TRAPPING THE ATOM.

Shannon News, 12 October 1923, Page 4

TRAPPING THE ATOM.

SCIENTISTS ON ITS TRAHi.

In the atom lies hidden a mighty force which, if it could be trapped and controlled, would do the work of the world for millions of years. Sir Ernest Rutherford, probably the most successful observer of the experiments with the atom, has been interviewed in London after an address he gave as Cavendish Professor of dealing with the atom. He is reported to have doubted the possibility of harnessing the atom for the world’s work.

Sir David Orme Masson, whose work as professor of chemistry in the University of Melbourne, has made him familiar with every development of the experimental work in connection, with the atomic theory, said that the energy locked up in tile nucleus of the atom was enormous.

“But,” he proceeded, “it is hot producible by man’s volition, nor controllable. Explosions are taking place, and thereby creating energy. We can\ only observe and increase our knowledge of the phenomena.” He smiled when asked to explain the atom.

“To do that,” he said, “would be to traverse chemistry itself, which is the science of the atom.

“Put it this way,” he proceeded. “We ; know that there is a vast treasure house, which, if we could but find the key, 1 would revolutionise life as we know it. But the key is not yet found. *At present we are ..no nearer finding it than we ever were, except that, in the light of the vast discoveries made in experimental chemistry, such as X-rays and many, others, he, would be a bold man who could say what the next few years would bring forth < “There are keen investigators at work, and none greater than Sir Era. est Rutherford. It is to be expected that we shall go on widening our knowledge, and —who can say ? we may find the solution.” So that there is still hope of one day seeing such a world’as H. G. Wells described as functioning by automatic force. ...