The World of Atoms - Twelve Non-Mathematical Letures

183 Pages with Name and Subject Indexes. This is the Second Edition of the 1928 copyright. Four inked lines of previous owner's name on the front endpaper. No other marks and interior text pages are bright, tight, and white. This is the second English edition and every effort has been made to bring the book up to date (1937). In the eight years that have elapsed since the appearance (1929) of the first edition of this book few achievements have aroused such widespread interest as the revolutionary discoveries in atomic physics. New building-stones of matter have been revealed; trustworthy experiments have demonstrated the production and annihilation of matter; and in such common substances as water important and unsuspected admixtures have been found. Most extensive progress has been made in the disintegration and transmutation of the chemical elements and in the production of radioactivity; today, by a profusion of astonishing experiments, old ideas of alchemists in modern form and on an exact foundation have become realities. There is in the process of development a new science of atomic nuclei which perhaps conceals within itself unsuspected possibilities of future industrial exploitation. An account of these recent discoveries is given in the new material of this book which has been adapted throughout to the present state of atomic physics.…