Comments on: Splitting the Atom http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2006/01/06/splitting-the-atom/ Yesterday's tomorrow, today. Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:28:09 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Alan B. Barley http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2006/01/06/splitting-the-atom/comment-page-1/#comment-1066467 Alan B. Barley Sun, 08 Mar 2009 18:09:02 +0000 http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2006/01/06/splitting-the-atom/#comment-1066467 Pardon the long comment -- 1913, shortly before WWI, THE WORLD SET FREE was written by H.G. Wells. Building on the recent discoveries of Madam Curie, he predicts A WORLD SET FREE by the benefits of harnessing atomic energy -- only to be doomed by the destructiveness of "RadioActivity Bombs" Written in 1913 !!! Extracts: [A lecturing professor displays 1 pound of uranium ore]....If in one instant I could suddenly release that energy here and now it would blow us and everything about us to fragments; if man could feed [uranium energy] into machinery..... 'It would mean a change in human conditions that I can only compare to the discovery of fire, that first discovery that lifted man above the brute. We stand to-day towards radio-activity as our ancestor stood towards fire before he had learnt to make it. He knew it then only as a strange thing utterly beyond his control, a flare on the crest of the volcano, a red destruction that poured through the forest. So it is that we know radio-activity to-day. This—this is the dawn of a new day in human living. At the climax of that civilisation which had its beginning in the hammered flint and the fire-stick of the savage, just when it is becoming apparent that our ever-increasing needs cannot be borne indefinitely by our present sources of energy, we discover suddenly the possibility of an entirely new civilisation. The energy we need for our very existence, and with which Nature supplies us still so grudgingly, is in reality locked up in inconceivable quantities all about us. "The World Set Free" --- [by atomic energy] H.G. Wells www.gutenberg.org The Project Gutenberg EBook of The World Set Free, by Herbert George Wells is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License. Pardon the long comment — 1913, shortly before WWI, THE WORLD SET FREE was written by H.G. Wells. Building on the recent discoveries of Madam Curie, he predicts A WORLD SET FREE by the benefits of harnessing atomic energy — only to be doomed by the destructiveness of “RadioActivity Bombs”

Written in 1913 !!! Extracts:
[A lecturing professor displays 1 pound of uranium ore]….If in one instant I could suddenly release that energy here and now it would blow us and everything about us to fragments; if man could feed [uranium energy] into machinery…..

‘It would mean a change in human conditions that I can only compare to the discovery of fire, that first discovery that lifted man above the brute. We stand to-day towards radio-activity as our ancestor stood towards fire before he had learnt to make it. He knew it then only as a strange thing utterly beyond his control, a flare on the crest of the volcano, a red destruction that poured through the forest. So it is that we know radio-activity to-day. This—this is the dawn of a new day in human living. At the climax of that civilisation which had its beginning in the hammered flint and the fire-stick of the savage, just when it is becoming apparent that our ever-increasing needs cannot be borne indefinitely by our present sources of energy, we discover suddenly the possibility of an entirely new civilisation. The energy we need for our very existence, and with which Nature supplies us still so grudgingly, is in reality locked up in inconceivable quantities all about us.

“The World Set Free” — [by atomic energy] H.G. Wells
http://www.gutenberg.org
The Project Gutenberg EBook of The World Set Free, by Herbert George Wells is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License.

]]> By: Pomy?ki wielkich fizyk?w - Strona 3 | hilpers http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2006/01/06/splitting-the-atom/comment-page-1/#comment-1064786 Pomy?ki wielkich fizyk?w - Strona 3 | hilpers Sun, 18 Jan 2009 15:22:04 +0000 http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2006/01/06/splitting-the-atom/#comment-1064786 [...] 'Scientific American' o w?a?ciwo?ciach broni j?drowej i wa?nej roli Lise Meitner w ca?ej sprawie: http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2006/...ting-the-atom/ Dlatego dziwne jest to, ze pomini?to j? przy nagrodzie Nobla. WM -- Wys?ano z serwisu Usenet w [...] [...] ‘Scientific American’ o w?a?ciwo?ciach broni j?drowej i wa?nej roli Lise Meitner w ca?ej sprawie: http://blog.modernmechanix.com.....-the-atom/ Dlatego dziwne jest to, ze pomini?to j? przy nagrodzie Nobla. WM — Wys?ano z serwisu Usenet w [...]

]]> By: What if a scientist was too smart? - World War II Forums http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2006/01/06/splitting-the-atom/comment-page-1/#comment-1064335 What if a scientist was too smart? - World War II Forums Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:25:34 +0000 http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2006/01/06/splitting-the-atom/#comment-1064335 [...] was too smart? German scientists were the first to split the atom, they did it in 1939. Splitting the Atom If Hitler had realized what these scientists had, he'd surely have given them alot more resources [...] [...] was too smart? German scientists were the first to split the atom, they did it in 1939. Splitting the Atom If Hitler had realized what these scientists had, he’d surely have given them alot more resources [...]

]]>