1950-09-07 — Page 8

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ENGINEERING PAGE

ATOMIC SCIENCE ACHIEVEMENTS

By Prof. Norman Feather

perties of gases, and by a con-th incessant jostling of the mole (1813) as largely irrelevant to the his collaborators

of Chicago.

wore

If the individual scientist is international in outlook it must be the verdict of history that his science is in one senso a product of nationalism, or at least that the scientific genius, of a people is apt to find its outlet in particular directions and to be almost without affect in others, Over the last century and a half the scientific genius of the British people has by common consent led the world in atomic physics, in experiment and in the intuitive development of theory, and if this phase is now passing it has lasted long enough to be remarkable and to have made a fundamental contribution to the intellectual outlook of our time.

collaboration The idea of atoms is as old as Particles of whatever kind, if |

Differences of chemical namity and British

differences In therain involved, it must be stated. the civilisation of ancient Greece, they were small enough, showed must be due to

was United States en But it was not unill the beginning | the effect that provides one of structure of the atoms involved. that it of the 18th century that it was the clearest pieces of evidence for Yet scientists of the 19th century gineers who built the plants and given a new form and meaning the atomic constitution of matter, seem to have been little con- so made possible the realisation

Dalton, the son by John

of a The nccepted

cerned with this aspect of the of the scientists' predictions. And explanation EN Cumberland weaver.

Faraday's experi- the first achievement of a uranium straightforward: if the suspended matter; even He had convinced himself by particles are small enough they ments in electrolysis (1834) was chain reaction was in the proto-

considered by simple experiments on the pro-are thrown about continually by still

Maxwell type pile" bullt by E. Fermi and

at the University; sideration of the then but recent-gules of water with which they point at issue.

Ultimately the work of Thom- It is now almost five years ly discovered laws of chemical are surrounded, combination, that matter must But i was in relation to the son (1897-9) forced the problem since the end of World War II allt hides a great regarded as constituted of ulti-properties of gases-not those of on the attention of all concerned. and secrecy

that phowed

minute deal that is done. In Britain ran!~ mate particies (atoms) and that liquids and solids which present Thomson there must be just as many typen

hides the details of much anore difficult problem--that electrified particles electrons teally of particle, and nu more, an there physicists first began to make could in sillable circumstances be engineering woric and some fun- are elements recognised as such effective use of the atomic hypo- deinched from the atoms of all damental research. But we know

thnt of elements, and the notion

we have at Harwell TC- by the chemist.

thesis.

establishment under J. D. This

hypothesis led immediate. In Britain James Clerk Max-common structural pattern, con- ly to the assignment of masses (or well, who was born in Edinburgh ceived of in terms of electrical (Sir John) Cockcroft, equipped weights) to

to the atoms of the In 1631, was the ploncer of this units of structure, emerged to with two experimental piles and a

cyclotron various elementa. But Dalton's |

advance. Maxwell made fundo replace the "billard ball" picture large masses were only relative not ab- mental contributions to the kine- of atoms which until then had Britain, and at Chalk River, On- solute

MIRESCs. It

was obvious, for tic theory of gases, the theory sufficed

the physical theory, example, that the atom of oxygen which attempts to explain was 16 times as heavy na the atom prop

properties of gases on the assump- of hydrogen, yet spart from the knowledge that must be ex- tremely minate, there was nothing in the hypotheels itself to fix the mosa of either atom absolutely- not within a factor of a mBlion.

etch

Coincidence of history

background for tario,

contructed

a re-

the National Research Council of Canada maintains an- other

About the same time X-ray devetones will of which the

ion that they are constituted of and the radioactive properties of niomis

д

or molecules in rapid uranium were discovered

(both

joint effort and of

motion hither and thither. events taking place on the con- which the present research direc

He devised an apparatus which, Unent of Europe) and the work tor, W.B. Lewis, is

closed vessel, allows one to of Rutherford and his collabora- born physicist. measure the resistance suffered tors drew from the study of the

To know the mass of an atom through a gas. He obtained the of new Information. is to know its size, or conversely, result that this resistance is the

a British-

At Chalk River, also, two

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by a body in not-too-rapid motion latter phenomenon a rich harvest chain-reacting ples have been THE JARDINE ENGINEERING

thon By 1911 Rutherford was able material) and it is a matter o and it is one of the strange coin- same whatever the amount of Rios of positive charge Inj pride that the larger of these prop

to give a convincing picture of the

cidences of history that in 1805, in the vessel, so long as the Just at the time when Dalton was amount is not too small. giving a new definiteness lo the The result appears surprising at

the atom (the electrons are the

built (using heavy water rather graphite as "moderating"

CORPORATION LTD.

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old and vague ideas on atomicity,į drst sight, but it is precicely whintative constituents)ho posi-neutrons now avaliable for ex-

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in each Thomas Young made. the first the kinetic theory, or gases pre- centrated in

Young's calculations of atomiction,

atom is con- periment anywhere in the world,

Barkin's carly work (1900) Commonwealth, but at

at Horwoll

single "massive" It is possibly a long cry yet to real use of these ideas to lead to diets.

at its centre-and HG.H. the cheap availability of nuclear an estimate of the sizes of atoms, Others continued the advance Moseley (1914), extending C. C. energy for industrial purposes in on Britain, or in any country of the which later investigations have which Maxwell initiated, and by proved to be very close

X-radiations, effectively counted to the the end of the century as it the electrons which in each case and at Chalk River the road mark.

talled experiments with gases Dalton's ideas were immediate was possible 10 calculate the go to

to make up

the completed technicians of the future are hard at work on their routine jobs, and ly accepted as the basis of the sizes of all the molecules which system."

Howover the structural picture in, the

the physles departments of new science of modern chemistry, could be studied in the free state

is in the gaseous state of could not long be left in the siste the universities their younger col- leagues are in training in numbers we have indicated: featureless

1 dimensions were lost sight of for 50 years until they were re-dis-

John William Strutt (Lord nucleus with surrounding electhree times as great as before covered by William Thomas (Lord

Rayleigh) showed how it was trens is no more satisfactory than World War II. Kelvin).

In some of these university possible to get some information a featureless atom- if the pheno Truth

to be departments much money is being to tell, physicists, both

spent on largescale equipment British

and foreign, were at that concerning even the shapes of mena of radioactivity are

molecules from

a close study of adequately described.

for an energetle attack on the un- Structure MAWER, EVANS & CO., LTD. time too bedazzled by the males- the optical properties of gases

solved problems. of fundamental tle and all-embracing theories of and here it might be mentioned Structure must be assigned to physics--and this cannot bear full electrical and gravitational effects that Maxwell was the first (1871- the nucleus itself. Following fruit for a year or two yet--but due to the continental mathe 9) and Rayleigh the second (1879- directly on pioneer investigations in the midst of it all one pecu- maticions Laplace and Gauss, to worry o

svermuch

the atomle84) Cavendish Professor of Ex by Thomson, F, W. Aston, single-liarly British triumph is to be re- Dalton or the calversity of

perimental

in the Uni-handed in the decade 1910-29, gistered.

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Young

The major researches

surveyed the whole range of C. F. Powell of Bristol using

of the chemical elements and catalogued little more than special photo- If they had taken note of some third and fourth Cavendish Pro- the various specias of atom- remarkable observations (1827) of

graphic plates and many micros- John fessors, Joseph

Thomson nucleus found on the earth. His copes has won from a study of reat British botanist, very great Robert Brown

(1884-1919) and Extest Ruther isotopes represent the different the ever-present cosmic radiation Montrose, might

trose, they ford (1919-37)-Thomson, Man- forms in which a nucleus with a (particuarly a study of this radia- not have been cerning but Brown's observations New Zealander-crown the British thus the nucleus of the chlorine

Rutherford chester-born, and

given positive charge can exist tion at high altitudes) the first too were forgotten until much

contribution to our subject, and atom, for example, which, has 17 new results in the general field which work with the large scale later in the

contury.

leave us with the idea of an atom units of charge, is a stable struc- machines is designed to lay open Brown had believed at one as we picture it today.

ture if it has either 15 or 37 to more complete investigation, stage that he had

discovered The Nineteenth Century units of mass. some strange new vitality in the

From this brief tragment of rapid

It should have been obylous 3: Chadwick (1032) Identified British history, then, there should motions of pollen grains suspended

in water but good from the beginning, from the first the nuclear building, unit, the bossurance that the genius of

which is responsible for scientist that he was, he checked use of the atomic hypothesis to neutron, whi

of mass without her people is well-matched to the challenge which the his observations on suspensions of explain the facts of chemical the addition inorganic particles and found that combination, that scientists could charge to a nuclear system,, so evident

Isotope Into future holds in store in this wide feature transforming one they too exhibited the strange not rest content with a

Beld of endeavour. It is well that another. irregular motion.

Mention of the neutron brings should be so... us to the fasion of uranium and to the large scale release of atomle energy. The story of that develop ment is a record of achievements in applied science and engineering rather than of deeper research

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