RECENT ELECTRICAL DISCOVERIES 121 



velocity so great that Prof. Crookes estimates "one 

 gram is enough to lift the whole of the British 

 navy to the top of Ben Nevis, and I am not quite 

 certain that we could not throw in the French 

 fleet as well." 



It has such surprising properties that Lord Kel- 

 vin was moved to say of it that, "it threatens to 

 overthrow the correlation of forces," which is the 

 rock-ribbed, foundation postulate of science. It 

 seems already to have unsettled the accepted theory 

 of light, and after the experiments of the Rus- 

 sian scientists who are now investigating it, Profs. 

 Mendelief, Yigooff and Borgruan, the result may 

 give us new scientific theories and a new nomen- 

 clature. 



Radium tends to confirm my electric theory of 

 creation, it also seems to aid the Thomson cor- 

 puscles hypothesis, and will open the way to new 

 and important discoveries. 



My opinion from very brief thought on the sub- 

 ject is that radium is in its nature a form of elec- 

 tric energy solidified, and may be a bundle of Thom- 

 son corpuscles or electrons combined and solidified 

 by some process not yet understood. It is in the 

 nature of an electric dynamo, and draws its con- 

 stant supply of electricity from the air. It is plain 

 that it is an electric substance and manifestation, 

 for, as Prof. Crookes says, "it emits electrons with a 

 velocity so great one gram would lift the British 

 navy to the top of a mountain, and he is even 

 willing to throw in the French fleet." If he were 

 not a great scientist, I should say he was exaggerat- 

 ing like an amateur. Radium is at present a great 

 scientific puzzle. It seems to destroy the present 



