New and Original Theories of the Great Physical Forces.

by Henry Raymond Rogers.

PREFACE.

"Show me a man who makes no mistakes, and I will show you a man who has done nothing."--LIEBIG.

In this little volume the author gives but his own personal opinions upon the subjects discussed, and although the sentiments are expressed with an a.s.surance born of conviction, yet he claims not infallibility.

He has ever been unable to accept the usual explanations of the great physical forces; and the inadequacies of mooted theories have impelled him to efforts for more philosophical interpretations. If in his investigations he has been forced to strange and unusual conclusions, he has been actuated only by an honest desire to promote the advancement of science.

He is not insensible to the responsibility of the position which he thus voluntarily a.s.sumes, in a.s.serting his opinions upon problems so vast and momentous.

It is no enviable position to occupy, that of antagonism to so large a proportion of the scientific world and, too, upon subjects of strictly scientific import. That he does thus find himself placed in such relations at the present time, has not been a matter of his own seeking.

No other consideration than the profoundest sense of duty and responsibility could have influenced him in the course pursued. Perhaps some apology is yet due for so boldly trespa.s.sing upon hypotheses which were very generally thought to be well established, and certainly secure from such treatment.

The attempt, in a measure, to develop so extended a field of research, in so few pages, has led to much crudeness in the presentation. For this a reasonable indulgence may be claimed.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

The Sun.

The sun's position in the great field of energy is daily becoming more exalted in the estimation of philosophic minds. His labors are being revealed to us with a distinctness never before conceived. He it is that stored the coal in the bosom of the earth, and piled up the polar ice.

He it is that aids the chemist, drives the engine, ripens the harvest, dispenses life and health.

The study of the sun and solar physics, therefore, must be essential to the right understanding of whatever we observe to take place at the earth. Sun and earth are united in indissoluble bonds. In philosophic minds the conviction of a most perfect _inter-dependence_ is rapidly gaining ground.

All this has been known and appreciated to a degree, yet this great source of universal operations is shrouded in mystery. Still, our curiosity has been kindled, and men are eagerly looking for further developments.

Natural Science, in all her branches, is fully awake, and is on her watch-tower of observation. Ignorance of the sun, of its character, and of the methods by which its functions are performed, must be confessed; notwithstanding all the more recent unfoldings and imaginings of scientists, regarding the great orb. But yet we are very hopeful of vast increase in our solar knowledge; not alone, or chiefly, by new observations, or discoveries, but quite as much by new interpretations of old, long observed phenomena. The ground of hopefulness lies in the belief that a _grand unity_ underlies, and binds together in one, all Physical Forces, as well in earth and sun.

While regarding the sun as all, and more than all that has ever been claimed for it, still we are impressed most strongly that the sun has _social relations_ with his planets, which have never been duly considered by the masters in science. The sun _acts_, but it must also be that the earth and planets _react_. The sun gives and dispenses favors, but science has too much overlooked the great fact that the sun receives and sympathizes.

Let our philosophy but accept the idea that _the sun rouses the earth into action through their mutual relationships; that the two interchange good offices and essential services, rather than that the sun is wholly independent, and simply gives outright, as philosophy has. .h.i.therto conceived_, and we think that the dawn of a better day has come.

The new philosophy, in our opinion, will teach that the sun gives in such a way that he will not be impoverished; that though bountiful, he is not wasteful; that though he freely gives, yet that he also as freely receives in return.

The new philosophy will be true to correlation, and it will be true to conservation as well.

CHAPTER II.

WHAT IS PROPOSED.

In the following pages I shall endeavor to set forth, in a simple and orderly manner, certain of my own theories of the Great Physical Forces.

In these theories will be comprised the ident.i.ty of those forces, the intimate and essential nature of sunlight, sun-heat, gravity, sun-spots, winds and sounds, also the intimate nature of the atmosphere.

In treating these subjects my opinions will not be found in accord with those which receive universal a.s.sent at the present time, and I may thus unintentionally offend. I shall therefore claim exceeding indulgence.

If I differ from high authority, I have not a thought of detraction.

None can venerate the NESTORS in science who have enriched its annals, more than I, and though we reverse their judgments, their errors are confessedly our indispensable helps and guides.

_The Great Problem._

The problem of the great physical forces has engaged the profoundest attention of mankind from the earliest historic period down to the present time, yet it remains practically unsolved.

Before the Christian era the opinion was entertained that all of the phenomena of nature might be reduced to one principle of explanation; that there was more than a connection between the imponderable agents--more than a relationship even,--that there was an actual ident.i.ty.

No substantial progress was thereafter made in the direction of verifying this theory until along into the present century, when the development of electrical science presented a tangible basis for successful investigation.

The correlation of nearly all of those forces is now a.s.sured, leaving little to be added besides gravity to complete the unity. Yet notwithstanding the satisfactory progress which has been made in solving the grand problem of their correlation, little has been learned of their intimate nature, and the method of their operation. This is due, in the highest degree, to certain theories which were developed, and which made their way, _pari pa.s.su_, with the advancements of electrical and electro-magnetic science. These theories, specious, inconsistent, illogical, yet withal plausible, and even fascinating, served to blind the mental vision so that mankind might not appreciate the truth.[1]

The hypothesis promulgated by BRUNO, KANT and LAPLACE, of the nebular origin of the spheres, and the deductions consequent thereupon, in regard to the progressive stages through which the earth in its developments has pa.s.sed, was pernicious in its influence in diverting the minds of investigators from other and truer channels. To the blind confidence with which that hypothesis has been universally accepted and perpetuated, and to the fallacious theories thus directly and indirectly engendered, we owe our false position at the present day.

The present theories of the transmission of light and sound; of the production of winds, and sun-spots, and of the method of development and dissemination of heat, are in point of fact, unphilosophical and incomprehensible.

It is quite remarkable that in the present century, excelling as it does any period in the world's history in exact and reliable scientific knowledge, such unsatisfactory opinions should obtain. The failure is still more inexplicable when we reflect that these subjects are in importance the highest which can engage our attention as scientists.

We have at the present time sufficient reliable data whereon to found satisfactory hypotheses. We have but to utilize the means which the true scientists of the century have so wonderfully developed, and with which they have so prodigally surrounded us, in order to complete the consummation of the great and crowning achievement in physical science.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Appendix, p. 97.

CHAPTER III.

THE GREAT FORCES, THEIR CHARACTER AND OPERATIONS.

I now ask, What is the intimate and inherent nature of those forces? Do they, or either of them, belong to the domain of the supernatural? Are they the products of some supreme force, or forces, heretofore unappreciated? The reply is clear and unquestionable. The supernatural must necessarily be a part of the Divine Essence, and consequently intangible. Not so the subjects of our inquiry. They are _natural products_, therefore, and _the result of the operation of some power commensurate with the stupendousness of their manifestations_.

_Sunlight and Sun-heat._