38 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



we are finally left with a blank, a sort of hole in creation, . . . The last resort 

 is the time-honored definition, " matter is the carrier of energy," but it is 

 impossible to describe it. The assumption that matter exists is made then 

 because there must be a carrier of energy. But why must there be a carrier 

 of energy? This is assertion, pure and simple, with no experimental backing. 10 



When solidity, and mass or inertia are adequate^ explained as 

 dynamic facts, and many puzzling physical facts are similarly ac- 

 counted for, it is surely superfluous to seek further explanation ia 

 something more to be called matter, especially when no man can tell 

 or ever has told us what he means by the word. 



This is not the place to set forth what we know about electric 

 charges, but some mention should be made of the unification introduced 

 into our knowledge by accepting these minute bodies as the building 

 stones of the grosser structures more immediately experienced. 



A word first as to their size : 



We are sure, says Lodge, that their mass is* of the order one thousandth 

 of the atomic mass of hydrogen, and we are sure that if they are purely and 

 solely electrical their size must be one hundred thousandth of the linear dimen- 

 sions of an atom: a size with which their penetrating power and other 

 behavior is quite consistent. Assuming this estimate to be true, it is note- 

 worthy how very small these electrical particles are, compared to the atom of 

 matter. ... If an electron is represented by a sphere an inch in diameter, 

 the diameter of an atom of matter on the same scale is a mile and a half. 

 Or if an atom of matter is represented by the size of this theater [the 

 Sheldonean], the electron is represented on the same scale by a printer's full 

 stop. 



He proceeds a little later : 



It is a fascinating guess that the electrons constitute the fundamental 

 substratum of which all matter is composed. That a group of say 700 elec- 

 trons, 350 positive and 350 negative, interleaved or interlocked in the state of 

 violent motions so as to produce a stable configuration under the influence of 

 their centrifugal inertia and their electric forces, constitute an atom of 

 hydrogen. That sixteen times as many, in another stable grouping, constitute 

 an atom of oxygen. That some 16,000 of them go to form an atom of sodium: 

 about 100,000 an atom of barium: and 160,000 an atom of radium. 



On this view all elements would be regarded as different groupings of one 

 fundamental constituent. Of all the groupings possible, doubtless most are so 

 unstable as never to be formed; but some are stable, and these stabler group- 

 ings constitute the chemical elements that we know. The fundamental ingre- 

 dient of which, on this view, the whole of matter is made up, is nothing more 

 or less than electricity, in the form of an equal number of positive and nega- 

 tive electric charges. 



This, when established, will be a unification of matter such as has through 

 all the ages been sought: it goes further than had been hoped, for the sub- 

 stratum is not an unknown and hypothetical protyle, but the familiar electric 

 charge. 11 



10 Loc. cit. 



"Popular Science Monthly, August, 1903. 



