432 On the Sub -Mechanics of the Universe. 



a space without inequalities across the surface beyond which 

 the inequalities are in closest order ; 



That the aberration of light results from the absence of any appre- 

 ciable resistance to the motion of the medium when passing 

 through matter. 



8. It may be somewhat out of the usual course to describe the 

 results of a research before any account has been given of the method 

 by which these results have been obtained ; but in this case the fore- 

 going sketch of the purely mechanical explanation of the physical 

 evidence in the universe by the granular medium has seemed the only 

 introduction possible. And even so it is not with any idea that this 

 introduction can afford any preliminary insight as to the methods by 

 which these results have been obtained. 



Certain steps, as it now appears, were taken for objects quite apart 

 from any idea that they would be steps towards the mechanical solu- 

 tion of the problem of the universe. The first of these steps was 

 taken with the object of finding a mechanical explanation of the sudden 

 change in the rate of flow of the gas in the tubes of a boiler when the 

 velocity reached a certain limit ; perhaps this would be better described 

 as a step towards a step.* 



The second step was the discovery of the thermal transpiration of 

 gas together with the analytical proof of the dimensional properties of 

 matter.! 



The third step was the discovery of the criterion of the two manners 

 of motion of fluids, \ and it was only on taking the fourth step, namely, 

 the study of the action of sand, which revealed dilatancy as the ruling 

 property of all granular media which directed attention to the possi- 

 bility of a mechanical explanation of gravitation. In spite of the 

 apparent possibility all attempts to effect the necessary analysis failed 

 at the time. 



There was, however, a fifth step : the effecting of the analysis for 

 viscous fluids, and the determination of the criterion, || which led to the 

 recognition of the possibility of the analytical separation of the general 

 motion of a fluid into mean varying motion, displacing momentum, 

 and relative motion without mean momentum ; and this suggested the 

 possibility that the medium of space might be granular, the grains 

 being in relative motion, and at the same time being subject to varying 

 mean motion. And this has proved to be the case. 



At the same time it became evident that it was not to be attacked 

 by any method short of the general equations of a conservative system 



* ' Manchester Lit. and Phil. Soc.,' 1874-5, p. 7. 



f ' Phil. Trans.,' 1879. 



I ' Phil. Trans.,' 1883. 



' Phil. Mag.,' 1885. 



|! ' Phil. Trans.,' 1895. 



