The Atom.

Thames Star, Volume LXV, Issue 19121, 5 June 1934, Page 4

The Atom.

TURNED INSIDE OUT. REVOLUTIONARY THEORY. YOUNG SCIENTISTS CLAIM. A young scientist has taken the atom as viewed by Lord Rutherford and turned it inside out. In the process he lias provided a brand new theory of the atom which, if accepted, will completely upset, many of the most cherished ideas of modern science. It will also for the first time, it is claimed, provide satisfactory explanations of many of the most important properties of matter as we meet it in ordinary life. These include its power of chemical combination, the greater capacity of metals for conducting electricity, and the special magnetic powers possessed by iron and other elements. Most remarkable of all, this most revolutionary venture has the support of Professor Frederick Soddy, the leading Oxford authority on the atom and an early collaborator with Lord Rutherford. The young scientist is Dr. John Tutin, formerly of Durham University. Why he has thus drastically treated the time-honoured Cambridge atom is briefly as follows: The Orthodox Aiiom. The traditional atom consists o' a nucleus in Avhich practically all its mass is concentrated, and a number of planetary electrons revolving round it each in its own orbit. Within this system there are two kinds of unit, the electron, which is light in weight and carries a negative charge of electricity, and the proton, which is heavy and carries an equal and opposite charge of positive electricity. In the orthodox arrangement the nucleus is given all the heavy protons and a certain proportion of the lighter electrons. The outer or “planetary” part of the atom, consisting only of the remaining electrons, is therefore much simpler than the nucleus. Yet it is universally agreed that only the planetary part of the atom is involved in most of the atom’s dealings with the outside world. The nucleus is pictured as a strongly fortified citadel which is penetrated only in atom-splitting experiments. On this basis all the known chemical elements can be arranged in a series, numbered from one to 92, it being hitherto supposed that the number attached to each element represented the number of its planetary electrons and adequately specified all its ordinary properties. A Bold Interchange. Such a picture is too simple, Dr. Tutin argues in his new book, “The Atom.” How, he asks, can science hope to explain all the varied properties of every kind of matter from iron to oxygen in terms of this one progressive change in the numbers of planetary electrons? What Dr. Tutin has done is boldly to interchange the constituents of nucleus and outer atom. His “alternative” atom is pictured as a flywheel with a heavy and complicated rim and a light and simple hub. Science is, so to speak, given more toys to play with. Instead of having to account for the atom’s external behaviour in terms of electrons only, the scientist can build up suitable atoms which contain in their outer layers not only protons and electrons, but many different combinations of these units. That such an inverted atom would be stable, Dr. Tutin argues, is paradoxically proved by those very discoveries which enable it to be assumed that the existing model of the atom would not immediately radiate away all its energy into space. Professor Soddy’s Plea. This fundamental and essentially recondite assumption appears to Professor Soddy to “rest on ejrdinary common sense.” “It cannot be denied,” Professor Soddy states in an introduction, “that Dr. Tutin’s theory does seem to single out and group together in an almost uncanny way a number of some of the most important and lease understood phenomena of physics and chemistry. “An idea which does this,” he emphasised, “ought not to be lightly rejected. “It is hardly to be expected that any direct proof or disproof can be

got immediately,” he proceeds, “but merely a balance of evidence for and against, in which familiarity and convenience may prove important factors. “But if, in regard to useful practical knowledge,” Professor Soddy concludes, “the new view provides a working hypothesis where the old theories are worse than useless, it will be assured of a welcome by scientific men.” Advantages. The following are some of the chief ways, Dr. Tutin claims, in which his theory gives more convincing explanations of observed fact than does the Rutherford theory: Chemical Union —Magnetic links arc provided to join one atom to another. Magnetism—ln magnetic atoms these links can be arranged in such a way that they act together and so produce external magnetism. In other atoms they can be made to cancel out. Conduction of Electricity—“Eree” electrons'which can take part in the movement of electricity are given to the atoms of metals and of metals only. Radioactivity—A mechanism is provided which would account for the fact that a definite proportion of any batch of radioactive atoms will integrate within a given length of time. Dr. Tutin also claims that his theory accounts for many of the different types of atomic disintegration observed by Lord Rutherford and his assistants at Cambridge, and explains why metals are chemically more inert than non-metals; why some chemical elements are more ready to emit light radiation than others; and, as an example of detailed aj>plieation, why one particular alloy of iron is non-magnetic.