An intimate study of natural phenomena and a lengthened experience in physical research have resulted in the formation of certain generalisations and deductions which I now present in this volume. I have reached the conclusion that every physical phenomenon is due to the operation of energy transformations or energy transmissions embodied in material, and takes place under the action or influence of incepting energy fields. In any instance the precise nature of the phenomena is dependent on the peculiar form of energy actively engaged, on the nature of the material to which this energy is applied, and on the nature of the incepting field which influences the process. In the course of the work several concrete cases are discussed, in which these features of energy are illustrated and explained by the use of simple experimental apparatus. It is hoped that, by this means, the distinctive differences which exist in the manifestations of energy, in its transformation, in its transmission, and in its incepting forms will be rendered clear to the reader. I have to express my indebtedness to Mr. James Affleck, B.Sc., for his assistance in the preparation of this work for publication.
JAMES WEIR.
Over Courance,
Lockerbie, Scotland.
The main principles on which the present work is founded were broadly outlined in the author's Terrestrial Energy in 1883, and also in a later paper in 1892.
The views then expressed have since been amply verified by the course of events. In the march of progress, the forward strides of science have been of gigantic proportions. Its triumphs, however, have been in the realm, not of speculation or faith, but of experiment and fact. While, on the one hand, the careful and systematic examination and co-ordination of experimental facts has ever been leading to results of real practical value, on the other, the task of the theorists, in their efforts to explain phenomena on speculative grounds, has become increasingly severe, and the results obtained have been decreasingly satisfactory. Day by day it becomes more evident that not one of the many existing theories is adequate to the explanation of the known phenomena: but, in spite of this obvious fact, attempts are still constantly being made, even by most eminent men, to rule the results of experimental science into line with this or that accepted theory. The contradictions are many and glaring, but speculative methods are still rampant. They have become the fashion, or rather the fetish, of modern science. It would seem that no experimental result can be of any value until it is deductively accommodated to some preconceived hypothesis, until it is embodied and under the sway of what is practically scientific dogma. These methods have permeated all branches of science more or less, but in no sphere has the tendency to indulge in speculation been more pronounced than in that which deals with energetics. In no sphere, also, have the consequences of such indulgence been more disastrous. For the most part, the current conceptions of energy processes are crude, fanciful, and inconsistent with Nature. They require for their support—in fact, for their very existence—the acceptance of equally fantastic conceptions of mythical substances or ethereal media of whose real existence there is absolutely no experimental evidence. On the assumed properties or motions of such media are based the many inconsistent and useless attempts to explain phenomena. But, as already pointed out, Nature has unmistakably indicated the true path of progress to be that of experimental investigation. In the use of this method only phenomena can be employed, and any hypothesis which may be formulated as the result of research on these lines is of scientific value only in so far as it is the correct expression of the actual facts observed. By this method of holding close to Nature reliable working hypotheses can, if necessary, be formed, and real progress made. It is undeniably the method of true science.
In recent years much attention has been devoted to certain speculative theories with respect to the origin and ultimate nature of matter and energy. Such hypotheses, emanating as they do from prominent workers, and fostered by the inherent imaginative tendency of the human mind, have gained considerable standing. But it is surely unnecessary to point out that all questions relating to origins are essentially outside the pale of true science. Any hypotheses which may be thus formulated have not the support of experimental facts in their conclusions; they belong rather to the realm of speculative philosophy than to that of science. In the total absence of confirmatory phenomena, such theories can, at best, only be regarded as plausible speculations, to be accepted, it may be, without argument, and ranking in interest in the order of their plausibility.
Of modern research into the ultimate constitution of matter little requires to be said. It is largely founded on certain radio-active and electrical phenomena which, in themselves, contribute little information. But aided by speculative methods and the use of preconceived ethereal hypotheses, various elaborate theories have been formulated, explaining matter and its properties entirely in terms of ethereal motions. Such conceptions in their proper sphere—namely, that of metaphysics—would be no doubt of interest, but when advanced as a scientific proposition or solution they border on the ridiculous. In the absence of phenomena bearing on the subject, it would seem that the last resort of the modern scientist lies in terminology. To the average seeker after truth, however, the term "matter," as applied to the material world, will still convey as much meaning as the more elaborate scientific definitions.
It is not the purpose of this work to add another thread to the already tangled skein of scientific theory. It is written, rather, with the conviction, that it is impossible ever to get really behind or beyond phenomena; in the belief that the complete description of any natural process is simply the complete description of the associated phenomena, which may always be observed and co-ordinated but never ultimately explained. Phenomena must ever be accepted simply as phenomena—as the inscrutable manifestations of Nature. By induction from phenomena it is indeed possible to rise to working hypotheses, and thence, it may be, to general conceptions of Nature's order, and as already pointed out, it is to this method, of accepting phenomena, and of reasoning only from experimental facts, that all the advances of modern science are due. On the other hand, it is the neglect of this method—the departure, as it were, from Nature—which has led to the introduction into the scientific thought of the day of the various ethereal media with their extreme and contradictory properties. The use of such devices really amounts to an admission of direct ignorance of phenomena. They are, in reality, an attempt to explain natural operations by a highly artificial method, and, having no basis in fact, their whole tendency is to proceed, in ever-increasing degree, from one absurdity to another.
It is quite possible to gain a perfectly true and an absolutely reliable knowledge of the properties of matter and energy, and the part which each plays, without resorting to speculative aids. All that is required is simply accurate and complete observation at first hand. The field of research is wide; all Nature forms the laboratory. By this method every result achieved may be tested and verified, not by its concurrence with any approved theory, however plausible, but by direct reference to phenomena. The verdict of Nature will be the final judgment on every scheme.
It is on these principles, allied with the great generalisations with respect to the conservation of matter and energy, that this work is founded. As the result of a long, varied, and intimate acquaintance with Nature, and much experimental research in many spheres, the author has reached the conclusion, already foreshadowed in Terrestrial Energy, that the great principle of energy conservation is true, not only in the universal and generally accepted sense, but also in a particular sense with respect to all really separate bodies, such as planetary masses in space. Each of these bodies, therefore, forms within itself a completely conservative energy system. This conclusion obviously involves the complete denial of the transmission of energy in any form across interplanetary space, and the author, in this volume, now seeks to verify the conclusion by the direct experimental evidence of terrestrial phenomena.
Under present-day conditions in science, the acceptance of the ordinary doctrine of transmission across space involves likewise the acceptance of the existence of an ethereal substance which pervades all space and forms the medium by which such transmission is carried out. The properties of this medium are, of course, precisely adapted to its assumed function of transmission. These properties it is not necessary to discuss, for when the existence of the transmission itself has been finally disproved, the necessity for the transmitting medium clearly vanishes.
GENERAL STATEMENT
The object of this statement is to outline and illustrate, in simple fashion, a broad and general conception of the operation and interaction of matter and energy in natural phenomena.
Such a conception may be of value to the student of Nature, in several ways. In modern times the general tendency of scientific work is ever towards specialisation, with its corresponding narrowness of view. A broad outlook on Nature is thus eminently desirable. It enables the observer to perceive to some extent the links uniting the apparently most insignificant of natural processes to those of seemingly greater magnitude and importance. In this way a valuable idea of the natural world as a whole may be gained, which will, in turn, tend generally to clarify the aspect of particular operations. A broad general view of Nature also leads to the appreciation of the full significance of the great doctrines of the conservation of matter and energy. By its means the complete verification of these doctrines, which appears to be beyond human experiment, may be traced on the face of Nature throughout the endless chain of natural processes. Such a view also leads to a firm grasp of the essential nature and qualities of energy itself so far as they are revealed by its general function in phenomena.
In the scheme now to be outlined, matter and energy are postulated at the commencement without reference to their ultimate origin or inherent nature. They are accepted, in their diverse forms, precisely as they are familiar from ordinary terrestrial experience and phenomena.
For the purpose of general illustration the reader is asked to conceive a mass of heterogeneous matter, concentrated round a given point in space, forming a single body. This mass is assumed to be assembled and to obtain its coherent form in virtue of that universal and inherent property of matter, namely, gravitative or central attraction. This property is independent of precise energy conditions, its outward manifestation being found simply in the persistent tendency of matter on all occasions to press or force itself into the least possible space. In the absence of all disturbing influences, therefore, the configuration of this mass of matter, assumed assembled round the given point, would naturally, under the influence of this gravitative tendency, resolve itself into that of a perfect sphere. The precise magnitude or dimensions of the spherical body thus constituted are of little moment in the discussion, but, for illustrative purposes, it may, in the meantime, be assumed that in mass it is equivalent to our known solar system. It is also assumed to be completely devoid of energy, and as a mass to be under the influence of no external constraint. Under these conditions, the spherical body may obviously be assumed as stationary in space, or otherwise as moving with perfectly uniform velocity along a precisely linear path. Either conception is justifiable. The body has no relative motion, and since it is absolutely unconstrained no force could be applied to it and no energy expenditure would be required for its linear movement.
Nature, however, does not furnish us with any celestial or other body fulfilling such conditions. Absolutely linear motion is unknown, and matter is never found divorced from energy. To complete the system, therefore, the latter factor is required, and, with the advent of energy to the mass, its prototype may be found in the natural world.
This energy is assumed to be communicated in that form which we shall term "work" energy (§§ 13, 31) and which, as a form of energy, will be fully dealt with later. This "work" energy is assumed to be manifested, in the first place, as energy of motion. As already pointed out, no expenditure of energy can be associated with a linear motion of the mass, since that motion is under no restraint, but in virtue of the initial central attraction or gravitative strain, the form of energy first communicated may be that of kinetic energy of rotation. Its transmission to the mass will cause the latter to revolve about some axis of symmetry within itself. Each particle of the mass thus pursues a circular path with reference to that axis, and has a velocity directly proportional to its radial displacement from it.
This energised rotating spherical mass is thus the primal conception of the energy scheme now to be outlined. It will be readily seen that, as a primal conception, it is essentially and entirely natural; so much so, indeed, that any one familiar with rotatory motion might readily predict from ordinary experience the resulting phenomena on which the scheme is, more or less, based.
When energy is applied to the mass, the first phenomenon of note will be that, as the mass rotates, it departs from its originally spherical shape. By the action of what is usually termed centrifugal force, the rotating body will be distorted; it will be flattened at the polar or regions of lowest velocity situated at the extremities of the axis of rotation, and it will be correspondingly distended at the equatorial or regions of highest velocity. The spherical body will, in fact, assume a more or less discoidal form according to the amount of energy applied to it; there will be a redistribution of the original spherical matter; certain portions of the mass will be forced into new positions more remote from the central axis of rotation.
These phenomena of motion are the outward evidence of certain energy processes. The distortional movement of the material is carried out against the action and within the field of certain forces which exist in the mass of material in virtue of its gravitative or cohesive qualities. It is carried out also in virtue of the application of energy to the sphere, which energy has been, as it were, transformed or worked down, in the distortional movement, against the restraining action of this gravitation field or influence. The outward displacement of the material from the central axis is thus coincident with a gain of energy to the mass, this gain of energy being, of course, at the expense of, and by the direct transformation of, the originally applied energy. It is stored in the distorted material as energy of position, potential energy, or energy of displacement relative to the central axis. But, in the distortive movement, the mass will also gain energy in other forms. The movement of one portion of its material relative to another will give rise (since it is carried out under the gravitational influence) to a fractional process in which, as we know from terrestrial experience, heat and electrical energy will make their appearance. These forms of energy will give rise, in their turn, to all the phenomena usually attendant on their application to material. As already pointed out also, the whole mass gains, in varying degree, energy of motion or kinetic energy. It would appear, then, that although energy was nominally applied to the mass in one form only, yet by its characteristic property of transformation it has in reality manifested itself in several entirely different forms. It is important to note the part played in these transformation processes by the gravitation field or influence. Its action really reveals one of the vital working principles of energetics. This principle may be generally stated thus:—
Every Transformation of Energy is carried out by the Action of Energised Matter in the Lines or Field of an Incepting Energy Influence.
In the particular case we have just considered, the incepting field is simply the inherent gravitative property of the energised mass. This property is manifested as an attractive force between portions of matter. This, however, is not of necessity the only aspect of an incepting influence. In the course of this work various instances of transformation will be presented in which the incepting influence functions in a guise entirely different. It is important to note that the incepting influence itself is in no way changed, altered, or transformed during the process of transformation which it influences.
It is clear that the material at different parts of the rotating spheroid will be energised to varying degrees. Since the linear velocity of the material in the equatorial regions of the spheroid is greater than that of the material about the poles, the energy of motion of the former will exceed that of the latter, the difference becoming greater as the mass is increasingly energised and assumes more and more the discoidal form.
The question now arises as to how far this process of energising the material mass may be carried. What are its limits? The capacity of the rotating body for energy clearly depends on the amount of work which may be spent on its material in distorting it against the influence of the gravitative attraction. The amount is again dependent on the strength of this attraction. But the value of the gravitative attraction or gravitation field is, by the law of gravitation, in direct proportion to the quantity of material or matter present, and hence the capacity of the body for energy depends on its mass or on the quantity of matter which composes it.
Now if energy be impressed on this mass beyond its capacity a new order of phenomena appears. Distortion will be followed by disruption and disintegration. By the action of the disruptive forces a portion of the primary material will be projected into space as a planetary body. The manner of formation of such a secondary body is perhaps best illustrated by reference to the commonplace yet beautiful and suggestive phenomenon of the separation of a drop of water or other viscous fluid under the action of gravitation. In this process, during the first downward movement of the drop, it is united to its source by a portion of attenuated material which is finally ruptured, one part moving downwards and being embodied in the drop whilst the remainder springs upwards towards the source. In the process of formation of the planetary body we are confronted with an order of phenomena of somewhat the same nature. The planetary orb which is hurled into space is formed in a manner similar to the drop of viscous fluid, and under the action of forces of the same general nature. One of these forces is the bond of gravitative attraction between planet and primary which is never severed, and when complete separation of the two masses finally occurs, the incessant combination of this force with the tangential force of disruption acting on the planet will compel it into a fixed orbit, which it will pursue around the central axis. When all material links have thus been severed, the two bodies will then be absolutely separate masses in space. The term "separate" is here used in its most rigid and absolute sense. No material connection of any kind whatever exists, either directly or indirectly, between the two masses. Each one is completely isolated from the other by interplanetary space, and in reality, so far as material connection is concerned, each one might be the sole occupant of that space. This conception of separate masses in space is of great importance to the author's scheme, but, at the same time, the condition is one which cannot be illustrated by any terrestrial experimental contrivance. It will be obvious that such a device, as might naturally be conceived, of isolating two bodies by placing them in an exhausted vessel or vacuous space, by no means complies with the full conditions of true separation portrayed above, because some material connection must always exist between the enclosed bodies and the containing vessel. This aspect is more fully treated later (§ 30). The condition of truly separate masses is, in fact, purely a celestial one. No means whatever are existent whereby such a condition may be faithfully reproduced in a terrestrial environment.
In their separate condition the primary and planetary mass will each possess a definite and unvarying amount of energy. It is to be noted also, that since the original mass of the primary body has been diminished by the mass of the planet cast off, the capacity for energy of the primary will now be diminished in a corresponding degree. Any further increment of energy to the primary in any form has now, however, no direct influence on the energy of the planet, which must maintain its position of complete isolation in its orbit. But although thus separate and distinct from the primal mass in every material respect, the planet is ever linked to it by the invisible bond of gravitation, and every movement made by the planet in approaching or receding from the primary is made in the field or influence of this attraction. In accordance, therefore, with the general principle already enunciated (§ 4), these actions or movements of the energised planetary mass, being made in the field of the incepting gravitative influence, will be accompanied by transformations, and thus the energy of the planet, although unvarying in its totality, may vary in its form or distribution with the inward or outward movement of the planet in its orbital path. As the planet recedes from the primary it gains energy of position, but this gain is obtained solely at the expense, and by the direct transformation of its own orbital energy of motion. Its velocity in its orbit must, therefore, decrease as it recedes from the central axis of the system, and increase as it approaches that axis. Thus from energy considerations alone it is clear that, if the planetary orbit is not precisely circular, the velocity of the planet must vary at different points of its path.
From the phenomena described above, it will be observed that, in the energy processes of transformation occurring in both primary and planet, the function of the gravitation field or influence is entirely passive in nature. The field is, in truth, the persistent moving or directing power behind the energy processes, the incepting energy influence or agency which determines the nature of the transformation in each case without being, in any way, actively engaged in it. In accelerating or retarding the transformation process it has thus absolutely no effect. These features are controlled by other factors. Neither does this incepting agency affect, in any way, the limits of the transformation process, these limits being prescribed by the physical or energy qualities of the acting materials. In general nature the gravitation field appears to be simply an energy influence—a peculiar manifestation of certain passive qualities of energy. This aspect will, however, become clearer to the reader when the properties of gravitation are studied in conjunction with those of other incepting energy influences (§§ 17, 18, 19).
In the case of a planetary body, there is a real limit to the extent of the transformation of its orbital energy of motion under the influence of the gravitation field. As the orbit of the planet widens, and its mean distance from the primary becomes greater, its velocity in its orbital path must correspondingly decrease. As already pointed out (§ 5