MORE ABOUT ELECTRONS 87 



several thousands of locomotives. The speed of 

 the corpuscles is so tremendous that, despite their 

 smallness, they are able to develop tremendous 

 energy. 



Now, such energy cannot be generated de novo 

 from nothing ; and there seems no way of explain- 

 ing it unless we believe that the corpuscles in the 

 intact atom are not at rest, but in a state of 

 whirling equilibrium. The energy developed 

 when gunpowder explodes is just the same energy 

 which holds the atoms and molecules of the 

 powder together ; the energy developed by the 

 exploding atom is j ust the same energy that held 

 it together into a miniature solar system, with a 

 central sun and spinning planets. The force that 

 holds together the corpuscles — the intra-atomic 

 energy — is enormously much greater than the 

 force that holds atoms and molecules together, 

 and its disruptive power is accordingly correspond- 

 ingly greater. 



We may picture the situation in a simple way 

 by imagining molecules, atoms, corpuscles pulled 

 together by bands of elastic. The bands of 

 elastic between the atoms are stronger than those 

 between the molecules, and the bands of elastic 

 between the corpuscles stronger than those 

 between the atoms. Consequently, when the 

 elastic band between the corpuscles is severed 



