The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1913-03-04

Have Been Changed or Else Matter
Has Been Produced From Energy.
Chemists Greet Revelation With
Deep Wonderment.
At meeting of the London Chem
lca society recently papers were read
by Sir William Ramsay and Professors
Norman Collie and H. Patterson,
which assert that the authors have
done one of two things. They have
achieved clearly and definitely the
transmutation of elements or they have
evolved matter from energy.
At the outset of his paper Sir Will
liam referred to 1.-The mild incredulity
with which some years ago the scien-
tific world received the announcement
that he and Cameron had obtained
lithium from copper" He then de-
scribed further the experiments which
resulted in the discovery. In gold y
ray bulbs he had discovered helium.
The joint paper of Messrs. Collie and
Patterson dealt with the discovery of
the presence of neon in hydrogen after
the passage of an electric discharge
through hydrogen at low pressure.
Their experiments carried Sir William
Ramsay's work to the further point
that both neon and helium had been
produced from substances in which
they were previously not known to he
present.
Various Possibilities.
There were various possibilities. 1t
might be that the elements of the tube
In electrolysis gave neon or helium uE-
der the influence of the discharge.
This gave ten or a dozen elements to
choose from as the source.
Again there was a chance that hy-
drogen was the source, or it was pos
sible that they were dealing with a
primordial form of matter, the primor-
dial atoms of which, when produced,
had all the energy necessary for form
ing a world by the combination of
these atoms.
Atoms of elements which will be
found in helum and possibly in hydro
gen We're present in a nebular state, and
tube. Possibly the electric current di-
rected the flow of these atoms with the
full force of its energy and, with the
phenomena of heat and light, the ele-
ments came into existence.
At any rate, one thing seemed GER
tain-elements could be changed, and
they could be changed in way very
different from the way that radium
was changed. In its case the process
could neither be hastened nor retarded,
but the present phenomenon was arti-
fetal, and q further progress was oc-
curing at the other end of the system
of atom producing elements Of low
atomic weight
Old Ideas Corrected.
The old idea of the transmutation Of
elements had to be altered. We are
coming now to know more of subatOm-
ic matter, and 1t had to be realized
that the old order changeth, yielding
place to the new.
Professor Arthur Smithells began the
discussion which followed the reading
of the papers by saying that he was
blculultSS at the Lluue.
1t required courage for scientific work.
ers to bring forward such results. The
obvious criticism was that in the eX-
pertinent enormous weight was neces-
sarily laid on the spectroscope evil
dence, and his experience had taught
him caution in this respect. He felt
sure, however, that others were too
experienced to fall into the pitfalls.
He expressed his great qualification
that other researchers had taken up
the investigation.
In the hottest and most recently
formed stars hydrogen, helium and pos
sibly one or two other elements not
known on the earth make their ap-
pearance, all of them being of light
atomic weight AS the stars cool down
the atoms become heaYier. or. in other