Splitting of the Atom The splitting of a uranium atom,
announced from Columbia University last Tuesday, marks an important step forward. The breaking up of atomic nuclei by bombardment with various particles is now a commonplace of physics, but this experiment differs from all others in that a large atom was split into two atoms of more or less equal size. Previous attempts at atom-splitting had resulted, so to speak, rather in knocking chips off the atoms than in dividing them into two. There has always been a hope that some such process would make available the vast stores of atomic energy which make every handful of dirt a potential source of true wealth. In the Columbia experiments it was found that the uranium atom, when split, gave out six thousand million times as much energy as was needed to split it. If this process could be performed on the large scale, a wholly new source of power would be made available ; but, in fact, our present methods of atom-splitting can only break up infinitesimal quantities of matter. Such experiments as these, though of the greatest scientific interest, are but finger-posts on the road to that Golconda of power which is locked in the heart of the atom.
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