ATOMIC ENERGY 



By A. E. Johns 

 McMaster University/, Hamilton, Ontario 



INTRODUCTION 



Our topic for this evening is timely. Whether we are fully conscious 

 of the fact or not and whether we like it or not, we stand at the open- 

 ing of a new age — the atomic age, or the age of atomic energy. Atomic 

 energy has always been present in the universe, but only now is it 

 becoming available to man. The secrets of the atom are being 

 unlocked before our eyes and life for mankind can never be the same. 



Your presence here in such large numbers on such a rainy night 

 indicates your interest in this topic. We are all interested and want 

 to know the underlying principles of atomic energy. It is my hope 

 that some of these will be more clear in an hour's time. But I warn 

 you that I bring little that is new. Mark Antony's words at Caesar's 

 funeral sum up the situation ; "I am no orator, as Brutus is ; * * * 

 I only speak right on ; I tell you that which you yourselves do know." 

 The lecture will be in informal classroom style. Few teachers can 

 proceed long without a blackboard ; so I have already listed the topics I 

 hope to treat and for two reasons. First it will help to guide me, and 

 second it will comfort you. At any stage you can see how the lecture 

 is progressing, and when thoroughly bored, can say "That much at 

 least is over." You note with pleasure that the introduction is already 

 finished. '^ 



FOUNDATION THEORY 



During the eighteenth century man discovered that great law, the 

 Law of the Conservation of Matter. According to it, no matter is 

 ever created or destroyed. The total amount of matter in the uni- 

 verse remains the same. True, matter may be changed in form. 

 Water may be heated into steam or frozen into ice, but its mass remains 

 constant. Matter may be shifted about in the universe. The moon 

 may lose its atmosphere or a meteorite from the bounds of the solar 

 system may fall at our feet, but the total amount of material in the 



^ Address of the retiring president, annual At-Home of the Royal Astronomical Society 

 of Canada at Toronto, January 24, 1947. Reprinted by permission from the Journal of 

 the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, vol. 41, No. 3, March 1947. 



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