Evening star., 1936-12-13

morning last December their plates
for the first time showed that q
strange thing had happened. They
had reached an outlying island Of q
new world.
Dramatic Moment.
It was perhaps as dramatic q mo-
ment as history had known. Like
Newton before them they had sailed
uncharted seas of thought alone. They
had passed through the great darkness
Of the infinitely little and were face
to face with infinitely the greatest
natural force in creation.
DR.. Tuve Is reticent in expressing
how they felt, but the feelings Of CO.
lumbus when he saw in the distance
the torches Of Dominica might well
have been mild in comparison.
I'VE dropped everything else right
away" is all he will say about this
part Of the discovery.
What they had done, and still are
doing, Is very technical. but in brief,
from a high voltage apparatus which
Is in effect proton gun they fired
protons into hydrogen gas, and re-
corded what happened by specialized
technique on Photographic plates.
Now one Of these proton. bullets" /"
passing close to a proton Of hydrogen,
should have obeyed the 1/r-2 law.
1t should have been repelled-
pushed out of its course-on an angle
inversely proportional to the square OF
the distance it came toward the other
proton. The nearer the approach the
greater the angle. An actual hit should
have produced 45-degree angle.
This was exactly what happened up
to a certain distance-12. 900 ,000,-
000. .000th Of an inch approximately.
Variation in Angles.
Then the positively charged particles
showed q marked variation in the
angles they took from what would
have been calculated from the inverse
square law. The numbers DETECTED
through angles were bigger. Something
was operating to pull them together,
to overcome the force of electrical re-
pulsion. At this distance the two forces
were about balanced. At smaller dis
tances the relatively weak force OF
electrical repulsion was completely
overwhelmed.
Then they fired neutrons into hydro
gen. The neutron Is of about the
same mass as a proton but has no
electrical charge. Unless 1t made q
direct hit against proton. like bill
lizard ball hitting another billiard ball.
it shouldn't glance of at an angle at
all. There is nothing to push it.
Now DR.. Tuve and his associates
found when neutron came within the
critical $4,000, 900 900 ,00Oth of an
inch of a proton, it was pulled to-
wards the proton instead Of continu-
ing in straight line, with apparent
ly q much greater force than an
other proton, but-mathematical an
alysis showed-with exactly the same
force plus the electrical "push-away'
which no longer was q factor.
The same result applies with neu-
irons in proximity to other neutrons.
This led to one Of the most vital
conclusions Of the whole experiment
a new concept of the nature of the
atom itself.
In other words. a neutron was ex-
actly like proton minus one unit of
positive charge-or proton was q
neutron with one positron added.
Identical Particles.
Other developments of the expert
ments along this line have led to the
conclusion that q positron is inter-
changeable between a proton and a
neutron. They are basically identical
particles. whether one Is q proton
or neutron depending on where
the positron happens to be at any
particular instant.
Now in the past mass and energy
have been all messed up in concep-
tions Of the atomic nucleus. It was
considered essentially as q certain
aggregation of units Of positive elec-
tricity whatever that might be. Yet
1t actually weighed something, and
the weight. however minute, could
be calculated. Is a positive charge q
particle with weight?
These experiments now show clear
ly that the basic, massive particle is
not electrical in nature, but neutral.
The positive charge of a nucleus is
due entirely to the POSITIONS in it.
Mass and energy have been disentan-
gled. Moreover. the experimenters
say. there is no longer any room for
any electrons, or negative charges, at
all in the nucleus.