ATOMIC THEORY INTACT DESPITE NEW DISCOVERY

The accomplishment after long and detailed experiments of the transmutation of metals, as announced by Dr. G. L. Wendt '13 and Mr. C. E. Irion in a paper read before the American Chemical Society at Chicago last Saturday, has caused wide discussion in the world of science with regard to its bearing on the universally taught and generally accepted atomic theory.

Some have asserted that this achievement would serve to abolish the fundamental principle of all chemistry--the indivisibility of atoms--and as Dr. Paul N. Leech of the Chicago section of the Chemical Society said, in commenting on the paper, "It does actually blast the theory that the atoms of elements, supposed to be absolutely indestructible, cannot be broken up by man." But as far as the actual usefulness of the atomic theory for all practical purposes is concerned, the discovery does not affect it in the slightest, according to a statement made to a CRIMSON reporter last night by Professor T. W. Richards '86 of the Chemistry Department of the University.

The enormous quantity of heat required to change tungsten into helium--50,000 degrees Fahrenheit was the temperature at which the experiments in Chicago were conducted--while detracting nothing from the intense interest in the scientific aspect of the feat, would nevertheless render the experiment useless for all practical purposes and would leave intact the present theory of atoms as regards use under normal circumstances.

Not an Unexpected Discovery

Dr. Richards pointed out that the accomplishment of this experiment was by no means unforeseen. "It is not an unexpected discovery," he said. "The work of Sir Ernest Rutherford, Dr. F. W. Azton and others has paved the way for its ready acceptance." Following is the statement given out by Professor Richards to the CRIMSON last night:

"One cannot appraise accurately any experimental result without knowledge of the details. Therefore it would be premature to form now any final judgment upon the highly interesting news from Chicago. Dr. Wendt is a careful and intelligent experimenter, and the presumption is therefore in favor of his conclusion. If he has good reason to believe that he has obtained any considerable amount of helium from pure tungsten, the discovery is very important, and its remote consequences cannot be foreseen.

"It is not an unexpected discovery, however; the work of Sir Ernest Rutherford, Dr. F. W. Aston and others has paved the way for its ready acceptance. Uranium, thorium and radium split up of their own accord. Moreover, many astrophysicists have long believed that the sudden appearance of vast quantities of hydrogen and helium in new stars might be due to an elemental cataclysm of this kind on a gigantic scale.

"The discovery would not affect in the least the usefulness of the atomic theory as regards all ordinary chemical processes--but we might well, perhaps, find another name for that which we now call an 'atom', because the word 'atom' indicates indivisibility."