New Britain herald., 1925-08-04
NEW ELEMENTS ID
 RE DISCOVERED
General Electric Expert Places
 Number at Three

Los Angeles, Cal, Aug. P--- There are probably three more ele- ments to be discovered. was the prediction ,enture4 ny Dr. Willis R. Whitney, of the General Electric company, Schenectady N, r., in an address before the American Chemi- cal society last night. Disc ussng "Maitcr--Is There Anything In lt?" he said science now has reached stage where s physical picture Of 1 th" structure of atoms Is more in- tricate than any earthly model. and more perfect seomotrically than any known celestial system. Making new generalizations from the work Of J. J. Thomson and R. A. l Min kan, pr. Whitney said:
 Matter is at least not merely dry and hard. nor yet soft and wet It | is eicctronic and celesAiaL whatever l that may mean. and the most we know about it Is that 1t is almost entirely space. Ii Is as empty as 1 the sky. II is almost as empty as a perfect vacuum, although 1t usually contains a lot of energy.
 All the clements from the smallest 10 the largest the speaker declared, can be constructed by orderly as- semblies of positive and negative electrOns. Of the atom, he said It's actual smallness is impossible to realize. but 50 much seems known of its dimensions that we must ac- cept if and try 10 apply it
 "A nolecnl4 of water" Dr. Whit ney Illustrated, contains two atoms of hydrogen. Suppose we start with one single drop of water and let all of It's hydrogen atoms appear in turn as drops of water 1f'these were as large as raindrops they could cover the whole world with foot of water"
 Another Illustration which Dr Whitney gave vas that if one of these hydrogen atoms were made so large that 1t became yard in di- ameter, its electron still would be only q pinhead In size and It's nuccelus 2,00o times smaller.
 The speaker described the com position of matter as the chemist now sees 1t and demonstrated by ex- perimentt the realities of the unim- asinably small particles, He said he | A fnu 1, ,nn1l tp. pointing out the vacuity of matter as scientists persist in speculating and experimenting on the atom because everything we know Is made of atoms.
 There are only 2 very limited number of different kinds" said Dr. Whitney. "These differences explain all differences we can probably ever know in our universe. Thus far, the more we have sought to understand them, the more we have gained In appreciation Of an unexplored, un limited territory of interest and service.
 From the original atom Of our youth, indivisible by definition. we now have spacious and dtvisihle atom, They differ from one in stance to another This difference Is produced by increasing quantities of something already present In the smallest ones.
 Every teacher Of chemistry used the discovery of scand'um, german ium, anticipated by the periodic law, to Illustrate the value of orderly conceptions. even though he knew that good critical data seemed op- posed to accepting any single protyle matter from which to make all ele- ments.
 "The persistent pursuit Of this IT, regularity continued, and where blanks in the periodic system existed we always expected to find new ele- ments. Three years ago the antici- rated element haIfnium. was discoV- cred hy the N-ray method, in itself new. Much more recently we learned of the discovery of two more masurnium and rhentum-by the same agent. There are probably three more to he discovered.
 But we have now reached a stage where a physical picture Of the structure of atoms is more intricate than any earthly model and more perfect geometrically than any known celestial system. The laws of astronomy have been called into play, and super celestial orientat- tions are necessary to elucidate the complicated hut not hewilderine. the novel. but not embarrassing, inter na)s of the atoms.
 "ThA electron has become the u'- 'rat atom. We cannot claim that ourq is simpler than the atom of our fathers, Theirs was harder to comprehend. The test is that oNr now atom has done many things for us which the old atom could not do.'