Speaker 1: The forces of nature. The substance filling the universe is
in constant and unceasing motion. Motion is evidenced in every
physical and chemical process and change, and manifested in the
constant interchange of position of the particles of substance. There
is absolutely no rest in nature. Everything is constantly changing, moving,
and vibrating. Building up processes are ever at work, forming
larger masses of bodies of the particles, and tearing down
processes disintegration and decomposition of molecules and atoms and corpuscles
are constantly at work. Also, Nature maintains a constant balance
among her forces. If the building up energies and forces
were allowed full sway, then all the particles in the
universe ultimately would gravitate to a common center, thus forming
a compact and solid mass, which would thus dwell for eternity,
unless the creative power should move upon it and again
scatter its particles in all directions. And if the tearing
down and dispersive forces and energies were allowed full sway,
the particles would fly apart and would remain asunder for
eternity unless called together by some new creative fiat. But
nature pits one force against another, maintaining an equilibrium. The
result is constant play and interplay of forces, causing distribution
and redistribution of particles. Following the gathering together and building
up processes, there is no lost motion or waste force.
One form of force, and motion is converted into another,
and so on and on. Nothing is lost, all forces conserved,
as we shall see as we proceed. In the public mind,
or rather in the mind of that part of the
public which think of the matter at all, there seems
to be an idea that force is something of the
nature of an entity, separate from substance or mind, something
that pounces down upon substance and drives it along by
presence from without. The ancient philosophers regarded substance as acted
upon from without by an entity called force, substance being
regarded as absolutely inert and dead. This idea, which is
still held by the average person, owing doubtless to the
survival of old forms of expression, was generally held by
philosophers until the time of Descart and Newton. This old
idea was due to the teachings of Aristotle, he of
the ether theory and science and philosophy were timid about
shaking off the Aristotelian dogmas. Others held that light, heat,
and electricity were fluids conveyed from body to body. In fact,
the general public still entertains this idea regarding electricity, owing
to the use of the term the electric fluid. The
present teaching of science is that force is the result
of the motion of the particles of substance, and of
course originates from within rather than from without. It is
true that motion may be communicated to a body by
means of another body in motion imparting the same to it,
but that does not alter the case for the original
motion came from the movement and vibration of the particles
of substance, although it may have passed through many stages
of transformation, change, and transmission in its progress. The only
exception to the rule is gravitation, which is a form
of force, the nature of which is unknown to science,
although its laws of operation, et cetera are understood. We
shall learn some new facts about gravitation in the forthcoming
chapters of this book. It will be well for us
to remember this fact in our consideration of force and motion,
that force and motion originate from the inherent property of motion,
passed by the particles of substance, and come from within,
not from without. This is the best teaching of modern
science and also forms an important part of the theory
of dynamic thought, which is advanced in this book. Buckner,
the author of Force and Matter, vigorously insists upon this conception, saying,
among many other similar expressions, force may be defined as
a condition of activity, or a motion of matter, or
of the minutest particles of matter, or a capacity thereof.
The term force is generally defined in works on physics
as that which causes, changes, or terminates motion. The word
force is generally used in the sense of in action,
while energy is usually used in the sense of potential
force capacity for performing work, the idea being that it
is stored up force or force awaiting use. The term
power is used in two senses, the first meaning a
measure of mechanical energy, such as a forty horse power engine,
et cetera. The second sense being capacity or ability to
act or exercise force, this use being almost identical to
the idea of energy as above described, although possibly a
little stronger expression. The materialistic school holds that force is
a property of matter, the latter being regarded as the
real thing of the universe. Others hold that force is
the real thing, and that what is called matter or
substance is but a center of force, et cetera. Others
hold that the two are but aspects of the same thing,
calling the thing by the name matter, force or force. Matter.
Hagel calls the combined thing by the name of substance,
claiming that what are called matter and force are but
a tributes of it, the third attribute being sensation, which
he holds is akin to mind. Haeckel's substance is held
to be eternal and self existent, its own cause. In fact,
in this book, the term substance is not used in
this sense, but merely as synonymous with what science usually
calls matter. The views advanced in this book differ materially
from any of those above mentioned. It being held by
the writer that all forces vital mental force, and consequently
force as a separate thing is considered an unreasonable proposition,
what is called force being considered merely an action of
mind upon substance causing motion. The writer does not intend
to advance this idea at this point, beyond the mere
mentioning of the fact. The theory being brought out and
developed as we proceed, and he will proceed to a
consideration of the phenomena of force along the line of
modern science, believing that in this way the subject may
be better understood. The term motion, as used in physics,
is defined as the act, process, or state of changing
place or position movement Webster. So you see, motion is
the movement of substance, changing place or position. Force is
that which causes changes or terminates motion, and energy is
the capacity for manifesting force and power, the ability to act.
In works on physics, you will notice the expression potential
energy meaning energy awaiting action, also kinetic energy meaning energy
in action that is in motion. We shall not need
these terms in this book, but it is well to
understand them. Another term frequently met with is conservation of energy,
which is used to indicate the law of physics, the
operation ration of which renders energy indestructible. That is, science
holds that energy cannot be destroyed, that it is not
lost or created, but is merely transformed into other forms
of energy, potential or kinetic. Therefore, after energy is used,
it either passes into a state of potential energy or
rest awaiting a future call to activity. Or else is
immediately transformed into another form of kinetic energy or energy
in action. The theory holds that the quantity or amount
of energy in the universe is fixed in its totality.
None may be created or destroyed. There can be no
addition to or subtraction from the totality of energy, that
all energy used has been previously stored up, or else
has been immediately transmitted or transformed. It is also held
that when energy manifests as the result of work performed,
it is always found that it is at the expense
of some previously manifested form of energy. That the agency
by which the work is performed always parts with its
stock of energy, and that the thing worked upon always
acquires or gains the amount of energy lost by the
aforesaid agent or worker. And yet there is no actual
loss or gain, but merely transformation. The above theory is
mentioned as of interest in the general subject, although it
does not play a prominent part in the subject of
this book, for the writer holds that all energy resides
in mind and emerges therefrom and in the end returns
there too. This being believed, it is seen that energy
is not to be thought of as a separate thing
having a totality, but merely as a quality of mind,
the question of its totality or fixed quantity not being
inquired into, although both probably run along the lines of
the nature of mind and depend upon the limitations or
lack of limitations of the latter. However, the question does
not assume a vital importance in our consideration of the subject.
So far as the question of transmission or transformation of
energy is concerned. However, the principles of the law of
conservation of energy may be accepted as correct, although it
more properly belongs to the principle of what has been
called the correlation of force, the idea of which is
that one form of energy may be and is always
transformed into another form, and so on and on. Unto infinity.
This idea is followed in this book, except that the
idea of from mind originally to mind finally is incorporated
within it. This law of the correlation of force may
be illustrated by the following quotation from Tyndall, the great
scientist of the last century, who says a river in
descending from an elevation of seven thousand, seven hundred twenty feet,
generates an amount of heat competent to augment its own
temperature ten degrees fahrenheit, and this amount of heat was
abstracted from the Sun in order to lift the matter
of the river to the elevation from which it falls.
As long as the river continues on the heights, whether
in the solid form or as a glacier, or in
the liquid form as a lake, the heat expended by
the Sun in lifting it has disappeared from the universe.
It has been consumed in the act of lifting. But
at the moment that the river starts upon its downward
course and encounters the resistance of its bed, the heat
expanded in its elevation begins to be restored. The mental eye, indeed,
can follow the emission from its source through the ether
as vibratory motion to the ocean, where it ceases to
be vibration and takes the potential form among the molecules
of aquia vapor to the mountain top, where the heat
absorbed in vaporization is given out in condensation, while that
expended by the Sun in lifting the water to its
present elevation is still unrestored. This we find paid back
to the last unit by the friction along the river's
bed at the bottom of the cascade, where the plunge
of the torrent is suddenly arrested. In the warmth of
the machinery turned by the river, in the spark from
the millstone beneath the crusher of the miner, in the
alpine sawmill, in the milk churn of the chalet, in
the supports of the cradle in which the mountaineer, by
water power rocks his baby to sleep. All the forms
of mechanical motion here indicated are simply the parceling out
of an amount of calorific motion derived originally from the Sun.
And at each point at which the mechanical motion is
destroyed or diminished, it is the Sun's heat which is restored.
The following quotation also is interesting as illustrating another phase
of this law. The work performed by men and other
animals is due to the transformed energy of food. This
food is of vegetable origin and owes its energy to
the solar rays. The energy of men and animals is
therefore the transformed energy of the Sun. Excepting the energy
of the tides, the Sun's rays are the source of
all the forms of energy practically available. It has been
estimated that the heat received by the Earth from the
Sun each year would melt a layer of ice over
the entire globe one hundred feet in thickness. This represents
energy equal to one horse power for each fifty square
feet of surface anthony and bracket. From the above quotations,
it will be seen that the principal and most familiar
sources or great storage batteries of energy apparent to dwellers
upon this planet are one the Earth manifesting the power
of gravitation, and to the Sun manifesting solar heat. In
Tindal's illustration, we see the force of the Sun's energy
heat raising the water from the ocean by evaporation, although
aided by the Earth's gravitation pulling down the heavier air,
allowing the vapor to rise. Then we see the force
of gravitation causes the condensed vapor to fall as rain
or snow on the mountain top, then causing the rain
to run into little streams, and so on until the
river is reached, then causing the river to start on
its downward journey of over seven thousand feet, then causing
it to plunge over the cascade to turn the wheels
that operated the machinery and turn the millstone, and the
crusher of the miner, and the sawmill, and the milk
churn and the cradle, and as Tindall might have added
had he lived a little later, in the running of
the dynamo, which running produced electricity that in turn caused
lights to burn, other machinery to run, and manufacture things,
stoves to cook, flat irons to iron, automobiles and engines
to run, and many other things along the lines of
transmitting energy, force and motion. And in this consideration let
us not forget the important part that gravitation, that most
wonderful of all forces, plays in the grand scheme of nature.
Not only does this force cause the planets to circle
around the Sun, and perhaps that Sun around another Sun,
and so on and on until the matter becomes unthinkable.
Not only this, but it performs a million parts in
the affair of earthly matter. As we shall see in
a later chapter, the force of gravitation is one of
the greatest mysteries confronting science today. Although many believe it
a simple question, gravitation and the universal ether contain the
great secrets of nature that man is striving to unveil.
And yet so common is gravitation that the race, including
almost all the scientists, take it. As a matter of course,
we shall devote much attention to the question of gravitation
in the forthcoming chapters of this book, for it plays
a very important part in the general theory of dynamic
thought upon which this book is based. We shall have
a special chapter devoted to it a little later on,
and the matter will also come up for explanation further
on in the book. But in the meantime, let us
consider the other forms of energy viz. Heat, light, magnetism,
and electricity, which, with gravitation and attraction of other kinds,
form the forces of nature.