Contemporary advances in sub-atomic chemistry

Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, I shall endeavour to make the discussion as simple as possible, my object being to bring to the notice of the members of The South African Institute of Electrical Engineers the present position as regards the structure of the atom, and more particularly the recent work in connection with the structure of the nucleus. It is my intention to trace the historical development of the earlier conceptions of the electron, the proton and alpha particle and the more recent particles, the neutron, positive electron and the deuton. From the latter I will move the discussion to the new hydrogen and its compounds, in particular heavy water. I shall endeavour to show how the recent investigations on the nucleus led to the discovery of the hydrogen isotopes, and subsequently to the discovery of heavy water and the interesting properties of the latter will be mentioned.