EXPLORING THE ATOM 



the atom. And the atom, it will be recalled, was until 

 recently supposed to be the smallest thing in the uni- 

 verse. 



But all recent research has seemed to suggest that 

 objects in nature become important in a progressive 

 ratio as they become smaller. This rule of thumb 

 applies with full force to Professor Reynolds' 

 primordial granule. For according to his theory the 

 entire material universe as we know it that is to 

 say the entire universe of matter consists essential- 

 ly of little maladjustments or flaws in the universal 

 granular ether! In this view, what we call matter 

 is not the substantial but the unsubstantial part of 

 the universe. Like Sir Joseph Thomson, Professor 

 Reynolds calculates that the all-pervading ether is 

 vastly more dense than any material substance, his 

 calculation makes it 480 times denser than platinum, 

 and he likens matter to bubbles in this dense me- 

 dium. Professor Mackenzie has this to say by way of 

 interpretation of this paradox: 



"You have all seen bubbles moving in water. Rey- 

 nolds shows that the earth and all other material 

 bodies move through space in a similar manner. 

 They are less dense than the medium in which they 

 exist, and their movements are due to differences of 

 pressure in the surrounding medium. They are like 

 so many filmy soap bubbles which a child blows from 

 the stem of a pipe. Real mass is not in the material 

 things which we see, but in space where the eye sees 

 nothing. The sober conclusion of the most advanced 

 dynamical science is that matter is a negative thing 

 so far as its mass is concerned, and that the space 



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