1887.J 



"New Force " of M. J. Thore. 



347 



surrounded by a card tube J, attached to the top of the glass box. K 

 is a second cylinder attached to a support, L, M, by a ball and socket 

 joint for convenience of adjustment. The support, M, projects out- 

 side the case to admit of the pillar being brought close to the cylinder 

 and transposed from one side to the other, &c. N is a cord attached 

 to the front glass window, weighted at the end and passing over a 

 pulley for convenience of raising and lowering the glass. 



Ivory, ebonite, glass, and metal have been used for the cylinders 

 and for the pillars. The pillars have also been made square, round, 

 and wedge-shaped in section, and the surfaces have been bright and 

 lamp-blacked. The mode of experimentation is the following : — The 

 cylinder being at rest, the observer sits down in front of the apparatus 

 with his face 8 inches from the cylinder and pillar, taking precautions 

 to keep the breath as much as possible away from cylinder and pillar. 

 The pillar is always placed on the right of the cylinder. On raising 

 the front glass the cylinder commences to rotate in the opposite direc- 

 tion to the hands of a clock, the side nearest the observer moving to 

 the right.* 



In other experiments a flask of boiling water, a candle, and a hot 

 platinum wire have been used as the source of radiation. The results 

 of more than fifty experiments are given in tables, showing the 

 material of the pillar, the maximum speed of one revolution, the 

 number of revolutions, and the exciting agent. Experiments tried 

 with an ascending current of air of different degrees of intensity in 

 front of the apparatus prove that air currents are inoperative in 

 producing the action. 



The results leave little doubt that the action is one of radiation 

 from the face or other warm body in front of the apparatus, and 

 that there is nothing special in the human organism beyond the heat 

 it radiates to produce rotation of the cylinder. 



Radiant heat (and in less degree light) falling on the lampblacked 

 surfaces is absorbed, and increases the surface temperature. There 

 are two ways in which this increase of temperature may act : — 



1. It may produce a current of warm air, rising in front of the 

 surfaces of the moving body ; to replace this, cold air will come in 

 from all sides, and striking against the delicately suspended cylinder 

 cause' it to rotate. If, however, the source of heat is of considerable 

 surface, such as the face or a Winchester quart bottle full of warm 

 water, it is difficult to imagine that there will be much tendency to 

 rotate in one direction rather than in the other. 



2. An increased surface temperature of the cylinder and pillar may 

 produce an increase of molecular pressure between the two bodies, 



* This is called the negative direction, and when the rotation is clockwise it is 

 called positive. 



VOL. XLII. 2 C 



