272 Researches in the Theory and Calculus of Operations. 



second instant will restore the equilibrium to its former 

 condition in A L B x , and successive repetitions of the act of 

 friction would merely prolong such alternations. But if the 

 positive member be put in communication with the earth, 

 which is an infinite reservoir of force, the half vacant atom 

 b is filled up from the latter source during the second in- 

 stant, and all the atomic forces shoved one phase (half an 

 atom) ahead ; so that the reaction of a is ineffectual to return 

 to the condition A l9 but remains as in A 3 , to accumulate 

 with the positive semiatomic forces that successively arrive 

 during the continuance of the friction al process. It must 

 be remembered that the material (equilibrated) force (mat- 

 ter) is both immanent and transitive, permanently present 

 and constantly expending. The equilibrium of A and B,each 

 with itself, which was perturbed by the collision during the 

 first instant, is self-restored during the second instant; but 

 this does not interfere with the liberated forces a and 6, 

 which now act independently of their generators. 



Three classes of phenomena have been considered as 

 evolved from a solid body by impulsions of more or less in- 

 tensity and duration of repetition : l°In a movable condition, 

 a single strong impulsion, or a prolonged application of 

 feeble ones, originate motion of the body in mass. In a fixed 

 condition, a strong impulsion, or a prolongation of the action 

 of severe friction, since an advance of the mass cannot occur, 

 the action of the force liberated by the blow or pressure is 

 reversed by the fixed extremity of the body, and returned 

 in the form of molecular vibration, constituting the pheno- 

 menon called heat. 3° In a similar fixed condition of the 

 body, a slight but prolonged frictional action evolves the 

 divided pair of mutually complementary forces termed 

 positive and negative electricities. The translatory move- 

 ment in the first, the vibratory pulsation in the second, and 

 the electric tension in the third class, are generated forces 

 of the first degree, having each but one terminal action, 



