Atom

“ Can we retain the conception of the atom as formulated in the last century? Is matter an aggregate of impenetrable, indivisible nodules, or is an atom merely a centre of force? Have we nothing that we should call solid, [354] only vortices? Is solidity a flux of ions? ”

“ This atom of the seventh world is the ultimate atom of the physical world—not any of the atoms of which chemists speak, but that ultimate out of which all their atoms are made. We have at this stage arrived at that condition of affairs in which the vast whirling sphere contains within itself seven types of matter, all one in essence, because all built of the same kind of bubbles, but differing in their degree of density. ”

“ We are speaking of atoms as the ultimate constituents of matter, and yet we are compelled, in describing their gravitating energy, to speak of the quantity of matter contained in each atom,—in other words, we speak in the same breath of an atom as not admitting of being divided or diminished, and of its containing matter by quantity, that is, by more or less. ”

“ It bids fair to reveal to us many of nature's hidden secrets. The atom is no longer the indivisible particle of matter it was once understood to be. We know now that there is an atom within the atom—that what we thought was elementary can be dissociated and broken up. The present-day theories of the atom and the constitution of matter are the outcome of the comparatively recent discovery of such things as radium, the X-rays, and the wonderful revelations of such instruments as the spectroscope and other highly perfected scientific instruments. ”

“ Around a pure atom of crystal all the atoms of the element in solution gather, and in like manner one person after another emerged out of the mass, betraying their close affinity to my moods as they were engendered. ”

“ We term the most minute particle of matter, which we imagine to be no longer capable of division, an atom, and consider matter to be composed of such atoms, acquiring from them its qualities, and existing by their reciprocal attraction and repulsion. But the word atom is merely an expression for a necessary conception, required for certain purposes. ”

“ The properties of the atom may thus be divided into two classes; in one class we have the properties, such as its weight and its Röntgen radiation, which are intrinsic to the atom, and which it carries with it unchanged into any compound of which it may be a constituent; in the other class we have the properties, such as the chemical properties of the atom, which depend upon its environment and upon the physical conditions, such as temperature, to which it is subjected. ”

“ Every atom of matter, of whatever kind throughout the whole universe, is built up of electrons in conjunction with a nucleus. From the smallest atom of all—the atom of hydrogen—which consists of one electron, rotating round a positively charged nucleus, to a heavy complicated atom, such as the atom of gold, constituted of many electrons and a complex nucleus, we have only to do with positive and negative units of electricity. ”

“ For example, a molecule of water consists of two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen, which can be separated from each other by chemical methods. An atom, in its turn, is found to be a sort of solar system, with a sun and planets; the empty regions between the Sun and the planets fill up vastly more space than they do, so that much the greater part of the volume that seems to us to be filled by a solid body is really unoccupied. In the solar system that constitutes an atom, the planets are called “electrons” and the Sun is called the “nucleus.” ”

“ And thus, whether we contemplate the infinitely small or the infinitely grand, in every case comes back upon us the wide induction, that the action of matter in atom, in molecule, or in mass, is ever at a distance! Of actual contact there is probably no instance afforded in nature, excepting in the intimate substance of the ultimate atom. ”

“ We must merely modify our ideas and definition of an atom, and this modification is in the direction of an advance. We know more about an atom, or think we do.
Assume the inferences from the evidence just reviewed to be correct, and how do they affect our conception of the atom? First of all, our smallest, lightest, simplest atom, that of hydrogen, becomes an aggregation of about eight hundred smaller particles or corpuscles, and the atoms of other elements become aggregations of as many corpuscles as are obtained by multiplying the atomic weight of the element by eight hundred. ”

“ Every single thing in the world is made of atoms. Atoms are so tiny that there are only a few microscopes in the whole world powerful enough to show them. It would take about 20 million atoms to make a dot as big as this one over the letter i. In fact, if you had one atom for every single person in the states of Pennsylvania and California, you could fit them all on the head of a pin!
But, small as they are, atoms are the building blocks that make everything. You certainly don't look anything like an elephant—do you? But you are both made of atoms! ”

“ The structure of the atom has been analyzed. The atom is the smallest particle of matter which can exist independently. The elements which enter into the atom have no existence apart from the atom. The atom is the smallest particle of matter which can enter into the structure of the molecule. But it is not indestructible. It has been broken up into its elements. These consist of outer circulatory electrons which are negative charges of electricity and a core or nucleus composed of positively charged protons and some electrons, all in balance. ”

“ Now we know something about the names of the important kinds of atoms and can take up again the question of how they are formed by protons and electrons. No matter what kind of atom we are dealing with we always have a nucleus or center and some electrons playing around that nucleus like tiny planets. The only differences between one kind of atom and any other kind are differences in the nucleus and differences in the number and arrangement of the planetary electrons which are playing about the nucleus. ”

“ As we saw in Chapter I, an atom is a kind of solar system, consisting of a nucleus which has electrons revolving round it. We shall see later that it is the nature of the nucleus that characterizes an element, and that two atoms of the same element may differ as to the number of their electrons and the shapes of their orbits. ”

“ That each Atom is a minute mass of Substance containing a number of "electrified particles," which are known as Electrons, in constant motion and vibration, re [Pg 72] volving around each other, as do the planets, suns, and moons of the Universe—in fact each chemical Atom is like unto a Universe in itself. ”

“ The technical term, Atom, marks sufficiently the nature of the opinion. According to this theory, the world consists of a collection of simple particles, of one kind of matter, and of indivisible smallness (as the name indicates) , and by the various configurations and motions of these particles, all kinds of matter and all material phenomena are produced. ”

“ Thus the atom, which was thought to be the ultimate particle of solid matter, is found to be a little universe in itself in which corpuscles of electricity rotate or vibrate around one another like the suns and planets in the sidereal universe. ”

“ The study of the radio-active substances and of the discharge of electricity through gases has supplied very strong experimental evidence in support of the fundamental ideas of the existing atomic theory. It has also indicated that the atom itself is not the smallest unit of matter, but is a complicated structure made up of a number of smaller bodies. ”

“ The leading historical stages in the evolution of the modern conception of the molecular structure of matter are treated in the following passage from James Clerk Maxwell’s article Atom in the 9th edition of the Ency. Brit.
“Atom [1] (ἄτομος) is a body which cannot be cut in two. The atomic theory is a theory of the constitution of bodies which asserts that they are made up of atoms. ”

“ On the contrary, we know that each atom consists of particles of positive and negative electricity. The negative electrons arrange themselves about a positive electron for a nucleus and, rotating about it as if it were a central sun with planets, constitute an atom. All matter reduced to the ultimate electron is precisely alike. The difference in matter is determined by the number of negative electrons that are attracted and held in place by the positive nucleus that is at the center of each atom of which a particular kind of matter is composed. ”

“ Bruno—But relatively the atom is as great as the universe. You have been told that an atom is a universe in embryo, for in it are all possible qualities, and in it are all the activities of Infinite Intelligent Energy. So were you no greater than an atom, you yet would be a necessary factor of Infinity. ”

“ We are always on the move, performing a perpetual dance around the iron atoms, but the atoms arrange themselves in a higgledy-piggledy fashion, so that the electrons on one atom pull the æther in one direction while others pull the æther in an opposite direction. ”

“ The number of electrons in an atom is such a fundamental quantity that its determination throws a good deal of light on some of the most keenly discussed problems in Physics and Chemistry, such as the transmutation of the elements and the relation between mass and weight. ”

“ The atom is made complete by the accidents, without which it cannot be. Every atom created by God, they say, must have accidents, such as color, odor, motion, and so on, except quantity or magnitude, which according to them is not accident. ”

“ Here we had the first direct evidence (1) that an atom is a complex structure, and (2) that electrical charges enter into its make-up. With this discovery, due directly to the use of the new agency, X-rays, the atom as an ultimate, indivisible thing was gone, and the era of the study of the constituents of the atom began. ”

“ Do they not also indicate that any alteration in the specific gravity of the atom would give rise to a new series of compounds, thus apparently producing a new element? Surely there is nothing irrational in the idea that the influences of heat or electricity, or of other powers of which as yet we know nothing, may be sufficient to effect such changes in the atomic constituents of this earth.
The combination of elementary atoms takes place under the influence of an unknown force which we are compelled to express by a figurative term, affinity. ”

“ Nevertheless, it is a fact, and a comprehension of it will enable you to adjust yourself to other facts, one of which is that the Infinite Intelligent Energy compels each and every atom to assume its orderly relation to all other atoms. Further, that indeed, atoms are embryotic universes, each atom containing within itself all the properties which anywhere exist, and any one atom may [Pg 81] form the nucleus about which other atoms may congregate, until a world is in process of formation. ”

“ Starting with the atom, we believe no longer that it is indivisible. Atoms are composed of thousands of ions, as they are called—really little electric charges. Again, you know that we have found that all the elements fall into groups. Each group has certain related atomic weights and properties which can be and have been predicted in advance of the discovery of missing elements in the group. ”

“ Since the electron can be got from all the chemical elements, we may conclude that electrons are a constituent of all atoms. We have thus made the first step towards a knowledge of the structure of the atom and towards the goal towards which since the time of Prout many chemists have been striving, the proof that the atoms of the chemical elements are all built up of simpler atoms—primordial atoms, as they have been called. ”

“ Instead of regarding an atom as a solid indivisible particle, the tendency is to regard it as a vortex of energy, a centre of force. One writer even goes so far as to suggest that an atom is a source "through which an invisible fluid is pouring into three-dimensional space." ”

“ The present theory of the atom as derived from radiology is that it is composed of electrons moving rapidly in all directions and necessarily in constant collision; these electrons are assumed to be held together in each individual atom by a positive force. ”

“ Matter, as we have understood it, there is none, nor probably anywhere the individual atom. The so-called atoms are systems of ELECTRONIC corpuscles, bound together by their mutual forces too firmly for any human contrivance completely to sunder them,—alike in their electric composition, differing only in the rhythms of their motion. ”

“ A heavier atom, say an atom of oxygen, consists of sixteen atoms of hydrogen, the positive nuclei of which form the positive nucleus or central portion of the oxygen atom. Some of the negative electrons are distributed among the positive electrons of the central nucleus, serving to cement them together, and the other negative electrons are revolving like satellites around the central nucleus. ”

“ And along other lines—chemical and electrical—surely there is something a little unsatisfactory, when a few years ago men told us that the atom was composed literally of myriads of particles, and during the last year it has been suggested that perhaps one particle is all of which an atom is composed. ”

“ Really there are over a hundred different kinds of atoms. In my work on this ship I found it made quite a difference which kind of chlorine atom I had."
"Well, how does this machine work, and what do you mean by saying that a machine invented it?"
"Dave, you know that for a number of years the greatest advances in physics have been made along the lines of mathematical work in atomic structure. Einstein was the greatest of the mathematicians, and so the greatest of the atomicists. ”