THE POETRY OF SCIENCE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2716, 22 January 1910, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE POETRY OF SCIENCE.

ATOM SORTING.

(By Professor A. W. Bickerton.)

New ideas need new words, and this theory needs at least half-a-dozen. One is urgently needed. The .word is “kinetol,” and it means the height to which a projectile will travel if shot upright. If in a jar of gas there aro equal numbers of different kinds of molecules, each kind of molecule will have the same energy. Suppose we have equal numbers of oxygen and hydrogen molecules. There will bo sixteen times the weight of heavy gas —call it one pound of oxygen and an ounce of hydrogen: As the total energy of each kind is the same, the ounce of hydrogen has sixteen times the energy of one ounce of oxygen, that is, a hydrogen atom will travel sixteen times as high. Hence, although both atoms have the same energy the one Qias four times the speed of the other, the one goes sixteen tunes as high as the other, so in speaking of projectiles, the height they will go is not proportional either to energy or speed. Equal masses, however, travel upwards distances proportional to their one rev. So if. instead of saying the energy of equal masses, we use the new word ‘kinetol,” the idea is simple. In new stars, as soon .as the struggling and mixing makes the mass to bo of a uniform temperature, then each atom has the same energy. Tlie kinetol is, then, the reverse of the atomic weight. Hydrogen will have sixteen times the kinetol of oxygen, and as the. atom of lead is two/ hundred and eight times as heavy as one of hvdrogen, the hydrogen will have sixteen times the kinetol that lead has. Kinetol being the power to escape gravitation, the chances are that in a new star nearly all tlie hydrogen will become free molecules in space, and none of the lead will escape at all. So that what will liapnen in most stellar explosions will be that the lightest atoms will get clear away. The very heavy atoms will be attracted back and strew the centre with a rotating nucleus of heavy cosmic dust, and the intermediate atoms will get long distances, will nearly come to rest and form fairly permanent shells of gas, and if they are rotating the shells will be quite permanent. Thus the atoms are sorted. The very light escape, the heavy ar© drawn back by mutual attraction, the intermediate form a series of shell globes of sorted gas, the lighter being on the outside, each being taken the distance that will use up its outward kinetol and bring it to a state of rotation or to rest.. And because attraction varies inversely ns the square of distance, a small difference of atomic weight may separate the concentric globes by long distances. But the study of atom sorting, when we take into consideration all the agencies, grows to be very, very complex. . It is so fascinatingly wonderful a region of science that some specialist should devote his life to its experimental and mathematical treatment. In popular lectures I have likened the explosion to the liberation of a globe of winged creatures, eagles, humming birds, and firellies, every winged creature having equal strength, the firefly being as strong as tlie eagle. All are held by elastic cords that are proportional to their weight. Tlie strength of each creature is immense, so all stretch their cords for miles. At last the strong pull on the eagles stop them, and they are drawn back. The powerful fireflies break their delicate cords and get clear away. Remember they are as strong as eagles, and their cords are slight. The humming birds do not break their cords and get away, but they stretch their cords until they are so slight they hardly pull at all. Suppose there were •two species of humming-birds, one twice as heavy as tlie other; then one would go very much further than the others before the cords stopped them, and we should have two shell globes of these birds, each shell consisting of one or two species. Call our humming birds atoms, and we have tlie concentric shells that astronomers tell us form planetary nebulae. Atom sorting is a bit tough, but the intellectual flavor is dainty enough, and is well worth a lot of mental mastication, and so nutritious is it that on it depends the mechanism of an Immortol Cosmos. And on man understanding this and the perfection of the cosmic scheme depends his entering on the millennium of joy that is his true heritage. For this right of birth will be liis when he can read his title deeds and claim his own. —Meteoric Swarms and Star Clusters.— In the partial impact- not all the outward rush is converted into heat in the cosmic spark. There is not a perfect balance of momentum in its meeting parts. Hence some oi the motion is converted into rotation, and the third body spins. As the light gases form tlieir concentric globes, and these expand their angular velocity rapidly lessons. But it is largely left - in the heavy molecules that remain in the centre of the mass, and this material, under the influence of rotation, may aggregate into meteoric swarms. The beautiful comets, the .sweep of whose magnificent plumes is sometimes many millions on millions of miles in expanse, tell us of the existence of meteoric swarms. Countless myriads of dense bodies may pass through our system in the same way as comets, but they are not seen. But a beelike swarm of meteors, under the influence of the sun’s attraction, gets much disturbed, and tliis disturbance, as explained further on, lights up the swarm and gives us a comet’s nucleus. Sometimes, when a swarm gets very close to tlie sun, it is actually pulled to pieces, and its constituents are scattered into orbital trains; some of these trains cross the earth's orbit, and when tlie earth happens to pass tlie intersecting point of the two orbits the sky is lit up with a display of shooting stars. Tne ring of meteors differs in density in different parts, and both the orbit of the earth and of the meteoric ring suffer changes in place, owing to the pull of Jupiter ancl other planets. In consequence of these two facts these periodic displays vary in brilliance and beauty. * . . , Noycr to he forgotten is the sight when mutual circumstances are favorable, the sky for hours appears as the scene of continuously bursting firework bombs, for from the laws of spherical perspective these meteors seem to emanate from a radiant point. Hence the idea of meteoric swarms is a very familiar one to astronomers. So firmly fixed in the mind , of some is the existence of these groups of cosmic dust that more fhan one theory of cosmic evolution depends on tlieir growth and encounters. The comet’s nucleus may be much disturbed without being actually dissipated. Then tlie constituents smash one another into dust, and the friction of impacts produces heat and electricity. The dust reflects the Sun’s light, and it also becomes self-luminous, the internal heat.and electricity doubtless

help. So bee-like swarm 3of cosmic dust show themselves as the bright nuclei of comets, whilst single solid bodies of equal mass would not be seen. The induction of the sun acts upon the electricity of the nucleus, and an electric impulse springs out of the clashing swarms in a direction away from the sun. This electricity lights up the free molecules and coronal dust of the solar system that produces the zodiacal light, and the plumc-like tail apxxsars. And because the impulse takes time to travel, the electric search-lights that we call the comet’s tail take their beautiful and curved form. There may be subordinate centres in a comet’s nucleus, then each of these centres may be independent scources of electricity and multiple tails appear, and it seems as if the smaller the comet or subordinate nucleus the less the resisting repulsion, so the induced impulse travels faster, and the tail or subordinate tail is straighter and narrower. As meteoric swarms certainly exist, let us go back to the atom sorting action we have been tracing as occuring after partial impact, and we shall see that the matter and motion of the sluggish heavy atoms actually must result in a meteoric swarm. And these when of sufficient mass will in some cases after long ages give birth to those lovely groups of celestial gems, the star clusters. When the two grazing dead suns crash through each other, each of the bodies is set slowly revolving. It may take many months, or perchance. some years, for them to complete their rotation, and many agencies tend to make the rotation irregular in period. The cosmic spark will spin much more quickly (as already mentioned) than flint and steel. The angular velocity of its outer layers will lesson as they expand, hut the inner shells of heavy atoms, not expanding much, will keep up a considerable rotation. As these volatilised metals condense to clouds and become rain and hail of white-hot liquid and solid shot, each shot -will assume an orbit, and in_ stead of condensing to a single body, their angular motion will associate them into vast clouds of cosmic dust, each particle an independent orbia. In the presence of oxygen these white-hot incipient metallic, raindrops will form oxides, that as a rule are much, less volatile than the metals themselves. Thus oxygen will be entrapped in the nucleus, and will hel- to form the meteoric swarms. Pairs of particles will be constantly coalescing as they accidentally come together, and the metallic mist will grow into rain-drops, which, when the meteoric, swarm is of immense mass and of sufficiently vast dimensions, will become a star cluster, and ultimately possibly a huge sun, around which the outer coalesced bodies will form a system of attended planets. Many agencies, as shown in my former papers, tend to convert the erratic motion of these bodies into a single orbital plaice. Hence we should expect these bubblelike atomic shells called planetary nebulae to often have brilliant centres, sometimes single or double stars, sometimes meteoric swarms of measurable dimensions and velvety Such is actuaH- the case, and the latest astronomical researches show the sphere in sphere structure (that atom-sorting suggests to exist) to he absolutely a common fact of these bodies, most of them showing a disc or disc appearance. Are not these facts regarding planetary nebulae and meteoric swarms alone sufficient to _ demonstrate this theory of their origin?