Evening star., 1924-04-23
IN TODAY'S SPOTLIGHT
BY PAUL y. COLLINS

The American Chemical Society in
session this week in Washington may
renew the quest of the alchemists of
old, but 1t will not waste much time
on what the world knew Of chemis-
try five years ago. Happy is the stu
dent who has never studied traditional
chemistry, 'for he has less to unlearn
than the one who was taught for1nu-
las or dicta which must now be cast
aside, owing to the advance or knowl-
edge during the last three years.
Within the memory of infants still
in arms, men were taught that an
atom was "the smallest portion into
which matter can be divided" Prior
to the last three or four years, the
atomic theory had not greatly
| changed since the days OF the ancient
Greek philosophers. Scientists told the
believing layman that all things are
made of atoms, combined into mole
cules, and that the nature OF all mat
ter depended upon which atoms and
how many Of each made up the mole
cule. Nobody ever had seen so in
conceivabiy small a thing as an atom
nor even a molecule-but every
body believed he was becoming
hlled all space in vortex rings. in a
state of motion, and that matter is
particular condition Of this sub
stantial continuum."
So matter is a state Of motion, just
as Boston has been said to be not
a city, but state of~mind. Refer TO
the most progressive, Ioose-leaf en-
cyclopedfa if in doubt about that
"continuum" and then emulate the
edict of that great Chinese vandal
N q hn
ordered all books destroyed except
works on medicine and farming. To-
day one might as well burn all his
books upon medicine, farming and
chemistry. for they are all-all-ab-
solutely crazy patchw work, worse than
the formulas of the middle ages upon
the short cuts in making gold
x x X x
We now know that the alchemist
dreamers were upon the right road
when they puttered around their lab
oratories seeking how to transmute
one metal into another. Transmuta-
tion Of metals today is an accomplish
ed fact Start with uranium, extract
its helium and there remains radium;
but the radium retains helium. and
when the helium is further extracted
there remains lead-just common
lead
If one can make lead out of price
less metals, why not make gold out
of mud or something? That is alchemy
glorified by the name of modern chem
istry. Maybe the great congress OF
the American Chemical Society VIII
be able to extract some OF its erudi-
tion and make its heaviest science so
light that IL will sail into the clouds
of a lay Imagination. and see things
over the ridges which in all the CEN
turies have shut in human progress.
Science means knowledge. We are
scientific when we know. Yet some
one has declared that one might as
well not know so much as to know
so much that amt So Take the
atom and the progress made in the
knowledge OF what it is-a marvel of
creation more wonderful and more
awful than the swing or planets
about the sun or the march of un-
counted universes through endless
space. How astronomy has advanced
since the church tortured Calico 1or
declaring that the sun did not reVolVe
about the earth. Last month we were
told that new universe had peen
sighted in the offing, SO distant that
light which travels $4,000 miles
second, requires over 100000 years
to come from that terminus to this.
The atom-indivisible? Small? 1t
is itself q universe like our solar Sys-
tenn, and about its sun-the proton-
there swing in fixed orbits electronS
which are its planets, and they are as
far from their sun Gn fixed proper
tion to their size) as are any of the
eight planets of our solar system
away from their "proton." Old Sol
An atom is a universe More than
that our whole universe with its sun,
its planets and their several moons
and rings--the solar system--is actu-
ally only an atom, like the finest
atom which is so small as to bafhe the
most powerful microscope And the
atom" which we know as a universe
is but one in a boundless sea of space
besprinkled with myriads of other
atoms. each a stellar universe, which
multiply in Photographic records ac-
cording TO how long the negative
plate is exposed to the actinic effect
of rays speeding at the pace OF 1885,
600 miles a second and always arrlV-
ing on schedule time from stations
ai1bt millions of wears diStant-per-