Evening Star Newspaper, August 17, 1930, Page 77

SCIENCE MAKES BLAZE AS HOT Mmerican Savant Seeking Secrets of Atom Creates 1,000,000 Degrees of Heat at University of THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, AUGUST 17, 10%. Virginia as Scientists the World Over Work to Liberate Power of Minute Matter. BY HARRY GOLDBERG. HE temperature of the flame at the surface of the sun is some 10,000 degrees centigrade. Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, a bluish- white twinkle, sends out a tempera- ture of 11,000 degrees; Vega rates 14,000 de- grees on the astronomers’ measuring instru- ments, and Capella 8,500 degrees. But man himself has done better. In the laboratories of science 1,000,000 degrees centi- . @rade is not unknown. One million degrees of heat seems almost beyond imagination, but it has already been achieved by man. Sir Arthun Eddington, the famous British - astronomer, mentioned this fact in a casual reference during his speech before the World Power Conference in Berlin a few weeks ago while describing the vast energy which is stored in the atom. \ He estimated that #f we could stir up a heat of 30,000,000 or 40,000,000 degrees the atom might begin to give a prolific yield of its energy. He went on to make the astonishing statement that “40,000,000 degrees is, perhaps, mot beyond attainment in our laboratories. “At Cavendish Laboratory,” he continued, *Dr. Kapitza produces momentary magnetic fields in which the concentration of energy - corresponds to about 1,000,000 degrees centi- grade. In this thermometic scale the tem- perature at freezing peoint of water is zero and the boiling point of water 100 degrees; Fahren- heit shows freezing at 32 degrees and water boiling at 212 degrees. “If he should be able to raise this to 40,- 000,000—well, I don’t really think subatomic energy will come pouring out, but, just t¢ be on the safe side, I shall take care not be too near the laboratory when the experiment WHILE Dr. Kapitza is stoking a fire of 1,000,000 degrees in England, Dr. J. W. Beams of the department of physics, Uni- versity of Virginia, is doing the same in his laboratory. The 1,000,000 degrees flash out in an instant or less, but still the heat is definite, certain, palpable, for Dr. Beams not only measures it, but he is taking what will be a motion picture of 1,000,000 degrees of heat, how it starts, what it looks like at its greatest instensity and where or how it disappears. To photograph 1,000,000 degrees of heat Dr. Beams is taking seperate photographs of the flash a 100,000,000th of a second apart. The photographs must be taken one at a time, but Dr. Beams is operating with such precision that he can take snapshots of the heat explosion at the proper intervals and be certain when he sets them up in sequence that the series is perfect. When heat is intense, it becomes light, and the light forms colors—everybody has heard of red hot, white hot and blue hot—and the color spectrum of the heat flash tells just how high a temperature has been reached. Dr. Beams photographs the spectrum of the flash, and he expects that a study of the spectrum as the flash waxes and wanes will tell the inside story of 1,000,000 degrees of heat. The source which yields such heat is a short 5 As 100 Suns According to Sir Arthur Eddington, a few drops of water contain sufficient energy to run ocean liners, trains, airplanes or light cities, if man knew how to exploit their latent power. circuit. One side of a transformer is connected with a condenser. A spark gap is left in the circuit. A half-inch piece of platinum wire, one ten-thousandth of an inch in diameter, is connected with the wire, About 100 amperes of current are forced through this circuit under - the pressure of 10,000 volts. As this powerful electric current charges the condenser and backs up against the spark gap, the current jumps the gap and instantaneously the re- sistance disappears and the electricity surges around the circuit. When it reaches the fine sliver of platinum, there is a puff of light and the wire passes out of existence in a burst of heat. The spectrum photographs of this flash ark expected to reveal what happens to the plati- num wire. Dr. Beams has only been at this experiment six months, a relatively short time on a job in a physics laboratory. A description of this experiment was given by Dr. Thomas H. Johnson, assistant director of the Bartol Foundation of Franklin Insti- tute, who is one of the thousand or more men working on the secrets of the atom in all parts of the world. o Dr. Johnson has shared in recent discoveries regarding the nature of the atom. He has shown that an atom in motion acts like a wave in motion. To glimpse what he means, one should think in terms of light. There are two theories of light: First, that it is a disturb- ance in the “ether,” just as a wave is a dis- turbance in water; second, that light is cor- puscular, that corpuscules or particles are emit- ted which strike the retina of the eye and produce the sensation of light. DR. JOHNSON invented a method through which he discovered that hydrogen in mo- tion has a wave action similar to light in motion. “If hydrogen is a wave, is it logical to as- sume that oxygen, carbon and all other matter are waves, even cells of living matter that make up our bodies?” he was asked. “You can’t consider the discovery in that way,” Dr. Johnson replied. “It has no present meaning for people or for practical use. It simply means we have found a new way by which to try to understand the atom and the fundamental qualities of matter. “At the present time there is much confu- sion in the minds of physicists. We have made experiments which can only be explained on the theory that light is a wave, and other ex- periments which can only be explained on the theory that light is a corpuscle. Both appear to be right and we haven't reconciled them yet.” In his recent speech, Eddington stated that there is enough energy in a drop of water to furnish 200 horsepower for a year; that per- haps some day great generating stations with wharves and sidings would be unnecessary; and instead of pampering the appetites of our engines with delicacies like coal or oil, we shall induce them to work on a plain diet of sub- atomic energy. If that day comes, barges, trucks and cranes will disappear and a year's 4 specially constructed camera, which records the antics of electrons, used af the California Institute of Technology in the study of the atom. supply of fuel for a station—namely, 30 grams of water—will be carried in a teacup.’ Asked to explain the nature of this tremen- dous energy which is now unavailable for prac- tical use, Dr. Johnson said that we were being served by atomic energy in a way we do mot realize. “It is a common belief,” he said, “that the earth is kegt warm by the heat which flows out of the sun. While sunlight comes to us in great volume, it is not sufficient to maintain the globe at its present temperature, making human habitation possible. “The earth is also heated from within. We are being served by the disintegration of atoms below the surface of the earth. The radium ores, such as Colorado carnotite and pitch- blende; the potassium group of minerals, etc., constantly disintegrate and give off energy. “The known deposits of these disintegrating ores, plus the heat which we receive from the sun, roughly approximates the amount of heat energy which is present on the earth. “Any one who has read about radium knows that it breaks down and that this property of radium is used to control and cure some types of cancer. The rays of radium bombard the cancerous tissues with terrific force, retard their growth and sometimes destroy them. How they work against malignant tissue is a mys- tery, but their beneficial effects have been proved. “It is common knowledge that when atoms move from one combination to another, heat energy is released or absorbed, and this fact is used in many chemical processes. There is no change in the atom itself, merely the move- ment of the atoms of specific substances which are released from one element only to combine with another, “When we speak of using the power in the atom we are speaking of using the power which results when the atom itself, the combination of protons and electrons, is broken down. Some power, some force binds the parts of an atom together. The secret of using the power in Me atom is to find an inexpensive way of re- leasing that atomic binder. “When we change water into steam we must use heat energy to vaporize the water into a gas. The expanding gas will work for us in boilers and turbines. This is a relatively cheap way of using the poweg in an expanding gas. There has been no change in the chemical composition. Steam and water are the same thing in different forms. “A method for extracting the power of the atom must tear the atom apart if it is to be of any practical value to mankind. Energy in & disintegrating radium atom is a terrific force —radium destroys itself—but we do not know how to trap that energy for any other use than the medical one already mentioned. “The chemical elements in the order of their atomic weights range from hydrogen, the lighte est, up to platinum and uranium. It is a pe- culiar fact that in the elements up to iron we release energy by combining and building up these elements and from iron up to the heaviest metals we derive energy by breaking them down. “Why binding atoms together, up to the atomic weight of iron, yields energy and why it is neeessary to cut the binder from iron up to uraniam to obtain energy is one of the mys- teries of matter which is still unsolved.” (Copyright, 1930.)