Doc Deduce Smoke of Eternity

In a few quick sentences, Doc Savage told of the existence of the horrible stuff called Smoke of Eternity.

"I am not sure what the Smoke of Eternity is," Doc explained. "But I have an idea what it could be. When the substance dissolves anything, there is a weird electrical display. This leads me to believe it operates through the disintegration of atoms. In other words, the dissolving is simply a disruption of the atomic structure."

"I thought it was generally believed there would be a great explosion once the atom was shattered!" Johnny murmured.

"That was largely disproved by recent accomplishments of scientists who have succeeded in cracking the atom," Doc corrected. "I have experimented extensively along that line myself. There is no explosion, for the very simple reason that it takes as much energy to shatter the atom as is released."

- The Land of Terror (1933) Chapter 8