PRESENT PROBLEMS IN THE PHYSICS OF MATTER 



BY FRANCIS EUGENE NIPHER 



[Francis Eugene Nipher, Professor of Physics, Washington University, St. Louis 

 Mo. b. December 10, 1847, Port Byron, N. Y. Phil.B. State University of 

 Iowa, 1870; A.M. State University of Iowa, 1875; LL.D. Washington Uni- 

 versity, 1905. Instructor in Physics and Chemistry, State University of Iowa, 

 1870-74; Professor of Physics, Washington University, 1874. Member of 

 Academy of Science of St. Louis, American Physical Society; Fellow of Amer- 

 ican Society for the Advancement of Science. Author of Theory of Magnetic 

 Measurements; Introduction to Graphical Algebra; Electricity and Magnetism; 

 and many scientific papers.] 



IN dealing with the subject allotted to me by the officers of the 

 Congress, I must say that I have not presumed to solve the problems 

 which present themselves at this time, nor do I feel competent even 

 to state many of them. But it is instructive, in a time like this, to 

 attempt a general survey of some of the great questions of the day, 

 with a view of noting their bearing upon the knowledge of the past. 

 We are continually made to feel that all of our inquiries and results 

 must be reexamined, and our conclusions broadened and modified 

 by new phenomena. 



Charles Babbage, whose last published work was, if I mistake not, 

 a review of the London Exposition of 1851, in the Ninth Bridgewater 

 Treatise, gave incidentally, by way of enforcing his thoughts, a review 

 of his earlier work on calculating-machines. His work covered the 

 simple case of a machine composed of wheels and levers, capable of 

 computing the successive terms of any series. The simplest case is 

 an arithmetical series, the differences between the successive terms 

 being unity. This is the device which we now use in the street-cars 

 for counting fares. He asserted the possibility of making a machine, 

 capable of computing the terms of such a series, or of any other, 

 continuing the operation for thousands of years; and pointed out 

 that the machine may be so designed that it will then compute one 

 single arbitrary term, having no relation to the series which had pre- 

 ceded. It may then resume the former series, or it may begin com- 

 puting a geometrical series, or a series of squares or cubes of the 

 natural numbers. A scientific investigator, who is not permitted to 

 see the mechanism, begins to observe and record the series of numbers 

 which are being disclosed on the dials. He soon learns the mathe- 

 matical law of the series. He observes the time-sequence of the suc- 

 cessive terms, and computes the date when this order of things began. 

 He then makes use of his knowledge of other machinery, and makes 

 a working drawing of the hidden mechanism which produces these 

 results. He verifies his work by years of subsequent observations. 

 With what amazement does he finally behold that single arbitrary 



