‘It Must Give Off and Receive Light Like a Tiny Space Station’ – Kenneth Snelson’s Atoms

titlePortrait of an Atom – Kenneth Snelson [1984]

‘I’ve longed to see a life-sized replica atom, perhaps with robotic controls, to watch it perform its virtuoso assortment of tricks and tasks; of transmitting light and, catching it again, expanding and contracting….to see it demolished only to self-reconstruct…to watch its host of electrons flashing about the nucleus, forming the frictionless perpetual motion machine that a real atom is.‘ From Portrait of an Atom – Kenneth Snelson

From the classic motifs of Rutherford and Bohr’s planetary models to Schroedinger’s electron position probability clouds, the history of visualising the atom is one of a series of models, each one superseding the previous through new insights in quantum behaviour. After Heisenberg’s Uncertainly Principle the visualisation of atomic configurations, in reality unworkable due to quantum indeterminacy, had pretty much reached a dead end.

In the 1960’s sculptor Kenneth Snelson began to model the atom’s electronic structure based on symmetry laws for circles by correlating circle groups with quantum numbers that described the properties of electrons in atoms. Though the hunt for the ‘real’ atom, had been rejected by science it remained in Snelson’s mind that ‘we might one day find out what an atom would be like in a photographic facsimile or a sculptured replica’

‘It must give off and receive light like a tiny space station. It can remain stable and resist collapse under great pressure. It collects and organizes its electrons in shells around the nucleus. It puts to use all of its electrical, dynamic and magnetic forces in it structure. It can attach itself to other atoms in molecules and crystals with astonishing virtuosity. And though its electrons are in rapid and perpetual motion, it can sit in tranquility in a rock for eternity’ – Kenneth Snelson

Portrait of an Atom - Kenneth SnelsonRing Assemblies Representing 4 Complete Electron Shells – A Design for the Atom [1963]

Portrait of an Atom - Kenneth SnelsonStudy for a Big Atom – Kenneth Snelson [1965]

Portrait of an Atom - Kenneth SnelsonAtomic Model Patent – Kenneth Snelson [1978]

Portrait of an Atom - Kenneth SnelsonAtomic Model Patent – Kenneth Snelson [1978]

Portrait of an Atom - Kenneth SnelsonAtomic Model Patent – Kenneth Snelson [1978]

Portrait of an Atom - Kenneth SnelsonStudy for Atomic Space 3 – Kenneth Snelson [1964]

Portrait of an Atom - Kenneth SnelsonAtom Piece – Kenneth Snelson [1964]

Portrait of an Atom - Kenneth SnelsonThree Shell Magnet Piece – Kenneth Snelson [1976]

Portrait of an Atom - Kenneth SnelsonStu’s Atom – Kenneth Snelson [2009]

Portrait of an Atom - Kenneth SnelsonAtomic Model Patent – Kenneth Snelson [1966]

Portrait of an Atom - Kenneth SnelsonAtomic Model Patent – Kenneth Snelson [1966]

Portrait of an Atom - Kenneth SnelsonAtomic Model Patent – Kenneth Snelson [1966]

Portrait of an Atom - Kenneth SnelsonAtomic Model Patent – Kenneth Snelson [1966]

Portrait of an Atom - Kenneth SnelsonStudy for Atomic Space 6 – Kenneth Snelson [1965]

Portrait of an Atom - Kenneth SnelsonStudy for Atomic Space 5 – Kenneth Snelson [1965]

Related Posts:
Robert le Ricolais’s Tensegrity Models – ‘The Art of Structure is Where to Put the Holes’
Spatiologies – Vittorio Giorgini

3 Responses to “‘It Must Give Off and Receive Light Like a Tiny Space Station’ – Kenneth Snelson’s Atoms”

  1. Bookmarks for May 26th | Chris's Digital Detritus writes:

    […] ‘It Must Give Off and Receive Light Like a Tiny Space Station’ – Kenneth Snelson&r… – […]

  2. ben writes:

    amazing. thank you for that find! ben

  3. Ross writes:

    Two Words: “Bussard’s Polywell”

    Fabulous work.

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