SPLITTING THE ATOM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21647, 18 May 1932, Page 9

SPLITTING THE ATOM

SCIENTISTS’ EXPERIMENTS IMPORTANT DISCOVERY. LONDON, May 2. “ A discovery of great scientific importance ” was how Lord Rutherford described the splitting of the atom, ns a result of the experiments of Drs Cbckroft and Walton. The doctors have been working for years with a special apparatus installed, under Lord Rutherford’s direction, at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge. Lord Rutherford said it-was difficult to say where the discovery iVould lead. Experiments hitherto had yielded nothing of immediate commercial value. There was a supposition that the splitting of the atom would enable an immense accumulation of electrical energy, but, so far, every additional particle of energy obtained has required millions of particles to make it effective. However, the experiments were likely greatly to extend knowledge of the atom. Splitting the atom opens tip new horizons, and may eventually enable lead to be transmuted into gold, but the process would be so expensive compared with mining that it is not likely to cure Great Britain’s gold famine, says the Daily Mail. Nevertheless other applications arc certain to be discovered. While the atoms have been previously split by a radio-active substance as the source of power, Dr Cockroft worked his miracle with energy generated by mandesigned machinery. He harnessed transformers evolved for very high tension distribution of electricity.