88 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 



they fly apart with greater force than do mole- 

 cules or atoms when the bands between these are 

 severed. Undoubtedly a great deal of the poten- 

 tial energy of the electrons is due to their electric 

 charge. We have already pointed out the 

 numbers of coulombs in a gramme of hydrogen, 

 and it has been calculated by Le Cornu that " il 

 it were possible to concentrate a charge of one 

 coulomb on a very small sphere, and to bring it 

 within one centimetre of another sphere likewise 

 having a charge of one coulomb, the force created 

 by this repulsion would equal about nine billions 

 of kilogrammes — i,e, one thousand million of 

 horse-power — per second.** 



We are not yet able to utilise intra-atomic 

 energy to any extent. The intra-atomic energy 

 made manifest in radium is only very, very slowly 

 developed — so slowly that it takes centuries to 

 evolve. Could we disrupt only a few grains of 

 matter instantaneously we should be able to acquire 

 enormous energy. With a teaspoonful of salt we 

 might destroy a city, and we could keep in a 

 thimble enough concentrated fuel to take many 

 Mauretanias across the Atlantic. Nay, we might 

 be able to make a plaything of the moon and to 

 harness the stars. It is merely a question of con- 

 version, of redirection, of liberation of energy. 

 The energy is already there, holding the electrons 



