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_THE ROMANCE OF SCIENCE_


THE MACHINERY OF THE UNIVERSE

MECHANICAL CONCEPTIONS OF
PHYSICAL PHENOMENA


BY
A. E. DOLBEAR, A.B., A.M., M.E., PH.D.

PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY, TUFTS COLLEGE, MASS.


PUBLISHED UNDER GENERAL LITERATURE COMMITTEE.


LONDON:
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE,
NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, W.C.;
43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C.

BRIGHTON: 129, NORTH STREET.

NEW YORK: E. & J. B. YOUNG & CO.

1897.




PREFACE


For thirty years or more the expressions "Correlation of the Physical
Forces" and "The Conservation of Energy" have been common, yet few
persons have taken the necessary pains to think out clearly what
mechanical changes take place when one form of energy is transformed
into another.

Since Tyndall gave us his book called _Heat as a Mode of Motion_ neither
lecturers nor text-books have attempted to explain how all phenomena are
the necessary outcome of the various forms of motion. In general,
phenomena have been attributed to _forces_--a metaphysical term, which
explains nothing and is merely a stop-gap, and is really not at all
needful in these days, seeing that transformable modes of motion, easily
perceived and understood, may be substituted in all cases for forces.

In December 1895 the author gave a lecture before the Franklin Institute
of Philadelphia, on "Mechanical Conceptions of Electrical Phenomena," in
which he undertook to make clear what happens when electrical phenomena
appear. The publication of this lecture in _The Journal of the Franklin
Institute_ and in _Nature_ brought an urgent request that it should be
enlarged somewhat and published in a form more convenient for the
public. The enlargement consists in the addition of a chapter on the
"_Contrasted Properties of Matter and the Ether_," a chapter containing
something which the author believes to be of philosophical importance in
these days when electricity is so generally described as a phenomenon of
the ether.

A. E. DOLBEAR.




TABLE OF CONTENTS


CHAPTER I

Ideas of phenomena ancient and modern, metaphysical and
    mechanical--Imponderables--Forces, invented and
    discarded--Explanations--Energy, its factors, Kinetic
    and Potential--Motions, kinds and transformations
    of--Mechanical, molecular, and atomic--Invention of
    Ethers, Faraday's conceptions                            p. 7


CHAPTER II

Properties of Matter and Ether compared--Discontinuity
    _versus_ Continuity--Size of atoms--Astronomical
    distances--Number of atoms in the universe--Ether
    unlimited--Kinds of Matter, permanent qualities
    of--Atomic structure; vortex-rings, their
    properties--Ether structureless--Matter
    gravitative, Ether not--Friction in Matter, Ether
    frictionless--Chemical properties--Energy in
    Matter and in Ether--Matter as a transformer
    of Energy--Elasticity--Vibratory rates and
    waves--Density--Heat--Indestructibility of
    Matter--Inertia in Matter and in Ether--Matter
    not inert--Magnetism and Ether waves--States
    of Matter--Cohesion and chemism affected by
    temperature--Shearing stress in Solids and in
    Ether--Ether pressure--Sensation dependent upon
    Matter--Nervous system not affected by Ether
    states--Other stresses in Ether--Transformations
    of Motion--Terminology                                  p. 24


CHAPTER III

Antecedents of Electricity--Nature of what is
    transformed--Series of transformations for the
    production of light--Positive and negative
    Electricity--Positive and negative twists--Rotations
    about a wire--Rotation of an arc--Ether a
    non-conductor--Electro-magnetic waves--Induction
    and inductive action--Ether stress and atomic
    position--Nature of an electric current--Electricity
    a condition, not an entity                              p. 94




CHAPTER I

Ideas of phenomena ancient and modern, metaphysical and
    mechanical--Imponderables--Forces, invented and
    discarded--Explanations--Energy, its factors, Kinetic
    and Potential--Motions, kinds and transformations
    of--Mechanical, molecular, and atomic--Invention of
    Ethers, Faraday's conceptions.

'And now we might add something concerning a most subtle spirit
    which pervades and lies hid in all gross bodies, by the force
    and action of which spirit the particles of bodies attract