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iSCIENGE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 771 



save that the latter is very nearly permanent. 

 Not a special velocity per se, but the being, or 

 ceasing to be, of a special ethereal rotation is 

 what apparently conditions the phenomenon. 



As Mons. Hirn says in his attempt to de- 

 fine energy :' 



What we call kinetic energy or mechanical 

 work consists of quantities which are not neces- 

 sarily bound to the existence of ponderable matter. 



To borrow an illustration from Hirn, we 

 may compare the following two ways of heat- 

 ing a bullet. When a projectile, such as a ball 

 of lead, strikes a rigid obstacle, it becomes hot, 

 and the quantity of heat developed (and di- 

 vided between projectile and obstacle) is rig- 

 orously proportional to the external kinetic 

 energy which has vanished for the time being. 

 But we can heat the leaden ball just as well 

 by exposing it to the sun's rays; and here 

 again the temperature, or elevation of thermal 

 activity, is related to the radiant movement 

 extinguished. The kinetic energy of the radi- 

 ation, which was that of an original radiant 

 beam or column of ether, has been destroyed 

 as radiant energy, but not as essential energy. 

 The energy has simply been transferred; but 

 there is a distinction between the two modes 

 of heating the bullet. The radiant energy ex- 

 ting-uished is completely transferred to the 

 absorbent. The thermal energy developed by 

 impact is divided between missile and obstacle. 

 This distinction is fundamental, and prevents 

 the identical application of a law expressing 

 the relation between ethereal and material 

 energy, to the interchange of energy between 

 different portions of matter. Kaufmann's 

 experiment belongs to the first category. The 

 distinction, which has no counterpart in the 

 transference of momentum by sound waves 

 or water waves, has its place in the system 

 proposed by Professor Lewis. The kinetic 

 energy of a mass which moves with the veloc- 

 ity of light is mF", but that of a mass moving 

 with the ordinary velocities with which we 

 have to deal in Newtonian mechanics is 

 4ml)^ That the distinction is not an absolute 

 one, but that for velocities somewhat slower 



' " La notion de force dans la science moderne," 

 p. 47. 



than that of light, the mathematical expres- 

 sion for kinetic energy passes through inter- 

 mediate values, is a view which reconciles 

 these diverse modes of subdivision of energy. 



I venture to suggest that Mr. Speyers's difii- 

 culty in regard to the lesser velocity of light 

 in water is not a real one; because owing to 

 innumerable, minute, alternating deflections 

 of the light ray in passing through the bound 

 ether attached to the molecules, the path of 

 the light is lengthened. There is no necessary 

 change in the true ethereal velocity. 



Ordinarily, the mass of a body of matter 

 can not be transferred; but in radioactiv- 

 ity, and in atomic disintegration and de- 

 struction produced in any way, energy returns 

 into the ether, and may be transferred as 

 temporary ethereal mass, just as in the case 

 of radiant energy, of which it is perhaps a 

 special form. The ordinary destruction of 

 atoms is excessively slow, nevertheless every 

 flame involves some minute amount of atomic 

 destruction. 



The laws of the conservation of mass and 

 of energy require restatement. Taking the 

 universe as a whole, there is always a restora- 

 tion of mass or of energy which disappears in 

 time at some given point, but in general re- 

 appears at some other time or place. Thus 

 if atoms are destroyed in radioactive trans- 

 formations, there must be some other part of 

 the universe where these atoms are repro- 

 duced. Temporarily the energy concerned in 

 the formation of an atom is set free in the de- 

 struction of the atoms of radium, evolving 

 enormous quantities of heat. Some of this 

 heat may be immediately transformed and all 

 will be eventually transformed into radiant 

 energy, passing out into the free ether, there 

 to exist for a time as temporary mass until 

 it is again fixed in new forms of material 

 substance, for the ether is the great storehouse 

 of energy. Shall an atom outlast a star ? Are 

 they not both parts of a fleeting imagery — a 

 series of dissolving views which come and go 



as the ages move? 



Frank W. Very 



Westwood Asteophysical Obseevatoet, 

 May 3, 1909 



