Omaha daily bee., 1916-07-14
Each Atom
O. Universe,
and Perhaps
Inhabited
By GARRETT P. SERVISS-

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into the world Of the infinitely little
i, which startle the imagination even
more than the vast spectacles OF the
armament above US.
The unlocking of the atom, within
the last few years, has revealed the
fact that all things about us, even
our very bodies, are made up of min
iature solar systems, spinning SO
swiftly that their infinitesimal plan
cts" may make as many as three mil
lions of revolutions, or even more,
in single secondl
No. doubt you know what an atom
is, but, nevertheless, we will define
it again, according to the Older ideas
of science. An atom, until the recent
discoveries were made, was supposed
to be the smallest particle of any
kind of matter that could exist When
they spoke of an atom physicists and
chemists thought they were referring
to something that was no longer d.
visible. There could be, they be-
lieved, nothing smaller than an atom.
When they got down to. that they
imagined that they had got to the
very bottom of things. Out of atoms,
as the ultimate particles, every kind
of substance was built up.
Now we know that this was all
wrong An atom is not the smallest
possible thing, and instead of resem-
bling an unbreakable, indivisible par
ticle, an atom is made up of a vast
number of things so much smaller
than itself that, in comparison with
the whole atom, they have been liken-
ed to the sun and planets in compar-
ison with the whole solar system.
The name corpucle has been
given to these infinitesinal particles
which constitute an atom, and it has
been found that an atom of hydrogen
probably contains a thousand corpu-
Giles; an atom of oxygen, 10000:
an atom of iron, $500; an atom of
gold, 1877 200; an atom of mercury,
100000, and an otom of radium, U.s.
900. This is sufficiently marvellous in
itself, but it is by no means the whole
story.
Amazing motions are continually
taking place in the atom. Its corpu
Giles are in constant revolution, like
the planets going round the sun. But
they travel, in some cases, 100000
miles in a secondl In some sub
stances, like radium, a certain dis
order arrives in the revolutions. Ow-
ing to the escape of energy the veloc-
tiles are disturbed, and certain corpu
cles fly away with a speed of 10000
i miles per second! 1t is as if the solar
system should suddenly reach criti
cal stage and 60 to pieces, the earth
and other planets shooting away into
space.
Now, atoms, with their corpuscles,
combine into larger (but still invisi-
bly, smafD particles, called molecules,
and in these also revolutions take
place. The atoms in molecule re-
volve around other atoms. They do
not travel as swiftly as the corpus
cles in the atom, and yet it has been
shown that in a drop of water the
hydrogen atoms, which are the light
est, may revolve round the oxygen
molecules so fast that they make
5000, 000 100000 revolutions in sec
ond! This is the same number we
have referred to above.
Imagine one of those revolving
atoms to represent the earth, and call
its period of revolution an atomic
year" thus comparing it with the rev.
olution of the earth around the sun
and then 20 a step farther, and i'm
agine inhnitesimal beings inhabitlng
that atom. If their lives lasted the
same number of atomic years that
our lives last of our years, at least
fifty thousand million generations of
those creatures would pass in single
second of our time!
A similar comparison was made
by DR.. tombstone Stoney many years
before the discovery of the real con-
situation of the atom. At that time
he took the velocity of the vibrations
of light as a basis for his calucula-
ton, and he said: The motions OF
light bear the same relation to one
second of time that the motions OF
our limbs bear to a period of 3O.OOO,-
900 wears. If there were sentient be-
ings with bodies which move as
deftly as this ether, and with
thoughts and perceptions as quick as
their bodies are active, there would
be sufficient time for them, within a
small fragment Of one second, to live
the lives Of all the generations OF men
that have dwelt upon this earth,
thinking all their thoughts and dong
all their acts"
The comparison becomes all the
more striking when it is based upon
the revolution of an atom, which SO
curiously Stimulates the revolution OF
the earth in its orbis. It is no VIOLA
ton of reason to suppose that an in.
habitant of an atom would think and
act with a quickness proportional to
the measure of time IN his world.
Are we forbidden to imagine such
beings? No more than we are for
hidden to imagine gigantic inhabi-
tants among the numberless worlds
of SPACE. We do not know what life
is. and it is mere folly to assert that
! it can only manifest itself in the
forms familiar to us. The quality
of mind is OF so intellectually fine a
grain (if such an expression can be
used of mind) that. as far as we can
see, it nigh. as easily be present in a
creature transcending in ininuteness
the utmost imaginable powers of the
microscope as in an animal six feet
tall.