ENERGY,

RELATIVITY,

GRAVITY, ETHER, PHOTO-ELECTRIC

EFFECT.

By F. H. LORING.

(Continued from page 422, Vol. cxxxv).

IV.

In Section I a glass experiment was cited. A rather better one would be that of making Prince Rupert's Drops, or Dutch Tears as they are sometimes called, the French being Larmes Bataviques. These are, of course, produced by dropping molten glass into water, the chilling of the exterior portion of the glass causes a molecular strain, owing to the contraction of the interior which cools last.

When the fine tail of the drop is broken, this operation involving an inappreciable application of energy, the drop shivers, that is to say, breaks into fine particles and a small amount of energy is liberated as heat.

Another known example would be that of whirling a thin circular sheet of paper, so that it becomes a very rigid disc. On striking the disc the paper splinters like glass.

In the case of the æther, it is necessary to consider something quite different, yet the æther is the vehicle for latent energy if the energy of the photo-electric effect is mainly derived from space.

It is also necessary to consider the æther as a transmitting medium for energy quite apart from that which is possibly bound up as latent energy. So far as the writer is aware no satisfactory theory of the æther has been proposed. All analogies are hopelessly inadequate, but they seem to show an energy state that is highly suggestive. In short, the æther appears to be energy in some form.

Recent work in atomic structure has a bearing on these matters as may be judged from the following. A wave-theory of mechanics has been developed, the wellknown main contributors to this new phase in physics-involving the atom and the quantum feature discovered by Max Planck

being, L. de Broglie de Broglie (1925), E. Schrödinger (1926), Heisenberg, Dirac, Born and Jordan.

In this theory Bohr's stationary state, in which the electron describes a circle or ellipse round the atomic nucleus without

66

To talk about waves running round in a circle" calls to mind an idea of this kind suggested by the writer (see Chemical News, Dec. 7, 1923, and some previous issues), to explain the stationary state involved in Bohr's theory (see below). The mathematical development of this theory has aroused much interest.

In the Daily Mail of October 13, 1927, Prof. Charles Nordmann (chief astronomer to the Paris Observatory), gave in simple language the gist of this new theory as the following excerpts will show :—

Planck

and Bohr have conclusively proved that many optical phenomena can only be explained if the emission of light is not continuous, as Huyghens would have it, but discontinuous, as Newton argued.

M.

In short, light is composed of waves, as Huyghens said, but with a granular structure, as described by Newton. It is not a series of material projectiles and cannot be compared to the discontinuous line of bullets fired by a machine-gun firing ball cartridges, but, on the other hand, it may be likened to the series of relatively immaterial explosive waves created by a machine-gun firing blank cartridges. Louis de Broglie's happy and surprising discovery appears to conciliate the opposing theories and to associate in a simple manner matter and radiation. The quanta' or the successive waves which constitute light, are, he points out, in reality material particles which themselves are nothing more than small localised wave systems all of which are on the move. Electrons are the ultimate material particles which gravitate like planets around the centre of all atoms. If these particles are from light waves*, how can we explain that in the ordinary and nonincandescent atoms the particles do not continuously emit light? The reason is, says M. Louis de Broglie, that when the electronic corpuscle is not free, but is bound to an atom around which it describes a closed orbit, the wave which it carries associated with it is itself enclosed. It is stabilised and becomes a stationary wave and does not,

i.e., form light waves.-F.H.L.

therefore, emit light. It ceases to radiate and resembles the stationary waves noted in acoustics. In other words, there is a simple relation between the period of vibration of the waves which convey the corpuscles and the atoms and their period of revolution." The orignal may be consulted for more information.

It will be seen that the spreading idea given at the end of Section III begins to look feasible from the point of view of the new wave-mechanics, but the whole subject is still one of deep mystery.

A recent paper in the Physical Review of November, 1927, by A. J. Dempster and H. F. Batho (p. 644) is no doubt important, for these investigators show that when quanta are emitted from atoms they spread and obey the classical laws of undulatory light, i.e., the wave-theory.

That waves of light may be associated with electrons (see Nordmann above) was discussed by the writer in the Chemical News, February 22, 1924.

Having referred above to an early article. by the writer (1923) it will not be out of place to quote from this paper the views then recorded in these columns :

The Heaviside layer, which is supposed to cause Hertz waves to conform to the general contour of the Earth, is discussed in the light of Vegard's theory that the higher regions of the atmosphere contain minute positively charged crystals of nitrogen, but it is suggested that these waves may tend to describe a ground orbit round the Earth, because orbital phenomena do not depend upon the mass of the circulating body, as is evident from the fact that the five Balmer lines of the hydrogen atom are linearly related to the groupings of the elements in the periodic table, to the radial positions of five consecutive planets of the Solar system, and the many-lines spectrum of molecular hydrogen is possibly related to the distribution of the asteroids. This leads to the idea that the Bohr orbits are closed-radiation orbits, which only give rise to emission lines when the electron is displaced so as to allow the radiation to expand as a radiallydirected wave, which conforms in its behaviour after leaving the atom with the undulatory theory of light.

NEW SHORT FLAME PULVERISED FUEL BURNER.

A NOTABLE ADVANCE.

By A WELL KNOWN ENGINEER.

A solution of the long outstanding problem of flame length in pulverised fuel firing has now been found in a new burner by which the combustion is complete in 10 feet instead of the usual 30 feet. The invention is an achievement of the Research Staff of International Combustion, Ltd., of London, and represents many months of investigation and continuous large scale operation, carried out mainly at Barrow. This new burner is known as the "R" type, and the above short flame operation is obtained with an enormous throughput, up to 150,000,000 B.Th.U., 6 tons of coal, per single burner per hour, as well as very low air pressure.

Space for Adjustable Dumper

Primary Air and Coal Init

large water tube boilers, 50 per cent. less than the present pulverised fuel practice, and it will probably open up an entirely new field with regard to the use of pulverised fuel for cylindrical boilers, not only of the "Lancashire," but also the "Scotch " marine type, as well as many obvious applications in the chemical, glass, ceramic, iron and steel, and general metallurgical industries.

The new burner is on the "turbulent " principle, but much improved, the pulverised coal mixed with the primary air at 2" Water Gauge, 15 per cent. of the total air for combustion, enters at the top of the burner, and passing through it by means of a circular concentric casing or burner "head," which in the centre has a lighting and inspection tube. The mixture of air and pulverised coal is given a violent turbulent motion by means of a series of internal spiral projections or ribs, while the secondary air at 1" W.G., 85 per cent. of the total, enters by another concentric casing nearer the furnace, behind the first casing, and is given also a violent turbulent motion. The only adjustment necessary in the whole of the burner is one damper or slide on the secondary air supply, and the mixing of the fuel particles and the air is of such an efficient and intimate character that, as stated, the combustion is complete, with 17-19 per cent. CO, and no unburnt gas, in a flame of 10 feet only.