The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-06-21
A REVOLUTION IN SCIENCE.
OLD THEORY or MATTER is NOW
DISCARDED.

what Have Deen Considered Indlvisible
! Units Shown to he Made Up or Ions in
Orbital Motion-Elect ricity and Matter
! One-ShOwn by the Study Of Radium
! Special Cable Despatch to rHR SUN.
, LONDON, June 20.--The worlds foremost
searchers after the ultimate secrets Of the
universe have at length committed them
selves to a stupendous theory which has
! for some time been foreshadowed and has
now apparently been substantiated by the
study of the new substance called radium
Prof. Crookes the other day in Berlin
and Profs Lodge and Curie, this week in
| London, have confidently proclaimed that
it is easy to define this great revolution of
science In scarcely more than a sentence
To comprehend it however, il almost Ms
| far beyond the power Of the human mind
as the idea OF eternity or infinite space.
! The old theory that the atoms OF elements
consist Of indivisible units OF matter has
now been definitely discarded Instead,
we are told that each atom Ia whole stellar
system Of infinitely smaller, but absolutely
identical, units, all in orbital motion. A
| hydrogen atom consists of 100 such units,
or ions. The nature or identity OF each
substance depends upon the number of
such ions contained in each atom, thus
200 ions in each atom produce what
we know as oxygen, and 1877 200 of the same
ions If combined in single atom would
yield what we regard as gold. The nature
of these ions is, for want Of a better word
electrical. In other words, electricity and
matter are one and the same thing.
This theory has been more or less familiar
| to scientific men for two or three years
but has not been demonstrated until re-
Gently. when the study OF the R6ntgen
rays suggested it, and now radium seems
to furnish a complete proof, and also car
ries its conception into a marvellous elabo-
ration. An examination Of radium and
other phenomena leads Prof. Lodge and
his associates to believe that matter is not
stable in it's atoms, as has been heretofore
supposed by everybody familiar with the
disintegration Of matter, which means the
Encouragement or reconciliation Of ele-
ments Thus, water may be separated
into oxygen or hydrogen, but it was never
before imagined that the atoms themselves
were capable of disintegration. Prof
Lodge suggests that this is the normal
process of nature. yet it is proceeding at
rate so slow that 1t battles the powers Of
conception Of the human mind to estimate
the length of time required.
| In radium alone it proceeds 70 rapidly
that the phenomenon is easily observed.
M. Curie, the discoverer OF radium, in some
| wonderful experiments at the Royal In
| stitution last night, showed that radium
spontaneously and continuously olsen
gagged heat rapidly affected photographic
plates, even through opaque bodies, dis
charged an electroscope when merely
brought in its vicinity. and gave of emana-
tions similar to itself in con slant and even yio-
lent streams or radiations; in other words,
The 10000 Ions which compose each atom
or radium rotated 50 violently that they
| flew apart into original units 1t has been
calculated, however, that this efflux from
radium is so infinitesimal that a square inch
OF surface would lose only one grain in
ten thousand million years.
Prof. Lodge surmises that this process
OF disntegration of atoms may constitute
the evolution OF the chemical elements
He announced that within a few weeks
Prof. Ernest Rutherford of McGill Uni
versty, in Montreal, had observed the
breakup of the most massive atoms He
found that some few atoms of q RADIO
active substance seemed to reach n critical
stage at which they fling away small portions
of themselves with great violence, the resi-
due having the same property Of INSTABILITY
for some time until ultimately it settles
down into what is presumably different
substance. Changes of this sort in more
stable atoms would seem to require mill.
ions of millions of centuries, so long, in fact,
that the longest periods in astronomical
evolution would seem but hours in COM
parison Prof. Lodge affirms. however,
that these changes seem bound to occur,
according to fixed laws.
So the state OF fux and decay is recog-
nized, not only in the stars and planets
but in the foundation stones OF the uni
verse, which are the elemental atoms them
selves. The process OF regeneration, how
ever, can also be imagined. and II would
occur il the separations ever aggregated
themselves together by their mutual at
fractions into fresh material. The progress
OF the research may lead us to recognize
the existence Of atoms, some Of which
were recently formed and others very
ancient.
1t will he seen that the whole theory in
effect is an astronomical one. Chemistry
has, in fact. become the astronomy of the
nfnitesimal. One is led to wonder, then,
il the earth and the other planets are not
mere ions forming single atom OF higher
universe, where. perhaps. they constitute
a speck OF dust that worries the careful
housewife in the world next above us.
At all events, we are clearly on the verge
OF the greatest revelation that science
has yet vouchsafed to mankind and knowl-
edge that is only limited by the capacity
Of the human mind to receive it,