If technical developments of this kind were to come about, the energy supply would probably not be capable of regulation at all. It makes no difference if we say that we only want a part of those 20 billion calories, and that we should be glad to be able to multiply the 8000 calories required to-day by 100. That is not possible, for if we should succeed in disintegrating the atom, it seems that we should have the billions of calories rushing unchecked on us, and we should find ourselves unable to cope with them, nay, perhaps even the solid ground, on which we move, could not withstand them. No discovery remains a monopoly of only a few people. If a very careful scientist should really succeed in producing a practical heating or driving effect from the atom, then any untrained person would be able to blow up a whole town by means of only a minute quantity of substance. And any suicidal maniac who hated his fellows and wished to pulverize all habitations within a wide range would only have to conceive the plan to carry it out at a moment's notice. All the bombardments that have taken place ever since fire-arms were invented would be mere child's play compared with the destruction that could be caused by two buckets of coal. At intervals we see stars light up in the heavens, and then become extinguished again; from these we infer that world catastrophes have occurred. We do not know whether it is due to the explosion of hydrogen with other gases, or to collisions between two stellar bodies. There is still room for the assumption that, immeasurably far away in yonder regions of celestial space, something is happening which a malevolent inhabitant of our earth, who has discovered the secret of smashing the atom, might here repeat. And even if our imaginations can be stretched to paint the blessings of this release of energy, they certainly fail to conjure up visions of the disastrous effects which would result. Einstein turned to a page in a learned work of the mathematical physicist Weyl of Zürich, and pointed out a part that dealt with such an appalling liberation of energy. It seemed to me to be of the nature of a fervent prayer that Heaven preserve us from such explosive forces ever being let loose on mankind! Subject to present impossibility, it is possible to weave many parallel instances. It is conceivable that by some yet undiscovered process alcohol may be prepared as plentifully and as cheaply as ordinary water. This would end the shortage of alcohol, and would assure delirium tremens for hundreds of thousands. The evil would far outweigh the good, although it might be avoidable, for one can, even if with great difficulty, imagine precautionary measures.