that the great cloth industries
feel the consequence, and nations themselves are affected by the flow of
trade. After all, since the processes of the physical world operate
ultimately through the power and properties of molecules, it is not
surprising that the chemist's work in these and numberless other ways
has such tremendous influence in the world.

Here then by the recognition of the units of matter which Nature has
chosen for herself it has been possible to do great things.

It should be observed that the atom, in spite of its name, is not
something which is incapable of all further division; it is only
incapable of retaining its properties on division. When an atom of
radium breaks down in the unique operation during which its singular
properties are manifested, it dies as radium and becomes two atoms, one
of helium, the other of a different and rare substance. It will interest
you to know that the airships of the future are expected to be filled
with this non-inflammable helium.

The discovery of the atomic nature of electricity came later. Faraday
established the fact that in certain processes there was more than a
hint that electricity was always present in multiples of a definite
unit. In the process called electrolysis the electric current is driven
across a cell full of liquid containing molecules of some substance.
When the electricity passes there is a loosening of the bonds that bind
together the atoms of the molecule, and a separation; atoms of one kind
travel with the electricity across the cell and are deposited where the
current leaves the cell; the other kind travel the opposite way. In this
way for example we deposit silver on metal objects in electro-plating
processes, or separate out the purest copper for certain electrical
purposes. The striking thing which Faraday discovered was that the
number of atoms deposited always bore a very simple relation to the
quantity of electricity that passes. The same current passing in
succession through cells containing different kinds of molecules broke
up the same number of molecules in each cell. It was as if in each
electrolytic cell atoms of matter and atoms of electricity travelled
together. The movement of an atom meant the simultaneous movement of a
definite quantity of electricity. Electricity was, so to speak, done up
in little equal parcels, and an atom of matter on the move, which was
termed an ion, or wanderer, carried, not a vaguely defined amou