Tài liệu NEW AND ORIGINAL THEORIES OF THE GREAT PHYSICAL FORCES doc

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CHAPTER V.
SUN-HEAT, ITS SOURCE AND LIMITS 35
Tendencies to unsettle in science—Present theories—True
source—Earth's part in the process—Sun's part—New
philosophy—Old phenomena and new interpretations—
Auroræ—Well understood processes in confirmation—The
ordinary battery—The Great Sun Battery—Heat without
combustion—Inter-currents—Solution of the problem.
CHAPTER VI.
THE SEASONS 47
Why their varying temperature?—A new philosophy.
CHAPTER VII.
GRAVITY 50
Its essential nature and its source.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE ATMOSPHERE 52
A veritable ocean—How constituted—The vito-magnetic
principle, its extent and character—Its functions—The air
not yet comprehended—Have we been mistaken?—New
light—Electrical induction—Its mode of action and
illustrations—The character and virtue of the vito-magnetic
element.
[Pg xi]
CHAPTER IX.
WINDS 59
Entertained theories erroneous—Their true character—What
gives rise to the currents—Purely vito-magnetic
phenomena—Philosophical considerations drawn from
observation—Whirlwinds, waterspouts, and tornadoes—The
Barbadoes—Manufactured wind—Wind within a wind—
Winds may not arise from presumed causes—A great
cosmical system.
CHAPTER X.
SUN-SPOTS 70
Old theories—Degrees of spot-shadow overestimated—What
spots are not, and what they are—They are caused by
magnetic perturbations—Inconsistency of accepted
theories—Figures that are deceptive—Effects of these
wonderful phenomena—Mistaken conceptions—May not be
tabulated—Unbiassed estimate of their character and
location.
CHAPTER XI.
SOUNDS, AND THEIR TRANSMISSION 77
Essential character and mode of progression—Waves have no
act or part in their conveyance.
CHAPTER XII.
SOME OF THE RESULTS OF THE FOREGOING THEORIES 79
[Pg xii]
Extent and character of their influence—Old channels
obliterated, and new ones developed—Sentiments
changed—Nebular hypothesis—The sun cool, luminous, and
habitable—Celestial spectroscopy—Undulatory theories
ignored—Light instantaneously transmitted—Telephone—
No light nor heat wasted—Extent of the atmosphere of the
spheres—The sun's power overestimated.
CHAPTER XIII.
INFLUENCE OF THE FORCES AS CAUSATION OF DISEASE 84
Meteorological influence—Higher appreciation of the source
of disease, and increased efficiency in its treatment.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE ARTIFICIAL PRODUCTION OF LIGHT, HEAT, AND POWER,
AND THEIR
87
UTILIZATION
CHAPTER XV.
WHY WAS NOT THIS DISCOVERY SOONER MADE? 90
Its consummation nearly perfected by many others—Its
successful accomplishment plainly foretold by Faraday.
APPENDIX 97

[Pg xiii]
ILLUSTRATIONS.


PAGE

I.— THE SOLAR CONE, OR CONE-SPACE 30
II.—

THE SEASONS. SUMMER 48
III.—

" " WINTER 49
IV.—

MANUFACTURED WIND. (From DESCHANEL'S Natural Philosophy) 66
V.—

THE SOLAR CONE, OR CONE-SPACE 109

[Pg 16]
"If we suppose the sun and fixed stars to be gigantic fountains of magnetic influence,
acting upon our globe and its atmosphere, and likewise upon all the other planets, the
phenomena of the universe would then become susceptible of the grandest and
simplest interpretations."—CROSSLAND.
"Are not the sun and fixed stars great earths vehemently hot?"—NEWTON.
"Herschel's fixed idea was that the darkness of a spot upon the sun was an indication
of a cool and habitable globe."—HUMBOLDT.
"The sun as the main source of light and heat must be able to call forth and animate
magnetic forces on our planet."—Ibid.

[Pg 17]
THE
GREAT PHYSICAL FORCES.

CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
The Sun.
The sun's position in the great field of energy is daily becoming more exalted in the
estimation of philosophic minds. His labors are being revealed to us with a
distinctness never before conceived. He it is that stored the coal in the bosom of the
earth, and piled up the polar ice. He it is that aids the chemist, drives the engine,
ripens the harvest, dispenses life and health.
The study of the sun and solar physics, therefore, must be essential to the right
understanding of whatever we observe to take place at the earth. Sun and earth are
united in indissoluble bonds. In philosophic minds [Pg 18]the conviction of a most
perfect inter-dependence is rapidly gaining ground.
All this has been known and appreciated to a degree, yet this great source of universal
operations is shrouded in mystery. Still, our curiosity has been kindled, and men are
eagerly looking for further developments.
Natural Science, in all her branches, is fully awake, and is on her watch-tower of
observation. Ignorance of the sun, of its character, and of the methods by which its
functions are performed, must be confessed; notwithstanding all the more recent
unfoldings and imaginings of scientists, regarding the great orb. But yet we are very
hopeful of vast increase in our solar knowledge; not alone, or chiefly, by new
observations, or discoveries, but quite as much by new interpretations of old, long
observed phenomena. The ground of hopefulness lies in the belief that a grand
unity underlies, and binds together in one, all Physical Forces, as well in earth and
sun.
While regarding the sun as all, and more than all that has ever been claimed for it, still
we are impressed most strongly that the sun has social relations with his planets,
which have never been duly considered by the masters in science. The sun acts, but it
must [Pg 19]also be that the earth and planets react. The sun gives and dispenses
favors, but science has too much overlooked the great fact that the sun receives and
sympathizes.
Let our philosophy but accept the idea that the sun rouses the earth into action
through their mutual relationships; that the two interchange good offices and
essential services, rather than that the sun is wholly independent, and simply gives
outright, as philosophy has hitherto conceived, and we think that the dawn of a better
day has come.
The new philosophy, in our opinion, will teach that the sun gives in such a way that he
will not be impoverished; that though bountiful, he is not wasteful; that though he
freely gives, yet that he also as freely receives in return.
The new philosophy will be true to correlation, and it will be true to conservation as
well.
Table of Contents

[Pg 20]
CHAPTER II.
WHAT IS PROPOSED.
In the following pages I shall endeavor to set forth, in a simple and orderly manner,
certain of my own theories of the Great Physical Forces.
In these theories will be comprised the identity of those forces, the intimate and
essential nature of sunlight, sun-heat, gravity, sun-spots, winds and sounds, also the
intimate nature of the atmosphere.
In treating these subjects my opinions will not be found in accord with those which
receive universal assent at the present time, and I may thus unintentionally offend. I
shall therefore claim exceeding indulgence.
If I differ from high authority, I have not a thought of detraction. None can venerate
the NESTORS in science who have enriched its annals, more than I, and though we
reverse their judgments, their errors are confessedly our indispensable helps and
guides.
[Pg 21]
The Great Problem.
The problem of the great physical forces has engaged the profoundest attention of
mankind from the earliest historic period down to the present time, yet it remains
practically unsolved.
Before the Christian era the opinion was entertained that all of the phenomena of
nature might be reduced to one principle of explanation; that there was more than a
connection between the imponderable agents—more than a relationship even,—that
there was an actual identity.
No substantial progress was thereafter made in the direction of verifying this theory
until along into the present century, when the development of electrical science
presented a tangible basis for successful investigation.
The correlation of nearly all of those forces is now assured, leaving little to be added
besides gravity to complete the unity. Yet notwithstanding the satisfactory progress
which has been made in solving the grand problem of their correlation, little has been
learned of their intimate nature, and the method of their operation. This is due, in the
highest degree, to certain theories which [Pg 22]were developed, and which made
their way, pari passu, with the advancements of electrical and electro-magnetic
science. These theories, specious, inconsistent, illogical, yet withal plausible, and even
fascinating, served to blind the mental vision so that mankind might not appreciate the
truth.
[1]

The hypothesis promulgated by BRUNO, KANT and LAPLACE, of the nebular origin of
the spheres, and the deductions consequent thereupon, in regard to the progressive
stages through which the earth in its developments has passed, was pernicious in its
influence in diverting the minds of investigators from other and truer channels. To the
blind confidence with which that hypothesis has been universally accepted and
perpetuated, and to the fallacious theories thus directly and indirectly engendered, we
owe our false position at the present day.
The present theories of the transmission of light and sound; of the production of
winds, and sun-spots, and of the method of development and dissemination of heat,
are in point of fact, unphilosophical and incomprehensible.
[Pg 23]
It is quite remarkable that in the present century, excelling as it does any period in the
world's history in exact and reliable scientific knowledge, such unsatisfactory opinions
should obtain. The failure is still more inexplicable when we reflect that these subjects
are in importance the highest which can engage our attention as scientists.
We have at the present time sufficient reliable data whereon to found satisfactory
hypotheses. We have but to utilize the means which the true scientists of the century
have so wonderfully developed, and with which they have so prodigally surrounded
us, in order to complete the consummation of the great and crowning achievement in
physical science.

[1] Appendix, p. 97.
Table of Contents

[Pg 24]
CHAPTER III.
THE GREAT FORCES, THEIR CHARACTER AND OPERATIONS.
I now ask, What is the intimate and inherent nature of those forces? Do they, or either
of them, belong to the domain of the supernatural? Are they the products of some
supreme force, or forces, heretofore unappreciated? The reply is clear and
unquestionable. The supernatural must necessarily be a part of the Divine Essence,
and consequently intangible. Not so the subjects of our inquiry. They are natural
products, therefore, and the result of the operation of some power commensurate with
the stupendousness of their manifestations.
Sunlight and Sun-heat.
In the forces, light, and heat, what immensity of power is represented! Strangely
enough we have ever imagined these forces to be the unaided work of the sun, as
though that luminary could be capable of sending [Pg 25]forth in undiminished
exuberance, such marvels of force, during all the ages, and remain itself unexhausted!
The Great Law of Conservation of Force.
But how speaks the law of conservation, that law most enduring, and most inexorable?
According to the decrees of that law, whatever is received by the earth from the sun,
an equivalent for the same must again be returned from the earth to the sun, to the
uttermost fraction.
[2]
Such being the conditions, how may this retro-acting process that
all analogy and the profoundest scientific axiom prove to be in constant operation—
how, I ask, may this retro-acting process be explained? What equivalent may the earth
give back as compensation for such enormous benefits, for such stupendous powers?
The laws of conservation may not be violated: the earth will respond.
How are the Spheres constructed?
The constitution of these two retro-acting spheres, and consequently of all the others
of [Pg 26]the heavenly host,
[3]
at this point demands our attention. How are the
spheres made up? How speaks the earth? The earth with which we are familiar—our
sample—is formed of a slight crust, a core, to a greater or less extent and degree