GREAT EVENT IN HISTORY

Southland Times, Issue 25746, 9 August 1945, Page 5

GREAT EVENT IN HISTORY

DISCOVERY OF ATOMICBOMB SENSATION CAUSED IN BRITAIN

(Special Correspondent, N.Z.P.A.) LONDON, August 7. The news that the first atomic bomb had been dropped on Japan created a sensation in Britain, mixed with a certain amount of foreboding regarding its future use. “The dropping of this bomb,” says the scientific correspondent of The Manchester Guardian, “is one of the great events in history. It is to be compared with the invention of gunpowder and its effect will, perhaps, be even more important. Besides offering the possibility of changing the face of the earth,

atomic power may also provide energy for exploring the solar system and other parts of the universe.”

The correspondent recalls that the modern conception of the atom was worked out in the physical laboratory in Manchester University by Lord Rutherford, and it was there, too, that Lord Rutherford artificially disintegrated the atom for the first time. His pupil, now Professor Sir James Chadwick, was one of his most brilliant collaborators. He followed Lord Rutherford to Cambridge and there, in 1932, discovered the neutron.

This neutral particle has the power of penetrating the nucleus of atoms with extraordinary ease, because of its lack of electric discharge, which prevents it being expelled as it .approached the core of the atom. The correspondent continues: “President Truman states that the atomic bomb operates on a principle similar to that in the release of energy in the sun. This was explained some years ago by Professor Bethe, of Cornell University, who showed that carbon atoms in the centre of the sun are disintegrated by penetration with a swift nuclei of hydrogen atoms, flying with intense energy because of their high temperature. “Carbon is transformed into other kinds of atoms, which end in the production of helium, a small quantity of carbon and a great deal of energy.” RELEASE OF ENERGY “The cycle then starts over again with the remaining carbon so that it is continually used up, in effect transformed into energy, some of which reaches us as light and heat from the sun and is responsible for all the phenomena of life on earth. In 1930 the German physicist, Otto Hahn, showed that uranium atoms could be disintegrated by neutrons in a somewhat analogous way- , „ . “Soon afterwards the great French physicist, Joliot, made experiments that suggested that neutrons might be used to disintegrate uranium atoms so that each disintegrating of a uranium atom would be accompanied by the release of more than one neutron which in turn might disintegrate other uranium atoms. Thus a kind of branching chain of disintegrations might be built up leading to an explosive discharge of atomic energy. . , , “Pending more information trom Washington it is natural to suppose that the atomic bomb contains the development or solution of a chain mechanism of this kind. “We hear that the new source of energy may be added to coal, oil and water as a source of power, but that it has not yet been developed to that stage, further intensified research being necessary. It is evident that a most long-sighted planning of this development will be needed and that statesmen must give their utmost attention to this new scientific possibility.” NO COMPARABLE INVENTION

Commenting on the atomic bomb, The Evening Standard says: “Language draws on experience for its resources. Therefore the full meaning of this discovery which transcends all known experience has as yet defied description. Evn comparisons fail to provide a scale for its just measurement. Since that first mystic fusion which set life swimming in primeval slime, there has been no comparable invention. “In the amazement which binds their brains, men are so far able to sort out but a few dominant impressions. The first is that the Far Eastern war is now won. Flesh and blood is incapable of withstanding such devastation as this new weapon causes. It seems the threat of more atomic bombs to follow the first terrible visitation must in itself lead to surrender, otherwise the Allies will in a few weeks or months invade a Japan which resembles nothing so much as a quiet, peopleless, volcano-pitted moon. Next comes thanks that in the race to rob nature of this secret she guarded with a thousand cunning locks it was ourselves, not our enemies, who succeeded.” “Student of the Air,” writing in the Manchester Guardian, says: “More powerful even than its explosive charge are the grave humanitarian implications contained in the atomic bomb. The success of the Allies in using it first must not overlay -them. Unless the world has gone mad, the atomic bomb’s most powerful effect should be to turn urgent attention to the need for controlling more adequately the discoveries of science.

“The prospects when the atomic bomb is welded to other novel forms of air warfare are appalling. There is nothing in the admittedly sketchy accounts of its structure to suggest it could not be used as a warhead of the V2 type of rocket. Its light weight and compactness would fit in well for this purpose and great ranges could be attained. It could also be used in automatic aircraft like the German flying bombs and in gliders. Weapon policy, aircraft design and the fundamental structures of air forces are going to be drastically affected by this new invention. Only the fighter aeroplane, which beats down the opposition and lets atomic bombs go through, remains in the picture almost unchanged.”

URANIUM MINED IN AUSTRALIA

(Rec. 7 p.m.) ADELAIDE, August 8. Uranium, one of the major elements used in the atomic bomb has been largely mined in South Australia since early in 1944. Mr Churchill asked Mr Curtin for all uranium that could be produced in Australia. The sole Australian source was Mount Painter in an inaccessible part of the Flinders Range, 400 miles north of Adelaide. Within six weeks roads were built, machinery installed, an aerodrome constructed and supplies of the metal element were being flown out. The project, which was undertaken regardless of cost, was one of Australia’s most guarded war secrets. Although Australia was informed, that researches into the release of atomic energy were proceeding, no precise technical information was revealed-