December 17, 1938

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from us. It is not

lirdevmt

to recall th t before the war

the S b r d ,

Texas and Gulf c m p i e s were allies of

such

gre t

Nazi concerns as

I. G

Farben against e

A,nglo-Dutah oil and rubber conhimtiom.Thiskind

of d-Brikish

kdk plap beautifully into German hands.

“he kind

of

thinking

the

Senate has done

in is

fidd ia id ia ted by the T m n eport’s discussion of

tihe

role g o v m t

hould

play in the Arabian develop-

ment Governmentownershipof foreign oil

m c e s s i m q

the

report says,

“would pmuppase

a

radical

ahmlge in

our economic system,” while “pa d government

owner-

ship . might

discourage

private enterprise.” Did

Britain become a socialist c o w

when

GhumhilJ h~

191

under h i l a r ci,rcum.stances, k i s t e d an

ahnhing

for the

Bribish

government majority control of the s t o c k

of

the Anglo-Persian Oil Ccxmlpany

toms t Work

BY ORLANDO ALOYSIUS BATTISTA

URING the p a t decade or

two

scientists have

literally exploded the atom and in

so

doing have

brought toight many phenemenal universes

never dreamed of before. By a rather simple calculation,

if you know how to make

~ t can be

shown th t bhe

air whi& m p i e s the fmger space in a thimble contains

at least thirty

b1Flmn

molecules. If all the docks in the

world were kept wound up, it would take them

a

hun-

dred centuries

or more

to

tidc out the

number

of atoms

in

a

single dmmp of rain water. If you were able to count

the a t o m on the surface of speck of dust which could

be seen

o y under a

miuoucope,

you would find they

nmlbered ni1,lions.So w‘hen we balk a b u t atoms we are

talking about infinitesimally small p r t i c l e s of matter,

particles

so small that man wi l never be able to see them

no

matter how powerful he may build his microscopes.

Fifty years ago these atoms were looked upon

by

the

world’s foremost scientists as hard, discrete, indivisible

particles of matter which formed the building bricks of

evgrphing

in the universe. But the concapt

of

the mc-

ture of matter that had held sway for some twenty-

five centuries crumbled into myth when such men as

Thomson, Rutherford, Lawrence, and a host of others

published the results

of

their researches. Today we know

with the certainty that comes from reliable experimental

evidence that each little atom is a veritable universe in

itself, having a sun-llke nucleus at its center and many

planetary electrons-unitsof pure electricity-whirling

about this core at speeds exceedingthose

of m y

lanets

in

thei’rorbits.

The discovery of the atom universes with their incredi-

bIe rides was speeded up by the invention of an Ameri-

can scientist, Ernest Odando Lawrence. A liltftle more

an en years ago Professor Lawreace succeeded in pro-

duci’ng

a

powerful atomsmashing machine, called a

C$otron, which already has opened up dozens of new

avenues of

scientific

research. More than forty of these

machines are now in existence, most

of

them in th

United States. The originalone is at Charter Hill

in

Berkeley, California, where

its

inventor,

with

the

aid of

a capable group of associate scientists, hopes to use it

to

reveal even greater marvels

in

the hidden world of the

atom. The Charter Hill Cyclotron is

so

powerful that

it

will be able to produce invisible electric bdleits pro-

Fl led by more than 100,000,000 volts and traveling at

a speed in excess of 50,000 miles a second. Thqpene-

tratmg power of

the

“accelerated” electrical particles

will be so intense that they could be made

to

cut through

steel very much

as

a knife cuts through butter. T h e scien-

tists who

run

this monster have

to

operate

it

by remote

control

in

rooms

150

feet distant.

A

glance at a few of the momentous discoveries made

by our atom-srn&hing scientists delving into tnabtef

with electric rays instead of microscopes showsthe possi-

blllties of fur,ther work in this field.

We

know now, for

example, that all mtter, even the armor-plateon OW

battleships, is literally

fu l l

of holes. I t has been proved

beyond question that 99 9 p e r cent of the mass of ll

matter is concentrated at

a

mathematical point in the

center of each ztom universe. This leaves so much free

space inside the atom

that

the core, which contains all

the weight, may be compared to an orange suspended in

the center

of

Radio City Music Hall. T he human

body is

so

full of empty spaces that if

we

removed all

of

them

from Joe Louis he would shrink

to

the size

of

an aspirin

tablet.

But smashing the atom has brought forth a lot

mre

than this amazmg fact. N u d m physicists can

bombard

an

atom of mercury and change it into gold, an atan of

magnesium and change it intos o d i m .

In

addition to

ing able to make new elements almost at wdl-thcrugh

in relatively minute quantities at

the

present time-scien-

tists

can

bombard

&a

atoms of some of uz

most

inex-

pensive salts wibh extremely fast electrically charged or

neutral blts of matter and obtain

what

are known as

radloactlve salsts. These salts are of great value in medi-

cine, for

they

are

as effedive

as radlum m curing certain

7/23/2019 December 17, 1938


t idi gna n, t diseases. T heir rays are as

patent

as radim’s,

but

&hey give them

off for

only

a

f ew

days

whereas ra-

dium

wlll

contlnue to give

off

powtrful radiations for

a e n h i e s .

For this Ieason

the

artificially

produced

radio-

active

salts are more pradical

to

use an adium, besides

being

far

less

expensive.

An

important field of radioactive

research

today is

concerned

with

the quest or

speciiic radioactive

salts

that

u e not harmful and hat will allocate hemselves

selectively in cancerous

parts of

t he human body. Since

it

L known

that

cancerous issue can

be

destroyed by

means of carefully controlled exposure to radioactivity,

the

possibility of disp tchin g nto variouspartsof the

human body tracer

bullets

short-lived

in

their potency

and capable of destroying diseased tissues seledively

is

a goal whose achievement

w d d

be invaluable to medi-

cal

science.

when iodine that

has been

made radioactive is taken

internally,

it collects

in the thyroid gland, tendency

that

has enabled

us to

learn most

of

what we know about the

workings

of

this

vitally

important

gland. Radioactive

calcium

accumu

in the

body

in

exactly

the

same

man

ner tu calcium whlch s not radioactive; with ts aid t

has been

demonstrated

hat evenwhen o w

eeth

are fully

developed they continue

to

absorb calcium from the food

we

eat A speck of radioactive iron put in e food eaten

by a cow

enables

us

to

s e e

that

in

ten minutes’ time th e

Iron is present

i n t he

cow’s

milk By putting radioactive

subst nces

in

sdutionzr or s d upon whi& plan

de-

pend

for their

nourishment,

s b

ave

gained an

intelligent insight into th e complicated synthesis bywhich

a

plmt convertswater

and

sunlight nto sugars a n d

staxehes.

When

e

elem ent p r i m

is

d e

adioactive

it

can

be

used

to deteot

flam

in

babbleship

aprnor. Of

course,

e reason

these adioactivemateriais

can be

used to suah great advantageis

that

they

give

thenuelves

away by the radiations they are constantly sending out.

Rxkrerndp sensitive eleatrossopic detedom h ve been de-

veloped

whim

perm it s c i d t s

to chart

their mutes

Pacuratdy.

T h e a tom

also

offers

us

unlimitedstores

of

energy.

Physicists haveauthoritatively proclaimed

th t

there

is

enough

usefulenergy

locked

u p i n

a

jug ofwater

to

furnish more than a billion

kilowatt-hours

of

electpic

power.

The extraction of energy from

the

atom has up

to

now been accomplished only

in a

very small way. T h e

difficulties

to

be over tome

in this

field

of atomic utility

w far mre

oMnatc

than

those

encountered in adapt-

in g radioactive substances for usu in medicine, biochem-

kry or genetics.

Nevertheless, there is

definite

promise

that some day

it will be

p l b l e

to

extrack and control

atomic energy.

Thus

e

remmhble

work

of

a&t scientis,ts

s bene-

g mankind in

a rhousand

ways,

and e u p r q

f a c t L h t t h & w o r k h a s d y k g u r . h

In

the Wind

N

~

UMBER,

PLEASE The commandant of an a m y

camp tried to telephone an officer at his home in B

nearby community. Th e officer’s phone was on

a

three-party

line, and for half an hour the commandant got no hl ng but ,

busy

signals.

Finally

h e

called the operator and asked

if

something couldn’t be done about it. “After

all,”

hesald,

“ t isn‘t such

long distance.

I could

walk there in half

nn

hour.“ “Okay, Bud,” replied the operator, “get walkin’.”

THE BRITISH

GOVERNMENT

has taken official cog

nizance of

the

servant problem. The London Daily

MdiL

reports

at Mr. Bevin’s office is going into the matter and

will probably make recomm endations

BS to

minimum wages

and

maximum hours.

PHONOGRAPH-RECORD

COLLECTORS

ell

us

they

are

no longer allowed to do any internahonal swapping. It

seems

that someecords ave unintelligible background oises

which the authoritla fear might possibly be code messages.

GEO RGIA’S SUPREME CO UR T bas declined for the sec-

ond tima to review an examination on the basis of which

the State Board of Bar Examlners has refused to recommend

a license for George Hlmer

Ross,

a

Negro.

T h e law requlres

the board

to

recommend llcenses

for

all who

pass

its exam-

inations. Mr. Ross,

a

graduate of

the

University of Chicago

Law

School, insists that

h e

made more than

a

passing grade.

In refusing to look

at

the evidence, the o u r t held that bhe

board

is

h e sole judge of grades and

that

there is no appeal

from its decisions.

SEVENTEEN LIVES WERE

LOST

when

the

steamer

Northern

went

down

a

year

ago.

The Union Steamship

Company, owner

of

the

ship,

was recently tried and fou nd

guilty

of

providing insdcient lifeboat accommodations. The

penalty Wao d.fine

of 100.

THE

QUALITY

of the

news broadcasts of

the

Nazi-con-

trolled Paris

radfo

is indicated by

this

lteml “Alvarez del

Vayo-typical

representative of

those

Soviet-minded

pohti-

c i a n s who led Spain

to

her Calvary-has been in Casablanca

since

January 11.”

The st of

The Nation

wonderswho

b a t man is who comes into the office everyday. He looks,

talks, bhhks, and wrltes exactly like AIvatez del Vayo.

FESTUNG

EUROPA: German reserve officers employed as

supervisors in Belgian actorieshave been recalled o

Ger-

many for active service . . Severalmembers

of

Vidkun

Quisling’s private bodyguard have been arrested

for

Ilsten-

ings to news broadcasts from Lmndon. . Th e greatness of

&ha Nazi soul

wsd

recentlydemonstrated in Holland when

a

quarrel over precedence between two officials of the

Dutch

“ hamber of

Culture”

made it necessq to hold

tw

formal

openings

of an exhibition.

[ s nvite our renders t o

submit

m leri l for In the Wind

” e i h r clippings with source and

d d s or

stories that

c u

6 2 t mrly authenticated. A

prize

of 3 will be muarded e ch

m4rit.J 7 ~ ’I?

b=r/

~~W . - - - E- D ITO R S

THE

NATION.)

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December 17, 1938

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