Evening star., 1926-10-16

learned the wave theory or ugnt-
resembling the waves of sound, ex-
cept that sound was waves in air,
while light was short waves in ether.
and ether filled all the universe.
Very complicated apparatus was con-
structed to detect the light waves,
but today waves in ether are so nu-
merous that they become nuisance,
as every radio fan knows, for our
instruments in connection with radio
experiment are so sensitive.
Today they have instruments to
measure a newly discovered ray from
invisible stars, which ray is so pow
erful that it will penetrate steel 8
feet thick or water 20 feet deep. And
they will find the companion star OF
Sirius-almost invisible--so dense that
if a teaspoonful of it's interior sub
stance could be lifted it would weigh
ton. Oh yes, "Horatio. there are
more things In Heaven and earth
but nothing haphaZard"!
Science, which formerly disputed all
! that contradicted it's findings, now
| finds that it's cocksureness Of 80 or
| so years ago, as DIR. Milliken declares,
was not based upon the finality Of
discovery that was then believed. The
| atom-is 1t the infinitely small, ut
| terly indestructible speck of matter
that we were taught? Today 1t IS
known to be a miniature universe in
| itself, with an ion center, around
| which swing electrons relatively as to
size as far from its center as the earth
| is from the sun, and the eleCtrons are
| not all alike, nor does each atom hold
| the same number and arrangement of
electrons. That was demonstrated by
| DIR. j. J. Thomson, who found even in
| the last decade of the nineteenth GEN.
tury that an electron could be
knocked out of its orbit. He thought,
| however, that 1t would always return
to that same orbit. Later It was
shown that an atom could lose one or
more of it's electrons, which might
join other atoms; or the electron could
be forced into another orbit-all Of
which actually changed the character
of the atom and changed the metal
from one metal to another-from mer-
curry, perchance, into gold. The alche-
mist's dream is on the way to reality,
| in modern science.
All this-crudely set forth--is what
modern scientists agree on today,
but leading scientist of Washington
disputes the assertion of DIR. Milliken
as to the recentness and revolutionary
nature of the discoveries. He points
to the discoveries of Maxwell in 1879,
when he brought out the theory Of
| electromagnetic waves of light which
exercised pressure on the body 1t
| falls upon. Pressure means energy
ponderosity-and involves action and
reaction. for it not only means pres
sure upon the body which light
strikes, but also pressure in reaction
on the emitting body. Light there
! fore acts like a cannon ball, which
not only strikes with force it's target,
but also kicks" the cannon back
ward. Light is not merely waves-it
is corpuscles in action, travelling 1885,
| 900 miles q second.
All this newer knowledge seems to
upset Newton's laws of physics, but,
according to the scientist OF Wash
| ington (who forbids disclosure of his
| identity, lest controversy ensue), de-
MES that the new science contradicts
the old, but contends that 1t supple
ments and enlarges what our fore
fathers recognized.
1t was Nichols who demonstrated
the pressure of light in 1901, but it
was Max Planck who. about 1900. in
troduced. the "quantum theory
which was "the most disturbing ele-
ment in physics Of this generation"
That is the discovery that the energy
of an atom is given out only in def
mite chunks" or multiples. Energy
coming from an atom Jumps" def
| nitely from one orbit to certain
other orbit having definite multiple
Of the area of the first. and never in
| fractional orbits. 1t cannot wander
'haphazard." And that discovery Of
Planck's quantum theory became the
foundation of Einstein's relativity.
No layman should be foolhardy
enough to discuss that. but our
scientific hacker In all this il very
decidedly of the opinion that there Is
little in the new discoveries OF science
which overthrows the fundamentals
of the nineteenth century knowledge,
but that the new enlarges and broad
ems the field of the old. With ell the
declarations of Einstein and the new
knowledge of electrons and other
things. he leaves this consolation for
the laymen:
'I wish that my room had floor.
l don't SO much care for a door,
But this walking around
Without touching the ground
Is getting to be quite bore"
tCOpyright. 1920. By Paul v Collins.)