SIR ERNEST RUTHERFORD.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19178, 8 December 1927, Page 10

SIR ERNEST RUTHERFORD.

AIR SERVICE LECTURE.

SPEED OF ATOMS

(FXOK 001 OW* COBRISPOKDZin'.)

LONDON, October 19.

The opening lecture of the winter session of the Air Ministry's '' further education" course was delivered by Sir Ernest Rutherford, president of the Royal Society, whose subject was "Atomic Explosions." There was a large gathering of members of the staff of the Ministry.

Sir Samuel Hoare, Secretary of State for Air, who presided, said the record of that educational organisation showed that its work was expanding; nearly 400 members of the Air Ministry and the Air Force were taking courses in subjects as widely separated! as Arabic and horticulture. The preliminary investigations that he had been able to make on tho subject of the lecturethat evening showed him that in the atom there was a varying number of electrons, which appeared to bo continuously engaged in a Schneider Cup race at an incredible pace. Ho understood that their normal pace was something like 1400 miles a second, and that the electrons followed the practice of the winning British team of taking the corners at. a curve rather than abruptly, liko the Italians. (Laughter.) The presence of Sir Ernest Rutherford, as a representative of Cambridge science, gave him (Sir Samuel Hoare) an opportunity of saying how grateful the Air Ministry and-tho Air Force were to the University of Cambridge for all the scientific help' it had given them in many directions, and for the help which it had also given in recent times in connexion with the work of the new University .Air Force which was formed at Cambridge.

10,000 Miles a Second,

Sir Ernest Eutherford, in the course of his lecture, said the idea of the atomic constitution of matter had long been entertained by scientists, but it was-only within the last 20 years that science had succeeded in definitely proving it, and he emphasised the exceeding smallness of the atoms and the gigantic number that were present in even the smallest piece of matter that could be seen-or weighed. Science could not see or detect the ordinary single atom or moleculo as it existed, but it could detect a single atom if that atom were in some way differentiated from the Test. Fortunately, Nature came to their aid in that matter; Jn tho atom which was shot out from radium they had a fast projectile moving at tho rate of 10,000 miles a second. Science had reached, as the result of a largo amount of research, the general idea that the atoms of matter were purely electrical structures, that the forces which controlled and the particles which composed them were, as far as was known, nothing more than electrical entities; and, therefore, from that point of view, the whole material world was a highly complicated collocation of positive and negative electricity. Referring to the speed of atoms, the lecturer said, that aeroplanes had travelled at the rate of five miles a minute, or, roughly, 300 miles an hour, and one could not but feel that that was an enormous. speed at which man and machine could move through the air. All civilians, he remarked incidentally, congratulated the Air . Ministry and everyone concerned on the great success that had been achieved in the winning of the Schneider Cup, which he hoped Great Britain would long hold. But when they came to fragments of atoms, they had the' enormous speed Of 10,000 miles a second. In conclusion, Sir Ernest Rutherford' dealt with the question of the structure of the atom, and stated that, in his view, there was a nucleus within a nucleus. In the radio-active atom there was a system within a system, and round the nucleus there were satellites which were not charged, but were electrically neutral.

3000 , DOCTORS ATTEND MEDICAL RECEPTION.

SPECIAL VISIT TO BOVRIL FACTORY.

On October 2oth and 36th, nearly 3000 Doctors from all parts of Great Britain visited th 6 great Bovril Factory in Old street, London. Every county contributed its quota, including doctors from the far North of Scotland, and the remote parts of Devon, Cornwall, and Wales. The visitors were welcomed by Sir George Lawson Johnston (chairman), the, Duke of Athol, K.T. (vice-chair-man), Sir James Crichton-Browne, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S., Lieut.-General Sir A. T. Sloggett, K.C.8., K.C.M.G., K.C.V.0., and other members of the Bovril Board, and were then conducted in parties over the premises. They were greatly impressed by the brightness and airiness cf the whole spacious building and by the strictly hygienic conditions under which Bovril is made, as well as by the ingenious machinery which enables the Company to turn out annually so many millions of the familiar brown bottles. The splendidly equipped laboratories were particularly admired.

The processes of manufacture were followed with the keenest interest, from the blending of the extracts and essences in the great steam jacketed pans, each_ capable of holding the concentrated juices of 300 oxen, and the incorporation with these of the beef fibrin and albumen whiph are so. important a factor in the nutritive value of Bovril, to tho automatic filling, capping, labelling, and boxing of the bottles. The finished Bovril is conveyed by pipes to the filling marines from the great storage tanks on the floor above, each of these wonderful machines being capable of filling 400 gross of bottles per day. Lunch followed the tour of inspection, at which many doctors who nad been fellow students renewed old acquaintanceship and revived college memories.

The final item in the programme, which was also much appreciated, was a cinematograph display of scientific films illustrating the activities in the blood of various micro-organisms.