The Winslow mail., 1914-09-26

erative process had been induced. con
ttnued a 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 degeuerator
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 sew
enteen days emission was a half of
that first periods outpouring. and 50
on. As with all radioactive sub
stances, this carQlinum. though every
seventeen days its power is halved
though constantly it diminishes toward
the imperceptible, is never entirely ex-
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
inconvenint rays.
What happened then when the cellu-
loid stud was opened was that the in
Gucive 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 50 after
Its explosion began it was still mainly
an inert sphere exploding superfcially
q big inanimate nucleus wrapped in
Game and thunder. Those that were
ghrown from aeropIanes fell in this
state. They reached the ground still
mainly solid and, melting soil and rock
I'm their progress, bored into the earth
There as more and more Of the carroll
mum became active the bomb spread
itself out into a mOnstrOus cavern Of
Gerry energy at the base of what be
came very speedily a miniature active
volcano. The carolnum, unable to dis
perse freely, drove into and mixed up
with q boiling confusion of molten soil
and superheated steam and so remain
ed, spinning furiously and maintaining
nm 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 unappr0achable
and uncomfortable until it's forces were
nearly exhausted, and from the crater
that burst open above it puffs of heavy
incandescent yapor and fragments of
viciously punitive rock and mud, satu-
rated with carolinum and each cen
ter of scorching and blistering 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 invincibly blind to the obyi
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
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
gIared 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
tict a 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 outmastered 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 revoIutionizing the
problems of police and internal rule.
Before the last war began it was a
matter of common knowledge that q
man could carry about in a handbag
an amount of latent energy sufficient
to wreck half a city. These fact were
before the minds of everybody The
children in the streets knew them
And yet the world still, as the Ameri-
cans used to phrase it. fooled around"
with the paraphernalia and preten-
siong of war
1t is only by realizing this profound.
this fantastic divorce between the
scientific and intellectual movement on
the one hand and the world of the
Iawyerpoitician on the other that the
men Of later time can hope TO un
derstand this preposterous state Of af-
fairs. Social organization was still in
the barbaric stage. There were al
ready great numbers Of actively intel
ligent men and much private and com
mercial civilization, but the communi
ty as a whole was aimless, unframed
and unorganized to the pitch of i'm
becility. Collective civilization, the
modern state" was still in the womb
Of the future.