitesimal in comparison. ‘ It is now known, of course, that every atom consists of small particles of negative electricity, called “electrons, rotating rapidly round a nuc-l-os of positive electricity, exactly like the planets in their orbits round the sun.

('When a stream of these electrons strikes an obstacle placed in,their pa 1,1:, as in the caso of an X-ray tube, it- is like a torrent of rifle bullets striking a target., The effect of tins collision is the production of X-rays. Moreover, it has been proved that every ‘Alpha’ particle thrown off from an atom of radium is moving wicn the stupendous velocity of 100,000 miles a second. “The rd ore, when, if ever, we get atouna energy anything may happen. Soddv recently remarked that should this energy ever become available, probably tlie first .thing that would he done would lie the making of it into a bomb.” “This is an old story,” said Sir V/iliian Bragg, F.R.S., the worldfamous authority on the atom to. the E foiling Standard. “In no way do n belittle the remarks of so eminent a scientist as Sir Richard Gregory. “Those dreadful things may indeed come to pass; no one can say. . lut l do not think the public will, he showing undue rashness if it declines *o alter its customary mode of 'iie. The man who can make an atomic '?omb lias yet to he found.”