THE MIGHTY ATOM

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 52, 13 July 1928, Page 15

THE MIGHTY ATOM

AN AMAZING DEMONSTRATION. The atomic theory, eicompassing as it does the electronic theory, is of patticular interest to radio Hsteners, as the

operation Of a tecetvying set 18 attripiite | ed by scientists to the assistance due to the movement of positive and negative electrons embodied in atoms. An American Associated Press message from Cambridge, Mass., dated March 10, states: ‘‘Science has invented the means to count atoms and molecntes with greater accuracy than the popzlation of a great city cen be counted. Dr. Miles Sherrill, professor cf theoretical chemistry at the Mastachusetts Institute of Technology, so demonstrated at a lecture last migiht. By means of a motion picture and an ultra-microscope, he showed the molecular motion of gold particles in a collodial solution.~ "It is possible," he said, "to detezmine the number of molecules in onegramme molecular weight of a substance which is equal to the number of atomis in one gramme atomic weight of any element. This number is six hundred and six and two-tenths cextillion. } Radium Paint Noisy. | Sherrill also demonstrated the Géeiger counter, an ultra-sensitive instrument designed to detect existence of electrons. The instrument was connected with an electric amplifying apparatus and when an object coated with a radium paint such as is used in wrist watches was held near it, a series of sharp raps was heard. "These raps,’’ the lecturer said, "ar not from the spirit world, but nevertheless from another world, namely, the | world locked up within the atom."