394 Structure of the Universe 



four in its own layer, making twelve in all. There are therefore 

 twelve grains piled around each grain. This then is the arrange- 

 ment or piling of the grains throughout the universe of space where 

 no matter exists. 



Matter is Absence of Grains. 



Where matter exists there is a different arrangement in the piling 

 of the grains, and the regular or normal piling of the grains is broken. 

 There is a less number of grains per unit volume in the spots where 

 matter exists than there is in the regular medium of space. Where 

 this deficiency which results in what we call "matter" exists, there 

 is what Reynolds calls "abnormal piling" of the grains. This de- 

 ficiency forms a sort of crack, or gap, or loose joint in the medium, 

 and there is a break in the gearing of the grains between the matcer 

 and the medium outside. An atom of matter consists of a nucleus of 

 grains in normal piling surrounded by a surface or spherical shell of 

 grains in abnormal piling. The grains in abnormal piling form 

 what Reynolds calls "a singular surface of misfit" between the regular 

 piling inside, which forms the nucleus of the material atom and the 

 normally piled grains of the medium outside. This "surface of mis- 

 fit" or spherical shell together with its nucleus is called a "negative 

 inequality" and the magnitude of the negative inequality is reckoned 

 by the number of grains which are deficient, and as the number of 

 grains present in a given volume of the medium determines the mass 

 of the medium, an absence of grains means an absence of mass. 

 Therefore, matter is absence of mass or negative mass. These sur- 

 faces of misfit or spherical cracks in the medium are places of weak- 

 ness in the medium, and it is shown that they travel through the 

 medium after the manner of solitary waves. 



Mean and Relative Motion of the Medium. 



We have now to consider whether the grains of the medium are 

 fixed and stationary in their places, or whether they have motion 

 among one another. Reynolds shows that the grains of the medium 

 are not fixed but that they have a mean and relative motion. The 

 medium is not inert and rigid and lifeless. It thrills with energy 

 and pulsates with universal motion. It possesses two kinds of mo- 

 tion, first, the relative motion of the grains among one another, and, 

 second, a mean motion, which is a motion of the mass of the 

 medium as a whole from one position in space to another. The 

 average relative velocity of the grains among one another is shown 

 to be about one and one-third feet per second, while the mean path 

 of the grain, that is, the average distance a grain has to move before 

 it strikes its neighbor, is shown to be the four thousand millionth 

 part of the diameter of the grain. It is the relative motion of the 

 grains among one another which renders the medium elastic, and, as 

 Reynolds says, is the prime cause of elasticity in the universe. The 

 mean and relative motions of the medium are illustrated by the 

 movement of a cloud of dust, a swarm of bees, a shower of hail, a 

 current of air, a stream of water, or a cloud in the sky. In each of 

 these phenomena we have movement of the mass of the particles as a 



