KELVIN 187 



with radio-active bodies, and frequently alluded to 

 electrons as "chipped atoms." 



The forces of the material universe, such as cohesion, 

 adhesion, heat, electricity, magnetism, etc., engaged the 

 attention of Kelvin. Though the amount of energy in 

 the universe is constant, it is always being degraded from 

 higher to lower forms. This is Kelvin's law of the 

 " dissipation of energy," which means that the universe 

 is not a clock wound up to go for ever. Energy is every 

 moment running down, and sometime in the measureless 

 past must have been started, and sometime in the 

 unbounded future it must be wound up again, or stop 

 for ever. 



Kelvin's theory of vortex motions, as applied to 

 atoms and molecules, is of vast importance. It is a type 

 of motion in a frictionless, incompressible, primordial 

 fluid which might account for the known properties of 

 matter. 



Many of Kelvin's papers are only understood by 

 expert mathematicians. There is hardly a department 

 in physics which he did not make his own : molecular 

 physics, electricity, dynamics, the theory of gases, heat, 

 thermo- dynamics, the theory of energy, etc. 



Kelvin was also a great inventor, and his appliances 

 are manufactured by Messrs James White of Glasgow, 

 who employ nearly two hundred skilled workmen and 

 electricians. 



