328 FROM NEBULA TO NEBULA 



tionary. If he tells you the energy in this second instance 

 is lost, he thereby denies the very principle of conserva- 

 tion itself which he professes to believe and uphold. If, 

 on the other hand, he seeks to claim that the dead resis- 

 tance to the advance of the wheels produces heat, then he 

 concedes precisely what I contend, namely, that static 

 pressure produces heat. And if static pressure produces 

 heat, then what matters it whether this pressure be oc- 

 casioned by horseflesh, by steam, by electricity or by 

 gravity? In short, supposing the horses capable by their 

 pulling strength of sustaining exactly their own weight 

 at the end of a pulley, then were you to kill them and pile 

 their carcasses on top of the stalled wagon, the thermal 

 effects on the ground under the wheels would be exactly 

 the same as in the first instance when they were drawing 

 unavailingly. 



Again, suppose, in passing along a walk flanking the 

 precipitous side of a hill, you should notice a loose stone 

 just above your head menacing the safety of passers-by 

 and that you should reach up and gently lower the stone 

 to the level of the walk. In this case, by lowering the 

 stone slowly and by laying it softly on the ground you 

 will have done two things; (1) destroyed so many units 

 of your muscular energy, and (2) destroyed about an 

 equal number of the potential units of the stone but 

 without, however, adding a single unit of any other sort 

 of energy in substitution. Or, by way of variation, sup- 

 pose you were to lift the dumb-bell to arm's length, but 

 instead of dropping it or lowering it at once you were to 

 keep holding it aloft until you grew weary, and then to 

 lower it again with the utmost slowness, could any 

 Stewart or Soddy convince you that the energy units 

 gained by this stunt exactly counterbalance the muscular 

 effort you have put forth? 



I emphatically deny the first "law" of conservation, 

 namely, that for every unit of energy of any kind that 

 disappears a unit of another kind appears. It is prima 

 facie absurd, implying as it does that all work done is 

 stored energy. In my philosophy, energy is a gesture 



