GRAVISTATIC HEAT 59 



originally endowed with it, and "have not yet had time 

 to cool." 



According to the theory of transmutation of energy, 

 which has been abundantly demonstrated to be true, any 

 kind of force may be converted into any other kind; 

 thus light may be changed into heat, heat into motion, 

 motion into electricity, electricity into light again, or 

 any one of them directly into the other indiscriminately. 

 Hence gravity may be converted into heat, and heat 

 into gravitational energy again, or else the theory in 

 question requires to be modified. 



All substances possess the same qualities, and vary 

 only as to their degree. Thus, all can be volatilized, or 

 melted, or solidified, but at greatly diverse temperatures. 

 They can also be exploded by percussion, either by a 

 blow or by mere pressure. Hence, given sufficient pres- 

 sure, no solid can continue in that state, but must pass 

 into a i^as. This is the corollary of what the physicists 

 bave termed the "critical point in gases," by which is 

 meant that, given a certain TEMPERATURE, no application 

 of pressure however great can avail to reduce the gas to 

 a liquid or solid. 



Now pressure is a force just as well as is a blow, 

 for you can drive in a thumb-tack either by merely press- 

 ing upon it, or by hitting it with a hammer. Therefore 

 pressure also can be converted, in accordance with the 

 theory of transmutation of energy previously cited, into 

 heat, as mell as into other forms of energy. 



Since pressure then may exist as such and also as 

 heat, we have a combination of two kinds of energy 

 growing out of one, quite sufficient in the sun's case to 

 pulverize, or percuss, all substances into their chem- 

 ical elements. The inevitable result must be an endless 

 series of explosions whereby the dissociated gases con- 



