THE POETRY OF SCIENCE

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXI, Issue 15210, 22 January 1910, Page 12

THE POETRY OF SCIENCE

(By PROFESSOR A.W. BICKERTON.) ATOM SORTING. New ideas need new words, and this theory needs at least half a dozen. One is urgently neoded. The word is “ kinetol,” and it means the height to which a projectile will travel if shot upright. If in a jar of gas there are equal numbers of different kinds of molecules, each kind of molecule will have the same energy. Suppose we have equal numbers of oxygen and hydrogen molecules. There will be sixteen times the weight of the heavy gas —call it one pound of oxygon and an ounce of hydrogen. As the total energy of each kind is the same, the ounce of hydrogen has sixteen times the energy of ono ounce of the oxygen, that is, a hydrogen atom will travel sixteen times as high. Hence, although both atoms have the same energy and one has four times the speed of the other, the one goes sixteen times as high as the other, so in speaking of projectiles, the height they will go is not proportional either to energy or speed. Equal masses, however, travel upwards distances proportional to thenenergy. So if, instead of saying the enorgv of equal masses, we use the new word “ kinetol,” the idoa is simple. In new stars, as soon as the struggling aud mixing makes the mass to bo of a uniform temperature; then each atom has the same energy. The kinetol is, then, the reverse of the atomic weight. Hydrogen will have sixteen times the kinetof of oxygen, and as the atom of lead is two hundred and eight times ns heavy as ono of hydrogen, the hydrogen lias two hundred and eight- times the kinetol that the lead has. Kinetol being the power to escape gravitation, the chances are that in a new star nearly all the hydrogen will become free molecules in space, and none of the lead will escape at all. So that what will happen in most stellar explosions will be tnat the lightest atoms will get clear away. The very heavy atoms will bo attracted back and strew the centre with a rotating nucleus of heavy cosmic dust, and the intermediate atoms will get long distances, will nearly come to rest and form fairly permanent shells of gas, and if they are rotating the shells will bo quite permanent. Thus the atoms are sorted. The very light escape, the heavy are drawn back by mutual attraction, the intermediate form a series of shell globes of sorted gas, the lighter being on the outside, each being taken tile distance that will use up its outward kinetol and bring it- to a state of rotation or to rest. And because attraction varies inversely ns the square of distance, a small difference of atomic weight may separate the concentric globes by long distances. But the study ol atom sorting, when wo take into consideration alt the agencies, grows to be very, very complex. It is so fascinatingly wonderful a region of science that some specialist should devote his life to its experimental and mathematical treatment.

In popular lectures I have likened the explosion to the liberation of a globe of winged creatures, eagles, hummingbirds and fireflies, every winged creature having equal strength, the firefly being as strong as the eagle. All are held by elastic cords that are proportional to their weight. The strength of each creature, is immense. So all stretch their cords for many milos. At last the strong pull on the eagles 6tops them, and they are drawn back. The powerful fireflies break their delicate cords and get clear away. Remember, they arc as strong as eagles, and their' cords are very slight. The hummingbirds do not break and get away, but they stretch the cords until they are so slight they hardly pull at all. Suppose there were two species of hum-ming-birds, one twico as heavy as the other; then one would go very much further tliau the others before the cords

stop, 1 /t-r.X, and we should have two she!'? of these birds, each shell eons’?. ■ if of one of the two species. Call ,n- humming birds atoirs, and we hay.' the concentric shells that astronomers tel! us form planetary nebulae. » " Atom sorting is a bit to. “n, bub the, intellectual flavour is dainty enough, and is well worth a Jot of mental masti-' cation, and so nutritious is it ’that o» it depends the mechanism of an Immortal Cosmos. And on man understanding this and the perfection of the cosmic scheme depends his entering on tho millennium of joy that is his true heritage. For this right of birth will be his when he can read his title deads and claim his own. METEORIC SWARMS A-XD STAR CLUSTERS. In a partial impact not all the outward rush is converted into heat in the cosmic spark. There is not a perfect balance of momentum in its meetr mg parts. Hence some of the. motion is converted into rotation and the third body spins. As the light gaser form their concentric globes, and these expand, their angular velocity rapidly lessens. But it is largely left in- the heavy molecules that remain, in the centre of the mass, and this material, under the influence of rotation, may aggregate into meteoric swarms. Thfcbeautiful comets, the sweep of whose magnificent plumes is sometimes many millions on millions of miles in expanse, tell us of the existence of meteoric swarms. Countless myriads of dense bodies may pass through oirr system in the same way as comets, hut they are not seen. But a beelike swarm of meteors,, .under the influence of the sun’s at*, traction, gets much disturbed, and this disturbance, as explained further on,! lights up the swarm and gives ua * comet’s nucleus. Sometimes, when a swarm gets very close to the sun, it is actually pulled to pieces, and its constituents are scattered into orbital trains; some of thesa trains cross the earth’s orbit, and when the earth happens to pass the intersecting point of the two orbits the sky it lit up with a display of shooting stars.! The ring of meteors differs in density in different parts, and both tire orbit of the earth and of th# meteoric ring suffer changes in place, owing to the pull of Jupiter and the other planets. In consequence of these two facts these periodic displays vary in brilliance and beauty. Never to be forgotten is the sight when mutual circumstances are favourable, the sky for hours appears as the scene of continuously bursting firework bombs, for from the laws of spherical perspective these meteors seem to emanate from a radiant point. Hence the idea of meteoric swarms is a very famijiar one to astronomers. So firmly fixed, in the mind of some is the existence of these groups of cosmic dust that more than one theory of cosmio evolution depends on their growth and encounters. The comet’s nucleus may , be much disturbed without being actually dissipated. Then the constituents smash one another into du6t, and the friction of impacts produces heat and electricity. The dust reflects the sun’s light, and it also becomes self-luminous, the internal heat and electricity doubtless help. So bee-like swarms of cosmic dust show themselves as the bright nuclei of comets, whilst single solid bodies of equal mass would pot be seen. The induction of the eun acts upon the electricity, of the nucleus, and an electric impulse springs out of the clashing swarms in a direction away from the sun. This electricity light? up the free molecules and coronal dust of the solar system that produces the zodiacal light, and the plume-like tail appears. And because the impulse takes time to travel, the electric searchlights that we call the comet’s tail take their beautiful curved form. There | may be subordinate centres in a comet’s' nucleus, then each of these centres may bo independent sources of electricity and multiple tails appear, and if seems as if the smaller tho comet ; of subordinate nucleus the less the resisting repulsion, so the induced impulse travels faster, and the tail or 6ubordinate tail is straighter and narrower. j As meteoric swarms certainly exist,; let us go back to tbe atom sorting action we have been tracing as occurring after a partial impact, and we shall see that the matter and motion of the sluggish heavy atoms actually mnst result in a meteoric swarm. And thpse when of sufficient mass will in some cases after long ages give birth to those lovely groups of celestial gems, the star clusters. When the two grazing dead suns crash through each other, each of the bodies is set slowly revolving. It may take many month*/ or, perchancOj some years, for them to complete their rotation, and many,' agencies tend- to make the rotation’ irregular in period. The cosmic spark will spin much more quickly (as already mentioned) than flint and steel.- 1 The angular velocity of its outer layers will lessen as thoy expand, but the inner shells of heavy atoms, not expanding much, will keep up a considerable rotation. As these volatilised metals condense to clouds and become rain and hail of white hot liquid and] solid shot, each shot will assume an orbit, and instead of condensing to a single bodv, their angular motion will, associate them into, vast clouds of cos-’ mic dust, each particle in an independent orbit. In the presence of oxygen these white-hot incipient metallic raindrops will form oxides, that as a rule are much less volatile than the metals themselves. Thus oxygen will he entrapped in the nucleus, and will help to form the meteoric swarms. Pairs of particles will be constantly coalescing as they accidentally come together, and the metallic mist will grow into rain-drops, which, when the meteoric swarm is of immense mass and of sufficiently vast dimensions, will become a star cluster, and ultimately possibly a huge sun, around which the outer coalesced bodies will form a sys* tern of attendant planets. Many agencies, as shown in my former papers, tend to convert the erratic motion oi these bodies into a single orbital plane. Hence we should expect these bubbleliko atomic shells called planetary nebulas to often have brilliant centres, sometimes single or double stars, sometimes meteoric swarms of measurable dimensions and velvety appearance. Such is actually the case, and the latest astronomical researches show the sphere in sphere structure (that- atomsorting suggests to exist) to be absolutely a common fact of these bodies, most of them showing a disc or disc appearance. Are not these facts regarding planetary nebulte and meteoric swarms alone sufficient to demonstrate this theory of their origin?