330 FROM NEBULA TO NEBULA 



it require the putting forth of equal amounts of energy, 

 but that the transportation in between requires none. I 

 maintain, in opposition, that change of place of any physi- 

 cal body, even along the level, involves a positive destruc- 

 tion of units of energy (using this term in the conven- 

 tional sense). In brief, the activities of nature of 

 translation as well as of warmth literally consume en- 

 ergy, and to offset this loss, I say, nature must and does 

 evolve it. 



Finally, consider the case of an electric crane. Im- 

 agine one of these to pick up a ton billet and then im- 

 mediately to drop it. Here your Conservationist will 

 glibly expound that the electrical energy expended in this 

 act is replaced by an exactly equal number of potential 

 units of energy, and that these latter, in turn, are later 

 replaced by a like number of thermal units when the 

 dropped billet strikes the ground. But now suppose that 

 instead of allowing the burden to drop on the instant, the 

 crane should retain its grip and continue to sustain the 

 load, stationary, in mid-air, for, say, an hour. Query: 

 Would, or would not, this performance absorb more ' i cur- 

 rent " than the first? Most assuredly it would more 

 than a thousand times as much. What, then, becomes of 

 this excess energy: how is it replaced? It certainly does 

 not transmute into potential energy, for, by premiss, the 

 weight continues stationary. Nor does it pass to any 

 appreciable extent into heat. The true status of the 

 matter is that the " force " of gravity on the one side of 

 the dynamical equation cancels and destroys a specific 

 quantity of t i energy ' ' on the other side. The first ' ' law ' ' 

 of thermodynamics, in this case at least, is therefore con- 

 tradicted and consequently thrown open to general attack 

 and doubt. Moreover, since energy, so-called, is not 

 necessarily " conserved ", the attempted distinction be- 

 tween " force and energy, or, force or energy, to wit, that 

 the former is not conserved, whereas the latter is, falls 

 to the ground. In a word, gravitation is a form of 

 energy. 



