The Press., 1914-11-11
ENERGY IN ATOMS
Likened to infinite Power In an
 InfiniteSimaI Space.
EACH ONE IS A TINY WORLD.

tn an bnS6ane-A ma9SC POrc9 unSS
 Science Is Seeking to Control.
 Do you remember when Aladdin had, at last, got down into tue cave under the tree. whar inexpreSsibIe mar vels he found around himi But among all the riches of the cave there was only one little dust covered thing that was really worth the risk be had run. because 1t alone was truly novel and unlike anything else Tn the world the necrOmantic lamp that had the genie for it's slave With that in his posses sion the poor boy was more powerful than all the monarchS in the world provided that he knew how to handle the lamp. and that Knowledge came to him by accident
 have just been pOndering over some statements by Jean BecQUerel. the French physicist. about the contents of the atoms of which matter Is com posed. and they have forcibly recalled Aladdin's adventures to my mind The interior of an atom is a little world infinitely more marvellous than ths cave that contained the magir lamp and it cOnreals powers incOnparabl bly greater than that of Aladdin's good genie.
 To the scientific imagination the m side Of an atom is inverseIy as won drOus as the starry heavens It ia iD finite power packed into infinitesimal space. That of course. is an exaR gerat1On: but this is a case tn whicb b one has to speak In imposing figures because the facts surpass all ordinary experience
 '"The atom" says Jean BeCQnereI ''is a closed world Or almost closed and 1t is that fact which constitutes It's individuality.
 This ''cIOsed world of the atom Is so small that If we could increase the powers of our microscopes thou sandfOld we could not render 1t visible and yet that minute speck of matter incloses "sOIar system" as elaborate as that of the great sun with It's planets. and keeps locked up there an energy so colossal that the plainest statements of fact that can be made about 1t seem like wild dreams
 'SThe emanat1On from radium" "a substance whose atoms spontaneously give out at least a part of their pn ergyI ''is capa ble of HberatinR 2.5OO. .OlO times more energy than the most viO lent chemical reaction known"
 The world within the atom Ordinar rily behaves as V it had no concern with the world outside. It Is sufficient unto itself. It ia little medieval China with closed ports and tnsurmOunta blt. walls all round. Still. a very few atoms like those of radium. have a tendency to communicate with the outer world by a kind of explosion.
 If all atoms should burst their walls simultaneously the whole univprs.. would be dissolved Tn an instant.
 The atoms that do disintegrate pass from change to change. Within their limits the foundations of matter are broken up: the distinctions of the fun damentaI elements are cOnfoundpd things lose their nature and shift into other things; uranium gives birth tO radium and to pOlOnium: radium brings forth helinm. and the last transfOrlna t1On of pOlOnium that has thus far been observed is into plain lead! 1t ia like transmigra tiOn of atomic souls
 But this is not the only consequence ef the opening of the world of the atom. That opening releases energy in forms which we can recognize and which some day perhaps we may br able to utilize.
 Atomic energy is the magic lamp that the Aladdin of science has found iD natures secret cave
 One day Aladdin's mother fuMnd the rusty lamp where he had cast ii aside as useless and thought that she would polish 1t ID. Instantly. at the first wig OrOus rub. the slave of the lamp stood before her. ready to do her bidding
 The Aladdin of science has not thrown his lamp aside He knows ir ia full of magic He ls sure that if he. rubs it Hrigbt the genie will appear b4. fore him. but he has not yet learned the right stroke. And perhaps after aM 1t wilt be with him as II WAS with the other Aladdin accident wilt teach him the secret
 When that day comes. n ever 1 does there will hardly tt any limit tO the transforming power of mHD ovpT the world he ii'ts ID Garrett ? S4rviss in New York Journal.