120 G. F. Becker — A new laio of Thermo-Chemistry. 



extreme configurations of any simple vibration, the energy 

 of the simple movement is entirely potentialized. The energy 

 which is transferred from the motion of longer period to that 

 of shorter duration may therefore be regarded as having passed 

 through the state of potential energ} 7 . Herein appears to lie 

 the justification of the ordinary method of treating expended 

 energy as if it were permanently potentialized. 



In any case of motion involving a variety of periods, then, if 

 an interval of time just less than that which elapses between the 

 occurrence of kinetic foci of the slowest motion is considered, 

 the kinetic energy of this motion will have decreased at a maxi- 

 mum average rate or increased at a minimum average rate, 

 while for the quicker movements the decrease will not be a 

 maximum nor the increase a minimum. Hence in any case 

 there is a tendency of the total energy to the movement of 

 shortest period, and this tendency, will be the greatest possible 

 when the particles which vibrate most rapidly expend half the 

 action of the entire circuit while the action of the slowest move- 

 ment is still the least possible. In favorable cases the differ- 

 ence of period required to develop the greatest possible ten- 

 dency to the motion of shorter period would be extremely 

 slight, a mere fraction of the period of either movement. It 

 appears to need no demonstration that no sensible movement 

 can cease to be one of least possible action in a time less than 

 the period of vibration of a particle the movements of which 

 are manifested as heat. A diversity of the same order exists 

 between the light-giving and the heat-giving vibrations as be- 

 tween the latter and sensible motion and of course a similar 

 conclusion applies to them. The theorem propounded at the 

 beginning of this essay thus appears to be demonstrated. 



It follows immediately that the higher forms of energy can 

 be produced from the lower, or motions of longer period from 

 those of shorter period, only on condition that the sum of the 

 transformations of the system is equivalent to a degradation, a 

 result nearly identical with one of the chief deductions from 

 the second law of thermodynamics. 

 San Francisco Office of the U. S. Geol. Survey, Oct. 1885. 



Art. XI.— A new Law of Thermo- Chemistry ; by GrEORGE F. 



Becker. 



In the course of an unpublished chemical investigation of a 

 process involving nearly a hundred reactions, I adopted, as a 

 guide to experiment and as a check upon the conclusions, M. 



