388 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1295 



could build up an agriculture that -would be 

 not only profitable but also permanent and in- 

 creasingly productive. 



E. Davenport 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



ATOMIC ENERGY 



At the second day of the James Watt cen- 

 tenary commemoration at Birmingham those 

 present heard an address by Sir Oliver Lodge 

 foreshadowing the possible employment of 

 atomic energy. 



According to the report in the London 

 Times Sir Oliver Lodge said that, in view of 

 the fact that the sources of molecular energy 

 are beginning to show signs of exhaustion, he 

 ventured to assume that if James "Watt were 

 living to-day he would be directing his atten- 

 tion to discovering whether there are other 

 stores of energy at present almost unsuspected. 

 The fact was that contained in the properties 

 of matter there was an immense source of 

 energy so far inaccessible, but which he saw 

 no reason why the progress of discovery should 

 not make available. He referred to atomic 

 energy which, if it could be utilized on an ex- 

 tensive scale, would, he believed, greatly ameli- 

 orate the conditions of factory life. There 

 would be no smoke due to imperfect combus- 

 tion and no dirt due to the transit of coal or 

 ashes, while the power would be very compact 

 and clean. Possibly there might occasionally 

 be explosions due to the liberation of power 

 more quickly than it was wanted, but in gen- 

 eral he presumed that the conditions of utili- 

 zation would be good. 



Sir Oliver explained that the secret of this 

 power began to be given away when radio-ac- 

 tivity was discovered, and said that at present 

 we were hardly at the beginning of its utili- 

 zation. The discovery of radium, which soon 

 followed, excited universal interest and 

 aroused great surprise, because radium ap- 

 peared to give off energy continually without 

 being consumed. The truth was that it did 

 disappear as it gave off its energy, but the 

 disappearance was so slow and the energy 

 given off so remarkable that it was not sur- 

 prising that one was noticed before the other. 



The energy of radium, however, was not under 

 control, and it went on emitting energy at its 

 own proper rate without regard to accidental 

 circumstances. What happened was that every 

 now and then a particle was projected. The 

 energy stored in an atom was something enor- 

 mous, and if we could make the atoms fly oS 

 when we wanted there would be available a 

 source of energy which would put everything 

 else into the background. This energy was 

 contained in all forms of mater and was not 

 confined to radio-active substances. If a stim- 

 ulus could be found the utilization of this 

 source of energy would be possible. We ap- 

 peared to be on the verge of utilizing a minute 

 fraction of it, and it was this energy which 

 had made wireless telephony possible. 



STATISTICS OF THE NATURAL GAS INDUSTRY 



A REPORT on "Natural Gas and Natural 

 Gasoline in 1917 " by John D. Northrop, just 

 published by the Geological Survey, gives 

 statistics of the production and consumption 

 of natural gas and sketches the condition of 

 the industry in 25 states. It gives also sta- 

 tistics concerning gasoline made from nat- 

 ural gas in that year. 



More than 2,100 cities and towns in the 

 United States are supplied with natural gas, 

 which is furnished to domestic consumers at 

 rates that should arouse the envy of those 

 consumers of artificial gas who have to pay 

 about a dollar a thousand cubic feet. The 

 average price per thousand cubic feet charged 

 to consimiers of natural gas in the United 

 States in 1917 was about 30 cents. The 

 average price charged to manufacturers was 

 less than 12 cents. 



Most of the towns and cities supplied with 

 natural gas are in New York Pennsylvania, 

 Ohio, West Virginia, Kansas, Oklahoma and 

 California. In Ohio 872,000 domestic con- 

 sumers were supplied in 1917, In Pennsyl- 

 vania 480,000, in California 239,000, in 

 Kansas 188,000, in New York 164,000, in 

 West Virginia 129,000, and in Oklahoma 

 95,000. The industrial consumers, by whom 

 the gas is used for manufactures or for gen- 

 erating power, use twice as much gas as the 

 domestic users. 



