MORE ABOUT ELECTRONS 85 



shot forth with a velocity that, according to the 

 calculations of Le Bon, could be equalled by a 

 bullet only if it had one million three hundred 

 and forty thousand barrels of gunpowder behind 

 it. Le Bon further calculates that corpuscles 

 could flash from the earth to the moon in four 

 seconds (a cannon-ball would take five days), and 

 that there is enough intra-atomic energy in a 

 copper one-centime piece " to work a goods train 

 along a horizontal line equal in length to a little 

 over four times and a quarter the circumference 

 of the earth," — as much energy, that is to say, as 

 would be produced by about three million kilo- 

 grammes of coal, costing about seventy thousand 

 francs. Sir Oliver Lodge, in his usual picturesque 

 way, says that electrons are as much faster than a 

 cannon-ball as a cannon is faster than a snail, and 

 that they are a hundred times faster than the 

 fastest flying star. 



J. J. Thomson gives another picture of intra- 

 atomic force by estimating that a few grains 

 weight of hydrogen has within it sufficient force 

 to raise a million tons to a height of more than 

 three hundred feet. 



Rutherford estimates the energy of the a 

 particles of thorium at six hundred million times 

 that of a rifle-ball. 



Max Abraham calculates that one gramme 



