The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-10-09
(Continued.0

box tipped to the point of disgorge- ment, and the bomb thrower was pitch ed forward upon the third bomb with his face close to it's celluIoid stud. He clutched its handles and, with a sud den gust of determination that the thing should not escape him, bit its stud, Before he could hnrl it over the monoplane was slipping sideways. Everything was falling sideways. In stinctfvely he gave himself up to grip ping, his body holding the bomb in its place.
 Then that bomb had exploded, and steersman, thrower and aeroplane were just flying rags and splinters of metal and drops of moisture in the air, and e third column Of fire rushed eddEfng down upon the doomed buildings be- low.
 Never before in the history of war fare had there been continuing ex- plosive Indeed, up to the middle of the twentieth century the only explo- sfves known were combustibles whose explosiveness was due entirely to their instantaneousness and these atomic bombs which science burst upon the world that night were strange even to the men who used them. Those used by the allies were Jumps of pure carroll mum, painted on the outside with un- cxidized cydonator inducive inclosed hermetically in case of membranium. A little cellulofd stud between the han dies by which the bomb was lifted was arranged so as to be easily torn on and admit air to the inductve, which at once became active and set up radio activity in the outer layer of the caron- mum sphere. This liberated fresh fn- ducfve, and so in a few minutes the whole bomb was blazing continual ex plosions. The. central European bombs were the same, except that they were larger and had a more complicated aE- engagement for animating the inductEe.
 Always before in the development of warfare the shells and rockets fired had been but momenEarfly explosive, they had gone off in an instant once for all, and if there was nothing living or valuable within reach of the con- cussion and the flying fragments, then they were spent and over. But caro- nnum, which belonged to the B group of Hyslop's so called suspended de generator elements, once it's degen- erative process had been induced, com tinued furious radiation of energy, and nothing could arrest it. Of all Hyslop's artificial elements, carroll
 
 energy and the most dangercus to make and handle. To this day it re- mains the most potent degenerator known. What the earlier twentieth century chemists called its half period was seventeen days-that is to say, it poured out half Of the huge store of energy in its great molecules in the space of seventeen days, the next Sev- enteen days emission was half Of that first periods outpouring, and 30 on. As with all radioactive sub stanees, this earolinun. though every though constantly it diminishes toward the imperceptibIe.. is never entirely ex- hausted, and to this day the battle fields and bomb fields of that frantic time in human history are sprinkIed with radiant matter and so centers of sinconvenint rays.
 What happened then when the cellu- Ibid stud was opened was that the in ducive oxidized and became active. Then the surface of the carolsnnm be gan to degenerate. This degeneration passed only slowly into the substance of the bomb. A moment or so after its explosion began it was still mainly an inert sphere exploding superdcially, a big, inanimate nucleus wrapped in flame and thunder. Those that were thrown from aerOplanes fell in this state They reached the ground still mainly solid and, melting soil and rock in their progress, bored into the earth. There as more and more of the carroll mum became active the bomb spread itself out into a monsfroas cavern of fiery energy at the base of what be- came very speedily a miniature active volcano. The carolinum, unable to dis perSe freely, drove into and mixed up with boiling confusion of molten soil and superheated steam and so remain ed, spinning furiously and maintaining an eruption that lasted for years or months or weeks, according to the size of the bomb employed and the chances of its dispersal. Once launched the bomb was absolutely unapproachable and uncontrollableu until its forces were nearly exhausted, and from the crater thatsburst open above it puffs of heavy incandescent vapor and fragments of viciously punitive rock and mud, satu- rated with carolinum and each a cen ter of searching and bhstering energy, were flung high and far.
 Such was the crowning triumph of military science, the ultimate explosive that was to give the decisive touch" to war.
 A recent historical writer has de scribcd the world Of that time as one that believed in established words and was invincfbly blind to the obvt ous in things.'' Certainly 1t seems now that nothing could have been more obvious to the people of the early twentieth century than the rapidfty with which war was becoming impos- sible. And as certainly they did not see it. They did not see it until the atomic bombs burst in their fumbling hands. Yet the broad facts must have srIa rod arrr,n.. e,rarr ,.4,11irnor,s