A SCIENTIFIC LECTURE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 16, 5 September 1914, Page 8

A SCIENTIFIC LECTURE.

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Wellington, September 4

Sir Ernest Rutherford, the eminent cnei-ji»b, delivered a lecture in the Town Hall to-night on “The Transformation of Matter and the Structure of the Atom.” The atom, lie said, was nob the emalleset known body, but consisted of constituents. Some atoms were not indestructible. Radium, for example, disappeared in the ratio of a half of its substance in 2000 years. He and his students had discovered some 30 new unstable elements associated with radium. Altogether, there were five elements whose atoms were destructible. The lecturer performd the experiment of counting the atoms by moans of an apparatus invented by Professor Lahey, of Victoria College. This had only been performed twice before — once in Washington, U.S., and once in England. Sir Ernest also explained his new atomic theory. In- the centre of each atom is a nucleus surrounded by rings. The nucleus contains positive particles, and the rings an equal number of negative particles, which preserve the balance and prevent disintegration. The nucleus contains another system of its own. When the nature of atoms is fully understood, concluded the lecturer, the properties of everything on this earth will be understood.