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In the meanwhile, the primitive atomic theory, which has served as the scaffolding for the edifice of modern physics and chemistry, has been quietly dismissed. I cannot discover that any contemporary physicist or chemist believes in the real indivisibility of atoms, or in an interatomic matterless vacuum.
The real value of the new atomic hypothesis, however, did not lie in the two points which Democritus and his followers would have considered essential namely, the indivisibility of the 'atoms' and the presence of an interatomic vacuum but in the assumption that, to the extent to which our means of analysis take us, material bodies consist of definite minute masses, each of which, so far as physical and chemical processes of division go, may be regarded as a unit having a practically permanent individuality.
The day may not be far distant when, should the chemist learn to control the incredible interatomic energy, the steam engine will seem as complete an anachronism as the treadmill. The uttermost parts of the earth have been visited by Europeans, and commerce has brought all races of the globe into close touch. We have now to reckon with every nation under heaven, as was shown in the World War.
In conclusion the lecturer stated that his principal object was to direct the attention of chemists, and especially of young chemists, to the question: Is there or is there not any evidence derived from the properties, the decompositions, or the relative stabilities of substances to warrant us in believing that two classes of compounds exist: one class in which there is interatomic connection alone, and another in which the connection is molecular?
This knowledge we have, and we have utilized it in the construction and building of our mighty planetary projects. This Interatomic Energy is the source of the sun's continuous heat. If it were combustion the Solar orb would have burnt itself out ages ago. All your theories to account for the continuity of solar radiation are in error.
I have already more than once dwelt on the vividness with which he realised molecular conditions; we have a fine example of this strength and brightness of imagination in the present 'speculation. He grapples with the notion that matter is made up of particles, not in absolute contact, but surrounded by interatomic space.
These were Costake Theriade, of Rumania, a tall, dark, high-browed thinker, who was engaged in devising ways to extract and recover interatomic energy; and Sir Wilfred Athelstone, whose specialty was bio-chemistry, and who was said to have produced amazing results in artificial parthenogenesis and the production of new species.
The release of Interatomic Energy in the sun at a definite rate is the reason why its heat never increases or diminishes though millions of years come and go in endless procession.
Long ago we mastered the knowledge of the method of releasing Interatomic Energy, a knowledge which in the brain of an unscrupulous person would be most disastrous, not only to himself but to those about him. The energy locked up in an atom of matter is tremendous, and the release of this power is only a matter of knowing the law.
When the electron loses its negative charge and reverts to a neutrino, there is a definite accretion of interatomic binding-force, and the molecule, or the crystalline lattice or whatever tends to contract, and when the neutrino becomes a photon, the nucleus of the atom contracts."