Evening star. [volume], August 07, 1945, Page A-3, Image 3

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

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Churchill Calls Bomb's
Success 'Everlasting'
Tribute to Roosevelt
B» the Associated Press.
LONDON, Aug. 7.—Former Prime
Minister Churchill said last night
that it was “by God’s mefrcy” that
American and British, instead of
German, scientists discovered the
secret of atomic power "long merci
fully withheld from man.’’
The success of the historic
achievement, he added, stood “to
the everlasting honor’’ of the late
President BooSevelt.
Mr. Churchill’s statement, re
leased by his successor at No. 10
Downing street, Clement Attlee, ad
vised the Japanese in effect to sur
render or face utter destruction.
“It is now for Japan to realize, in
the glare of the first atomic bomb
which has smitten her, what the
consequences will be of indefinite
continuance of this means of main
taining the rule of law in the world,”
he asserted.
Mr. Churchill said German ef
forts toward developing atomic
power “were on a considerable scale,
but were far behind,” although the
Nazis possessed some atomic power
secrets.
Raid on Norway Recalled.
He disclosed that one factor en
tering into the Allied victory in the
momentous race of the laboratories
was a daring raid in the winter of
1942-3 on German installations in
Norway.
He said Norwegian and British
Commando volunteers raided at a
heavy loss of life Nazi stores of
“heavy water, an element in one of
the possible processes.”
For Mr. Roosevelt’s and America’s
part in the world-shaking develop
ment, Mr. Churchill had this tribute:
"The whole burden of execution,
including the setting up of plants
and many technical processes • • •
constitutes one of the greatest tri
umphs of American—or Indeed,
human—genius of which there is
record.
“Moreover, the decision to make
these enormous expenditures upon
the project, which, however, hope
fully established by American and
British research remained neverthe
less a heart-shaking risk, stands to
the everlasting honor of President
Roosevelt and his advisers.”
%
Text of Statement.
In releasing the text of Mr.
Churchill’s statement, Mr. Attlee
said:
"Everybody will have seen the
Important statements which have
been made by President Truman
and by Mr. Stimson,' the United
States Secretary for War, about the
atomic bomb. The problems of the
release of energy by atomic fission
have been solved and an atomic
bomb has been dropped on Japan
by the United States Army Air
Force.
"President Truman and Mr. Stim
son have described in their state
ments the nature and vast implica
tions of this new discovery. Some
account is now required of the
part which this country has played
in the remarkable scientific ad
vances which have now come to
fruition. Before the change of gov
ernment Mr. Churchill had pre
pared the statement which follows
and I am now issuing it in the form
in which he wrote it.”
Churchill’s Statement.
Mr. Churchill's statement follows:
"By the year 1939 it had become
widely recognized among scientists
of many nations that the release
of energy by atomic fission was a
possibility. The problems which
remained to be solved before this
possibility could be turned into
practical achievement were, how
ever, manifold and Immense, and
few scientists would at that time
have ventured to predict that an
LOST.
CAMEO PIN, either on or from Friendship i
Heights car. Sunday night; gilt from Italy,;
not replacable. Reward. EM. 2642. i
CARDBOARD HAT BOX. containing lady’s |
hat. purse, misc.. August 4. in Diamond
cab. Reward. Taylor 127H. j
CORDE BAG. containing inltallec "V. A.
R.”’ compact and Ronson lighter and set;
of keys; reward. Call HQ. 8788. 8*
BILLFOLD, black, containing money and,
papers, MRS. NORA RAY, Dupont 8434. 8»
BROOCH, round moonstone; lost yesterday
In Statler Hotel. Finder contact MRS. W.
C. HAYES at Park Lane Hotel, Toledo,
Ohio. Reward, $20.__
BROWN ENVELOPE, Bureau of Standards,
containing S5 bill. soc. sec. card, ration
books 3 and 4 (Jackson). Return to HAZEL
JACKSON. 1120 N. J. ave. s.e._•_
DIAMOND WRIST WATCH, lady's, rec
tangular, all platinum, 30 diamonds;
vie. 17th and <9 n.w. or downtown. Re
ward. DE. 0800. _
DUCKFIN. gold trim, on R. E. Lee boat or
7th st. wharvts, Sunday. Contact CASSIE
GRANT. 1507 10th st. nw.. Reward._8*
ENGLISH COCKER, male, white chin and
chest, no collar, called "Herky”: near East
West highway and Joryes Mill rd. Reward.
Oliver 4179.__
G. A. O. CREDENTIALS In the name of
Daniel B Parker. Call between 8:16 and
4:46. EX. 4821, Br. 206; after 6 P.m.,
AT. 7485.
GOLD BRACELET, set with heart-shaped
amethysts; extreme sentimental value. RE.
5600, Ext. 734, from 0-6:30; FR. 8300,
Ext. 42. after 6 p.m. Reward.8»
GOLD ELGIN WATCH, lady’s oblong; lost
vicinity of 14th and Irvine or on bus.
Reward. RA. 3208_____
KEYS on blue braided cord Friday eve
ning at or near ball park. Reward. Box
455-P, Star.7*
LADY’S GOLD BULOVA wristwatch. with
initials 8. M. C., between Maine ave. and
S S. Potomac dock: reward. CO. 4036.
LADY’S TRAVELING BAG. left on 13th
and D streetcar at Union Station. 1:45
Saturday. Reward for return. Call CO.
3344.____
PEARL NECKLACE, in vicinity Peoples
drug store, at McKinley and Conn. ave.
Reward. 3013 Military rd. OR. 5716._
UMBRELLA, navy blue cover, cream and
brownish plastic crook handle, lost on or
near 7th street carline Sunday, July 20.
815 reward. TA. 3630 Sunday or Box
467-D, Star.7*.
UMBRELLA, black, gold handle, initialed
R. I. M.; left in taxi Friday at Doctors
Hospital. Reward. Telephone TA. 9264.
WALLET!-lady’s, brown alligator: left In
Llhcoln Bank, Monday noon; important.
Finder please phone RA. 6708, Reward.
WATCH—Lady's lapel watch, at Columbia
rd. and 18th rt. or on st. car, Tuesday
morning. Call NA. 3870 during office hours
or WO. 8656 evenings. Sentimental value.
Reward.
WATCH, lady’s, Bulova, gold. Saturday, on
Wisconsin ave. car. Reward Call HO.
7700, Ext, 24. between 6 and 5 p m. 8*
WIRE-HAIRED terrier PUPPY, black.
whits and tan, lost in vicinity of Franklin
are.; child’s pet. Call 8H. 2774.
BRACELET, silver Indian coins; lost Mon
day in Yellow cab: sentimental value. Call
EX. 8217.
WRIST WATCH,lady's, gold. Bulova; vi
cinity of 11th st. between F and Pa. ave.
n.w. Reward. EX. 1862.
WRIST WATCH, lady’s, yellow gold, Ben
Set; lost Saturday p.m., downtown district,
eward. RA. 8319.
LOST RATION COUPONS.
Gasoline rationing books, a and b,
at amps._Call Lincoln 0280 anytime,
RATION BOOK 4. belontlnt to Gladys
Womack, 1322 Dexter terrace s.e., formerly
of 2*49 Craven at., San Dleto, Calif. 8»
RATION COUTON8, 2 books. No. 4. issued
to Frieda M. ' Georte H. Came, 416
Whlteatone r-.. Oliver Sprint, Md. 8*
RATION BOOK N*. 4. JOSEPH F. FTTZ
GERALD. 1701 16th St. n.w. DU. 1000.
Reward. _ 7*
RATION BOOKS and koys. Imp. papers.
Address 7003 3d st. s.w. Return to 6077
ftwHT m,, p^s-EBM_iEEL
FOUND.
FOR LOST AND WANTED DOGS phone
BL. t SI 837 ^MONTGOMERY COUNTY AN1
BLACK SOOTHE DOG, white collar, brown
leash. Call WA. 4608.
UMBRELLA, lady’s, between red and ma
roon; found in 14th st. shop. 707 20th
st. n.w. ME. 2201._
DOG, larte, male, fat, with collar, part
chow, thick red coat, white chest: vie. 29th
st. n.e. AT, 7142 after • p.m. or be
fore 8 a.m.
DOG. male, short-haired, white, black
marklnts. CH. 0168.
TERRIER, short hair, white, with black
•unkings. male. Call CH. Me*.
Center Of Atom
Is Positive Charge
Called Protons
EXPLOSION OF URANIUM ATOM
FORMS TWO NEW ATOMS
Gf0und_ _ ^ ^ ..JJ
DIAGRAM OF ATOMIC BOMB PRINCIPLE—Top drawing shows
(left) the uranium atom in its most rudimentary form. Billions
of these are used in the new bomb. (Top right) Explosion of
each of these atoms gives off 200,000,000 electron volts of energy
or power. In an atomic bomb, an astronomical number of these
explosions occur! simultaneously. Lower drawing shows an
estimated comparison between the area of complete demolition
of Britain’s 11-ton ‘‘grand slam” bomb (upper) and the atomic
bomb. —AP Wirephoto.
atomic bomb could be ready for
use by 1945.
“Nevertheless, the potentialities
of the project were so great that his
majesty’s government thought it
right that research should be car
ried on in spite of the many com
peting claims on our scientific man
power. At this stage the research
was carried out mainly in our uni
versities, principally Oxford, Cam
; bridge, London (Imperial College),
Liverpool and Birmingham.
“At the time of the formation of
j the coalition government responsi
! bility for co-ordinating the work
and pressing it forward lay in the
Ministry of Aircraft Production, ad
vised by a committee of leading
scientists presided over by Sir
George Thomson.
“At the same time, under the gen
eral arrangements then in force for
the pooling of scientific information,
there was a full interchange of
ideas between the scientists carry
ing out this work in the United
Kingdom and those in the United
States.
Progress Reported.
“Such progress was made that by
the summer of 1941 Sir George
Thomson’s committee was able to
report that in their view there was
reasonable chance that an atomic
bomb could be produced before the
end of the war.
“At the end of August, 1941, Lord
Cherwell, whose duty It was to keep
me informed on all these and other
technical developments, reported
that substantial progress was
being made. The general responsi
bility for the scientific research car
ried on under the various technical
committees lay with the then lord
president of the council, Sir John
Anderson.
"In these circumstances (having
in mind also the effect of ordinary
high explosive which we had re
cently experienced) I referred the
matter on August 30, 1941, to the
Chiefs of Staff Committee in the
following minutes:
“ ‘Gen. Ismay for Chiefs of Staff
Committee.
“ ‘Although personally I am quite
content with the existing explosives.
I feel we must not stand in the path
of improvement and I therefore
think that action should be taken
in the sense proposed by Lord
Cherwell and that the cabinet min
ister responsible should be Sir John
Anderson.
“I shall be glad to know what the
Chiefs of Staff Committee think.”
Action Recommended.
"The chiefs of the Staff recom
mended immediate action, with the
maximum priority.
“It was then decided to set up
within the department of scientific
and industrial research a special
division to direct the work, and
Imperial Chemical Industries, Ltd.,
agreed to release Mr. W. A. Akers
to take charge of this directorate,
which we called, for purposes of se
crecy, the directorate of 'Crude Al
loys.’ After Sir John Anderson had
ceased to be lord president and be
came Chancellor of the Exchequer, I
asked him to continue to supervise
this work, for which he has special
qualifications.
“To advise him there were set up,
under his chairmanship, a consul
tative council composed of the pres
ident of the Royal Society, the
chairman of the Scientific Advisory
Committee of the cabinet, the secre
tary of of the department of scien
tific and industrial research and
Lord Cherwell.
“The Minister of Aircraft Pro
duction at that time, Lord Braba
zon, also served on this committee
under the chairmanship of Mr.
Akers.
Committee Set Up.
"There wag also a technical com
mittee on which sat the scientists
who were directing the different
sections of the work and some
others. This committee was orig
inally composed of Sir James Chad
wick, Prof. Peierls and Drs. Hal
ban, Simon and Slade. Later it
was joined by Sir Charles Darwin
and Profs. Cockcroft, Oliphant and
Feather.
"Full use was also made of uni
versity and industrial laboratories.
"On October 11, 1941, President
Roosevelt sent me a letter suggest
ing that any extended efforts on
this important matter might use
fully be co-ordinated or even joint
ly conducted. Accordingly all Brit
ish and American efforts were
joined, and a number of British
scientists concerned proceeded to
the United States. Apart from these
contacts complete secrecy guarded
all these activities, and no single
person was informed whose work
was not indispensable to progress.
Decision on Production.
"By the summer of 1942 this ex
panded program of research had
confirmed with surer and broader
foundations the promising forecasts
which had been made a year earlier
and the time had come when a de
cision must be made whether or not
to proceed with the construction of
large-scale production plants.
"Meanwhile, it had become ap
parent from the preliminary ex
periments that these plants would
have to be on something like the
vast scale described in the Amer
ican statements which have been
published today.
"Great Britain at this period waa
fully extended In war production
and we could not afford such grave
Interference with the current muni
tions program on which our warlike
operations depended.
"Moreover, Great Britain was in
easy range of German bombers and
the risk of raiders from the sea or
air could not be ignored. The
United States, however, where par
allel or similar progress had been
made, was free from these dangers.
The decision was therefore taken to
build the full-scale production
plants In America.
"In the United States, the erec- |
tion of the immense plants was'
placed under the responsibility of
Mr. Stimson, United States Secre
tary of W4r, and the American Army
administration whose wonderful
work and marvelous secrecy cannot
be sufficiently admired. The main
practical effort and virtually the
whole of its prodigious cost now fell
on the United States authorities,
who were assisted by a number of
British scientists. The relationship
of the British and American contri
butions was regulated by discussion
between the late President Roosevelt
and myself and a combined Policy
Committee was set up.
“The Canadian government, whose
contribution was most valuable, pro
vided both indispensable raw mate
rial for the project as a whole and
also necessary facilities for the work
on one section of the project which
has been carried out in Canada by
the three governments in partner
ship.
"The smoothness with which the
arrangements for co-operation which
were made in 1943 have been car
ried into effect is a happy augury
for our future relations and reflects
great credit on all concerned—on
the members of the combined Policy
Committee which we set up, on the
enthusiasm with which our scientists
and technicians gave of their best,
particularly Sir James Chadwick,
who gave up his work at Liverpool
to serve as technical adviser to the
United Kingdom members of the
Policy Committee and spared no
effort, and not the least on the gen
erous spirit with which the whole
United States organization welcomed
our men and made it possible for
them to make their contribution.
N«i Effort* Outpaced.
"By God’s mercy British and
American science outpaced all Ger
man efforts. These were on a con
siderable scale but far behind. The
possession of these powers by the
Germans at any time might have
altered the result of the war and
profound anxiety was felt by those
who were informed.
"Every effort was made by our
intelligence service and by the air
force to locate in Germany anything
resembling the plants which were
being created in the United States.
In the winter of 1942-3 most
gallant attacks were made in Nor
way on two occasions by small
parties of volunteers from the Brit
ish Commandos and Norwegian
forces at very heavy loss of life,
upon stores of what is called "heavy
water,” an element in one of the
possible processes.
“Hie second of these two attacks
was completely successful.
"The whole burden of execution,
including the setting up of the
plants and many technical processes
connected therewith in the practical
sphere, constitutes one of the great
est triumphs of American—or indeed
human—genius of which there is
record.
"Moreover,- the decision to make
these enormous expenditures upon
a project which, however hopefully
established by American and Brit
ish research, remained nevertheless
a heart-shaking risk stands to the
ever-lasting honor of President
Roosevelt and his advisers.
"It is now for Japan to realize
in the glare of the first atomic
bomb which has smitten her what
the consequence will be of an in
definite continuance of this ter
rible means of maintaining a rule
of law in the world.
"This revelation of the secsets of
nature long mercifully withheld
from man should arouse the most
solemn reflections in the mind and
conscience of every human being
capable of comprehension. We must
indeed pray that these awful agen
cies will be made to Conduce to
peace among me nations and that
instead of wreaking measureless
havoc upon the entire globe they
may become a perennial foundation
of world prosperity.”
Dr. Walter Dill Scott
Urges Atomic Bomb
For Hirohito's Palace
By Ibi Associated Press.
CHICAGO, Aug. t. — One
atomic bomb dropped smack on
Emperor Hirohito’s Tokyo pal
ace would do more, psychologi
cally, to end the war than any
thing else, Dr. Walter Dill
Scott, president emeritus of
Northwestern University, said
today.
"It would give the- Japs the
face-saving device they have
been looking for so desper
ately,’* he saidjn an interview"
Long Years of Work
Still Needed to Make
Most of Atomic Power
By HOWARD W. BLAKESLEE,
Associated Press Science Sdttor.
NEW YORK, Aug. 7.—The atomic
bomb power is likely to be a very
long time in growing to the point
where it can produce either hell or
heaven on earth.
A clear picture of the difficulties
is shown in nuclear physics, the sci
ence of the nucleus of atoms, which
produced the atomic bomb.
There is also a nonscientiflc tip
of! in the amazing cost of making
the first atomic bomb—two billion
dollars—by far the most expensive
power gadget of all time.
Getting Fraction of Power.
Actually at present the scientists
are not getting more than a small
fraction of the power, explosive or
otherwise, in the atom. There is
the probability of many years’ work
to develop either full explosive or
complete useful power, such as
heating homes for a cent or two a
day, and driving machines of all
sorts at almost no power expense.
The nuclear physics picture is
simple. Any and all atoms are made
the same and of the same building
blocks. The particles forming them
are first, electrons, or negative bits
of electricity; second, protons, which
are positive charges 1,800 times
more massive than the electrons,
and third, neutrons, which are non
charged and as heavy as the pro
tons.
The center, the nucleus, is an in
credibly hard knot of protons and
neutrons. Around this center circle
the electrons, in orbits, at differing
distances outward. The electrons
travel at speeds of probably thou
sands of miles an hour. Nobody
knows for sure since there is no
way of measuring. But they are so
fast that they give the false im
pression that an atom is a solid
body.
. Toughest Things in Universe.
These atoms are the toughest
things in the known universe. Elec
trical and chemical forces strip a
few electrons oil the surface, that is,
the outer shell. The inner elec
trons don't usually break loose un
less millions of volts of costly power
are applied.
Finally the forces which bind the
basket of atomic marbles are still
greater. They haven’t even been
measured.
Actually there is as yet no known
way of breaking an atomic nucleus.
It is done indirectly by shooting
in an extra atomic particle which
causes the nucleus to become un
stable, and when that happens a
few of the nuclear marbles come
shooting out.
In the case of uranium 235, in
stead of a few nuclear marbles, the
whole nucleus broke in two, and
the rest of the atom with it.
Every one of these breaks in the
atom releases some energy or power.1
The energy is the force, probably!
electrical, which does the binding'
job. Nowhere else are binding
forces so vast, and therefore no
other source offers so much power
from breaking the binding knots. j
Rare Form I* Split.
When uranium was spilt in twain
200,000.000 electron volts of energy i
was released. That is tremendous.!
But actually it is only a fraction of'
1 per cent of all the energy bound
up In a uranium atom.
This tiny energy fraction, however,
was almost infinitely greater than
anything previously obtained by j
breaking atoms. It was the start
of the atomic bomb.
Despite the dazzling fact of a new
horizon of civilization opening up.
the work to be done yet is stag
gering. The reports indicate that
so far only uranium is being split
to make the bomb. Uranium is only
one of the 92 chemical elements.
What splits uranium does not split
other atoms. Each one needs a
separate and different key. Each
one of these keys is likely to be as
difficult if not as expensive to dis
cover as was the present key to
uranium.
Furthermore, only one kind of
uranium splits—a rare form known
as 235. Out of the common form of
uranium the scientists can make a
new form, called 239. which also will
split and yield useful atomic power.
But even common uranium is scarce
so far as now known. The prospects
are that uranium atomic power or
bombs will not be cheap for a very
long time, if ever.
Iron, carbon, aluminum, oxygen
and numerous other chemical ele
ments are plentiful enough to give
a cheap source of power if their
atoms can be split. It is likely that
will be done, but the cautious Wash
ington prediction of "years” of work
may mean anything from 5 to 50
years.
-.
Henry
(Continued From First Page.)
fldent never would be accomplished
in any degree.
What is this binding energy?
In any grain of sand there is a
power which dwarfs the power of
| Niagara.
A grain of sand is a conglomera
tion of millions of atoms so loosely
packed together that the mass of
them is mostly empty space. Each
of these atoms might be pictured,
for the sake of simplicity and
for the time being, as an infinites
imally minute model of the solar sys
tem. In the center there is a very
small, dense mass. Revolving around
it like planets around the sun are
various numbers of bodies about
equal to it in size but a thousand
fold lighter—so light, in fact, that
they can be considered as not weigh
ing anything, at all. The distances
between them and the heavy central
body are, relative to the sizes in
volved, roughly comparable to the
distances between the planets and
the sun.
The heavy central mass, or nucleus
of tip atom, is in turn made up of
two or three kinds of smaller par
ticles. At least for the present it is
simpler to consider them .as par
ticles. That is about as near as the
human imagination can come to pic
turing them. One kind are known
as protons. Each proton is a particle
carrying one charge of positive elec
tricity. The other kind are neutrons.
A neutron is a particle of about the
same size and weight as a proton
which carries no electrical charge
at all. The planets revolving around
this central sun are, of course, elec
trons, or particles carrying one
charge of negative electricity.
Between the protons and neutrons
in the nucleus there Is no space
whatsoever. We have come a long
way from the grain of sand, or the
grain of gold, which is about 99i)
; per cent empty space, to a form of
matter where space la nonexistent.
If a marble were made up of solidly
packed protons and neutrons it
would weigh several tons.
What keeps these particles packed
together? it is quite obviously some
Chicago Girl Survives Illness
And War to Sing in Stuttgart
Bit the Associated Press.
STUTTGART, Germany, Aug. 7.—
Virginia Mott, pretty Chicago girl
whose enthusiasm to become a great
singer could not be dampened by
tragedy, illness and war, now is
appearing at the famous old Stutt
gart opera house and dreaming of
the day she can make her debut in
the United 8tates.
Hard luck brought together Vir
ginia and an elderly Viennese singer,
Maria Ranzou, and together they
survived the war and beat off illness.
Virginia, former Oberlin (Ohio)
College student, first came to Europe
to study singing in 1937, following
the death of her parents.
She returned to Chicago for a visit,
but in 1939 came back to continue
her studies. A short time later she
found that cataracts in both eyes
were causing her to go blind.
War broke out while she was in a
Vienna hospital. It was in the hos
pital she met Maria Ranzou who
took an interest in Virginia’s voice.
The 63-year-old former singer stood
by her side through five major
operations and cared for her during
the year that the Chicago girl went
completely blind.
Virginia and her Viennese bene
factor were in Vienna during some
of the heaviest air raids. Later
they moved to a mountain hideout
near Innsbruck, where Virginia had
once appeared in the city’s little
opera house.
“Living was difficult in those
years," said Virginia.
The Chicago girl said the Germans
did not bother them for a time,
though she had to report regularly
to the police When she became well
enough and they threatened to force
her to work in a munitions factory,
she got a job in an Innsbruck
laundry.
Among the first to'greet the Amer
icans when they entered the town
were Virginia and her companion.
They offered their services and now
are working here for the military
government as Interpreters.
Virginia, her eyesight completely
restored, is carrying on with her
singing lessons and once sang for
Richard Strauss, who accompanied
her at the piano and predicted a
brilliant future for her in opera.
The 30-year-old Chicago girl and
her Viennese benefactor whom she
calls “my adopted mother,’’ said they
hope to go to the United States
as soon as circumstances permit.
titanic force. One would expect that
the protons, at least, would fly apart
Instead of sticking together, since
units of positive electricity should
repel each other. If they did, how
ever, the universe would be non
existent. There could be no form or
shape to anything. All would be
one vast, thin cloud of hydrogen
gas. When the planetary model of
the atom came into being late in the
last century physicists had to as
sume some kind of power of which
they knew nothing, acting within
the nucleus.
They could not even measure this
force, much less get at it. They
liked to speculate about It—to cal
culate how many grains of coal dust
it would require to run a train
around the world, or fly to the
moon. Some of them were rather
pessimistic. The day might come,
they said, when some adventurous
soul would And a way to break a
nucleus wide open, but neither he
nor anybody else would ever know
anything about it because the in
stant it happened the earth would
be destroyed by the force of the
explosion. This, it appears, was a
trifle exaggerated.
Force Measured.
About four years ago three men in
a quiet laboratory on the edge of
Rock Creek Park for the first time
succeeded in measuring this strange
force. The means they used are
quite complicated and of no partic
ular consequence here. They found
that when, a proton or a neutron
came within an almost infinites
imally small distance of another
body of the same size the mysterious
force became operative and that it
was—the figure is too vast to mean
much of anything—about 1,000,000,
000,000,000,000.000,000,000 times the
force of gravity acting on masses of
similar size.
Now there was a way to get at
this force, a trifling amount of it.
Atoms could be bombarded with
neutrons. Once in a very great j
while a neutron, traveling with ter
rific speed, would hit a nucleus,
poesibly knock out one of Its outer
particle*, or be itself embodied in
the compact mass, whereupon an
other neutron or proton would be
dislodged. Sometimes, in fact, it
happened spontaneously.
At the top of the table of ele
ments is uranium. It weighs a
trifle more than 238 times as much
as an atom of hydrogen. Around
its heavy nucleus revolve 92 plane
tary electrons. The protons and
neutrons are packed so densely in
the nucleus that, for some reason or
other, they form an unstable com
bination. Every once in a while an
atom of uranium will explode, shoot
ing out into the atmosphere an
alpha particle, about the same thing
as the nucleus of an atom of helium,
the sun gas.
Becomes More Unstable.
When this happens the nucleus
becomes more unstable than ever.
It is changed from uranium to
radium. The radium shoots out
particles and protons until it finally
degenerates into a kind of lead.
There is a lot of power behind these
explosions of both uranium and
radium—about 500,000 volts in the
ca$e of the former and running as
high as 7,000,000 volts for the latter.
The energy is extremely penetrating
—which is why radium is used to
treat cancer.
Three years ago Prof. Enrico
Fermi of the University of Rome
bombarded uranium with streams of
neutrons with terrific energies be
hind them. He found that now and
then one of these would stick in the
nucleus temporarily and that the
subsequent behavior of the sub
stance would be quite different from
that of uranium. It was still radio
active—even more intensely so. For
the first time man had made a new
element. Dr. Fermi got the Nobel
Prise for it this year. Laboratories
all over the world got busy. It was
found that by the same procedure
lots of other things could be made
radio-active—some things very pow
erfully so. Ordinary table salt was
one of them. This has been, among
other things, a great boon to medi
cine—how great the future alone
can determine. The work is still
entirely experimental, but some
extraordinary results have been pri
vately reported.
Just Scratching Surface.
But all this was just scratching
the surface. Bold prophets pre
dicted that if physics continued to
advance for another century the
way It had for the past 20 years
some great-grandson of a scientist
now living might get inside the
atom itself.
The thing came last week with
Dramatic suddenness. In Berlin is
the great Kaiser Wilhelm Institute,
where have been made some of the
outstanding scientific discoveries of
the modern world. During the past
f ear yean it has lost some of its best
brains—men and women who have
made some of the outstanding in
tellectual contributions of their
times and are now homeless
wanderers because of the blood of
their fathers and mothers.
One of the staff of the Kaiser
Wilhelm Institute driven into exile
was the physicist, Dr. Lize Meitner.
Through the yean her keen intel
lect had played a secondary but im
portant part in outstanding physical
accomplishments. Now she is an
old woman, broken in health and
spirit.
There are still good brains, how
ever, at the Kaiser Wilhelm Insti
tute. One of these is Prof. O. Hahn,
the chemist Dr. Meitner had been
one of his associates. A few weeks
ago Dr. Hahn, working with some
of the ekauranium, the new element
originally produced by Dr. Fermi,
observed something which he
couldn't believe. In the residue of
one of his preparations chemical
analysis showed some of the rare
element barium. He knew it hadn't
been there in the first place. The
only way it could have gotten there
was out of the ekauranium.
Hahn dreaded making a fool of
himself, for compared with getting
barium out of uranium Orson
Welles’ men from Mars did not con
stitute such a fantasy. He wrote to
Dr. Meitner about it. She consulted
others, calculated all the possibili
ties. and wrote that she believed the
impossible had happened.
What had happened, as Dr. Meit
ner told Hahn, was that his ekau
ranium atom had split wide open
as the result of some internal in
stability due to the extra neutron
in its nucleus.
An atom of uranium weighs 238
times as much as an atom of hydro
gen. An atom of barium weighs
only 146 times as much. It is pos
sible to calculate the binding energy
necessary to hold together the
nuclei of all the elements. It so
happens that there is a difference
of 200,000,000 volts between the
binding energy of an atom of ura
nium and the binding energy of an
atom of barium, plus a still lighter
atom of the rare earth masurium,
which would be the residue if a
barium came out of an uranium
atom. If the atom had split up,
200,000,000 volts had gone some
where.
The rest of the story need hardly
be repeated—how men in three
American laboratories with the
world's most powerful atom-smash
ing machinery started work as soon
as they got the first report of the
thing, how almost simultaneously
they duplicated the results and were
able to actually measure the energy
given off. For the first time man
had tapped atomic energy.
Mosher Says Bomb Speeds
Need for Reconversion
tj the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, Aug. 7.—Ira Mosher,
president of the National Associa
tion of Manufacturers, said today
the use of the atomic bomb means
that "both industry and Govern
ment must hasten their plans for
the reconversion of industry to
peacetime production."
“Only by quick reconversion.” he
said in a statement, “can we avoid
a great amount of unemployment,
and a slackening of our economic
tempo."
Asserting that “much of industry
is ready and waiting only for clear
ance from Government agencies,”
Mr. Mosher added “It would not
seem unreasonable to consider the
possibility of calling Congress back
into session in order that recon
version activities may be speeded."
He hailed the bomb as a product
proving again the superiority of free
scientists and free industry over
the controlled research and economy
of enemy nations, and said it "will
not only shorten the war, but may,
in time, revolutionize the peace
time living of the world..”
Atomic Bomb Trigger,
As First Planned,
Utilized Neutrons
By the Assoelitrd Preu.
NEW YORK, Aug. i—'The trigger :
which was expected to set off the
atomic bomb was a fairly simple
mechanism, as planned just before
the secrecy blackout covered up de
velopments on atomic subjects.
The mechanism was a bit of
radium, a bit of beryllium, some
paraffin wax and a little uranium
235. It was developed at Columbia
University, and in modified form in
other American laboratories as well
as in England, France and Ger
many.
The rays of the radium struck the
beryllium and caused that metal to
emit rays of its own. The rays from
the metal were different than those
from radium. They were neutrons
or noncharged particles.
Slewed By Wax.
As the neutron rays came off the
beryllium they were traveling too
fast to have any effect on uranium.
Here the job of the paraffin wax
came in. It slowed down the neu
tron rays. When the neutrons
reached a speed which is designated
by 25,000 volts, these particles easily
split the uranium atoms.
That split released enough explo
sive energy to make an atomic bomb
possible. The problem was to get
uranium to continue exploding its
atoms automatically after the
trigger had started the fire.
Uranium atoms supplied a key to
this last problem.
When a uranium atom split it
emptied not only the explosive
energy, but also a few neutrons.
These neutrons were traveling too
fast to break other uranium atoms.
But if they could be slowed down
they, too, would break atoms and
would presumably set off an atomic
explosion by the large numbers of
atoms cracking simultaneously.
Water Air* Used.
It was calculated, and published,
that this kind of slowdown could
be accomplished readily. This
would be done either by packing
the uranium in paraffin, to slow
the neutrons, or by using water as
the slowing agent, for water works
about as well as paraffin.
Whether this experiment was
i done or even tried never was pub
! lished. When the blackout went on
scientists had not had enough
uranium 235 to make the test,
i The unexplained use of heavy
water by the Germans, from a plant
in Norway, might be connected with
attempts to slow down the speed
of neutrons to produce atomic ex- \
plosions in uranium. Heavy water
contains hydrogen of twice normal
; weight. And in water or paraffin!
j the hydrogen is the principal slow-;
ing barrier to neutrons.
Frank Flown to Prague
FRANKFURT - ON - THE -MAIN.
'Aug. 7 (JP}.—Karl Hermann Frank,
Nazi protector of Bohemia-Mor
avia, was flown to Prague today to
stand trial, probably at the end of
this month, as a war criminal.
Guards said Frank has been rude
and arrogant all during his im
prisonment here.
Hiroshima
* Continued From First Page.)
ground, these quarters said, adding
that the destructive power of the
weapon cannot be slighted, although
an investigation is presently under
way into the extent of the damage
wrought by the enemy’s new tactics.
“By employing the new weapon,
designed to massacre innocent civil
ians, the Americans unveiled to the
eyes of the entire world their sadis
tic nature, these quarters said.
What caused the enemy to resort
to such bestial tactics which re
vealed how thin is the veneer of
civilization the enemy has boasted
of. is imoatience at the slow prog-;
; ress of the enemy’s much-vaunted |
invasion of Japan's mainland.
“In view of the gallant resistance
of Japanese forces as exemplified by
the battles of Iwo Jima and Oki
nawa, the enemy's hope of a quick
battle and a quick decision in the
forthcoming battle of Japan’s home
land has been wellnight frustrated.
“Strategic advantages which the
Japanese forces are certain to enjoy
in the next phase of the Pacific war
have made it clear to the enemy
that his desire for an early conclu
sion of the current war of Greater
East Asia is mere wishful thinking.
“In these circumstances the enemy
began to employ the barbaric meth
od as a last and desperate resort.
Recourse to such an inhuman way
of fighting is sufficient to brand the
enemy for ages to come as the ‘de
stroyer of justice and mankind’ and
‘public enemy No. 1 of social justice,’
these quarters said.
“As for countermeasures to the
new destructive tactics on the part
of the enemy, these quarters re
vealed effective measures are being
worked out by the authorities con
cerned, adding that the history of
war shows that a new weapon, how-1
ever effective, will eventually lose
its power as the opponent is bound
to find methods to nullify its effect.’’
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