BREAKING THE ATOM.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 22 November 1924, Page 12

BREAKING THE ATOM.

EXPERIMENTS AT SHEFFIELD

DR. T F. WALL EXPLAINS HIS METHODS.

LONDON. Oct. 7. More or less serious attention is being directed upon the experiments being carried out by Professor T. F. Wall, of Sheffield University, who hopes to be able to split up the .atom. Dr. Wall is not attempting to break up the atom, by bombardment with alpha particles, as in Sir Ernest' Rutherford's experiments, but he is attempting to tear the atom to pieces by ah intense magnetic field.

The experimenter has been receiving, a deluge of letters from people who are apprehensive of the .consequences • some of these letters are’by the way a joke, but some of the writers are evidently in deadly earnest. One correspondent says: “Dear Sir, —Please don’t blow up ‘ the atom; I am terrified. Please, please, leave things alone. —One who is Frightened.” A father writes on behalf of his, children thus“l regret to see you are determined to carry out your experiment. Perhaps if you were a married man with children, and not so callous, you would not be so keen on the possible destruction o£ the human va ce. Oh ! You must be hard to have no pity fpr those with loved ones. MayGod curse you if you carrv out Tour experiment.—A Married Man.” Dr. Wall himself contributes an article on his work to The Sunday Express. He explains that in all but the simplest atom (hydrogen) the electrons revolve round the nucleus in successive rings, the whole system, .being somewhat similar to the solar system, the_ sun corresponding to the. nucleus and the planets corresponding to the several electrons. . : 1 ’•

CONSTITUTION OF THE ATOM. .The chemical properties of the atoms of any element are more or less completely determined by the outer ring' of electrons. • The nucleus of the atom determines .the nature of the element to which the atom belongs. In ; radioactive substances the nucleus 1 is shooting off particles at a high speed, and in this way the. actual nature of the material becomes changed, that is to sgy, radio-activity results in the transmutation of matter *

If in a complex atom some of the electrons near the. nucleus can be out of their path a very large amount of energy would become released, and if the nucleus itself can be attacked and destroyed the disruption of the atom may become completely effected./ ' “The high-speed electrons in the atom are equivalent to electric currents, and produce intense magnetic fields in the atom, these fields bqing of immensely greater strength than any'it has been possible to produce hitherto by artificial means. If, however, it were possible to produce artificially a magnetic field of strength comparable to those due to the electronic currents, and if this, artificial field were impressed on the atoms of matter, it would disturb the electronic orbits, and under suitable; conditions would break down the structure, of the atom, and so release some or all of its energy

100,000 HORSE POWER. “The. problem is being attacked’ from this point of view, and the essen- Jl tial feature of the method employed is the production of excessively intense magnetic fields by artificial means. These fields /are being generated by apparatus specially devised for the purpose. Briefly stated, the method con-, sists in charging very large -capacity . static condensers to a high ivoltage, and then discharging them through, a small ' coil of wire which embraces the ma-, terial which _ is being subjected to the test. In this way electrjc ■ currents of enormous strength are produced, and, for a small fraction of a seconcl, the apparatus is capable of supplying to the coil surrounding, the specimen the equivalent of about 100,000 horsepower. This produces magnetic fields of an intensity which hitherto has been nnapiproaehed by; any other investigator, in so far as the writer is, aware. “In order to render the investiga-f tion as manageable as possible, the material which is being submitted to the test in the first place is a piece of ’ steel. By reason of its normal 'magnetic properties steel has been chosen, as providing a very useful indication for ascertaining any preliminary changes in the structure of the atom. That is to say, any preliminary change in the structure will produce an effect on the normal magnetic properties, and this effect will form a valuable* guide as to what is going on.

A REMARKABLE PHENOMENON. “The intense magnetic field as artificially produced is being impressed on the material at regular intervals by means of an automatic switch, and this repeated application will be kept in operation for the days, weeks, or even months, if necessary, the physical conditions of the material being examined at intervals.

“So far as the work has at present progressed, a very remarkable phenomenon has been observed. At some stages of the operations the discharge current through the small coil which embraces the material increases to an enormously greater value than could reasonably be expected from the calculated values. The precise significance of this effect is not yet clear, but it, denotes that a condition of instability of the circuit is being, neached. arid this in . turn means that the strength of the, magnetic field so produced is increasing beyond all expectations, and may possibly, by a further increase of the power, go on increasing, without limit, until a breakdown results.”