Evening star., 1929-01-01
NEW CIVILIZATION
| IN SCIENCE DAWNS
Protons and EIectrons Pave
Way to Get Lore on Chemi-
F. 's@s cal Elements @zss'
BY the Associated Press.

| NEW YORK, January 1.-The founda-
tions of new civilization-the chemi-
cal civilization of tomorrow-have been
laid down by science and the structure
partly reared, practically within the last
three decades. = -.--..--- ----@
| Just as the electrical discoveries and
developments of the last century
changed the course of civilization, the
advances toward understanding of the
composition and behavior of the differ
ent elements are expected to exert tre-
mendous and unpredictable effects on
the lives Of all human beings in this
century.
The great advances which have been
made since the beginning Of the cur
rent century were outlined by DR..
Arthur A. Noyes. director of the Gates
Chemical Laboratory of the California
Institute of Technology, in his address
as retiring president of the American
Association for the Advancement Of
Science.
These advances include an under
standing undreamed of 80 years ago Of
the way Nature has built up the 80 ele-
ments, ranging from hydrogen, the
lightest gas, to uranium, the heaviest
metal, by means of different arrange.
ments of protons and electrons, which
have been described as invisible but
powerful chunks of positive and mega
tive electricity.
On the basis of this understanding
has arisen the new science of organic
chemistry which DR.. Noyes declared
Iyy hn5
of science and technology that was
ever developed mainly through theoreti-
cal considerations"
At the beginning of the century, he
related, of the 80 elements now known
about dozen. including all the radio
active elements and several of the rare
earth elements. had not been diScov-
cred. Only a few years earlier had the
elementary gases. argon, helium, neon,
| now in everyday use, together with
krypton and xenon, been isolated.
Today, he said, all but three of the
elements have been discovered, the
number Of protons and electrons which
are combined in the different atoms
that make up each of them is known,
| and the weights of those atoms, togeth-
er with the electrical charges involved,
have been measured within small
The nature of the atom itself was
! not known at the beginning of the CEN
tury, he pointed out, and 1t was not
known that they were formed, like
solar system, out of whirling chunks of
electricity held together by the attrac-
ton of their positive and negative
charges, nor that the spinning atoms
united in different ways to form the
molecules of matter.
He gave some idea of the subsequent
achievement with the statement that
the mass or weight of the electron is
only 1-1840 of that of the hydrogen
atom. which is composed of one proton
and one electron, and Is so light that 1t
would take number of them repre-
sented by the figure 10 followed by 27
ciphers to weigh one gram. The dis
tance between the electrons and the
protons in an atom Is SO great that If
the helium nucleus, having four pro-
tons, were the size of teed-up golf
ball, the electrons whirling around 1t
would be 200 yards away. Much re-
mains to be learned, he said, about the
dynamic relations involved, but phySi-
cists ard organic chemists are making
rapid progress in that direction.
Meanwhile, the increasing under
standing Of the nature of the different
elements Is enabling physicists and
chemists and engineers to bring them
within the range of usefulneSstin ways
which the last generation was unable
to-, foEesee but which, are already. taken
FLOR granted by the youngsters Of the
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