CHANGES IN METALS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26634, 3 December 1947, Page 5

CHANGES IN METALS

DEMONSTRATION OF ATOMIC ENERGY Rec. 11 p.m. NEW YORK. Dec. 1. Atomic energy can fulfil the dreams of mediaeval alchemists —turn base metal into gold—but there is a catch to it. Newspapermen who were permitted to inspect two chain reaction piles—atomic furnaces for controlling the release of nuclear energy—at Argonne national laboratory to-day, were told by the laboratory director. Dr Walter Zinn. that gold could be manufactured in the piles, but the process would be more costly than digging gold out of the ground. Dr Zinn gave the visitors a couple of “ minor ’’ demonstrations of what can be done in altering the structure of metals. With long aluminium tongs he held up a small piece of silver in front of one of the openings in the pile through which neutron beams are emitted. In three seconds the silver was radio-active; and had turned into cadmium through changes in its atomic structure. Then Dr Zinn held up a thin foil of uranium 238. It was turned quickly into plutonium.