Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1914-11-04

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.
oxidized cydonatOr inducive Enclosed
Dramatically In case Of membra mum.
A little celluloid 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 inducive, which
at once beca me active and set up radio
activity in the outer layer Of the carroll
mum sphere. This liberated fresh In.
ducive, 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 more complicated ar
rangement for animating the inducive.
Always before in the development of
warfare the shells and rockets fred
had been but momentarily 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-.
linum. which belonged to the B group
Of Hyslop's so called "suspended de
generator" elements. once its degen
erative process had been induced, con.
inued furious radiation Of energy.
and nothing could arrest it. OF all
Hyslop's artificial elements. carroll
mum was the most heavily stored with
energy and the most dangerous to
make and handle. To this day it re-
mains the most potent degeneration
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 it's great molecules in the
space Of seventeen days. the next sew
enteen days emission was half of
that first periods outpouring. and so
on. As with all radioactive sub
stances. this carolinum. though every
seventeen days it's power Is halved.
though constantly it diminishes toward
the imperceptible, is never entirely OK.
hausted, and to this day the battle.
fields and bomb fields Of that frantic
time In human history are sprinkled
with radiant matter and so centers of
inconven1nt rays.
What happened then when the cellu
loid stud was opened was that the in
ducive oxidized and became active
Then the surface Of the carolinum 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 specifically,
a big, inanimate nucleus wrapped in
fame 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 mOnstrous cavern of
fiery energy at the base of what be-
came very speedily 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 uncomfortable until it's forces were
nearly exhausted, and from the crater
that burst open above it puffs of heavy
tncandescent vapor and fragments of
viciously punitive rock and mud, satu-
rated with carolinum and each a cen
ter of scorching and blistering energy
were flung high and far.
Such was the browning 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 invincibly blind to the obvi-
GUS in things" Certainly it seems
now that nothing could have been
more obvious to the people of the early
twentieth century than the rapidity
with which war was becoming impos-
s1ble. 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
glared upon any Intelligent mind. All
through the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries the amount of energy that
men were able to command was con-
tinually increasing. Applied to war
fare that meant that the power to in
dict blow, the power to destroy, was
continually increasing. There was no
Increase whatever in the ability to es
cape. Every sort of passive defense.
armor, Notifications and so forth was
being administered by this tremendous
increase on the destructive side. De-
struction was becoming so facile that
any little body Of malcontents could
use it. 1t was revolutionizing the
problems Of police and internal rule.
Before the last war began it was
matter Of common knowledge that
man could carry about in a handbag
an amount. OF latent energy sufficient
to wreck half city. These fact were
before the minds of evarvhodv Tho