Project Gutenberg's The Machinery of the Universe, by Amos Emerson Dolbear

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Title: The Machinery of the Universe
Mechanical Conceptions of Physical Phenomena

Author: Amos Emerson Dolbear

Release Date: July 18, 2009 [EBook #29444]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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_THE ROMANCE OF SCIENCE_

THE MACHINERY OF THE UNIVERSE

MECHANICAL CONCEPTIONS OF
PHYSICAL PHENOMENA

BY
A. E. DOLBEAR, A.B., A.M., M.E., PH.D.

PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY, TUFTS COLLEGE, MASS.

PUBLISHED UNDER GENERAL LITERATURE COMMITTEE.

LONDON:
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE,
NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, W.C.;
43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C.

BRIGHTON: 129, NORTH STREET.

NEW YORK: E. & J. B. YOUNG & CO.

1897.

PREFACE

For thirty years or more the expressions "Correlation of the Physical
Forces" and "The Conservation of Energy" have been common, yet few
persons have taken the necessary pains to think out clearly what
mechanical changes take place when one form of energy is transformed
into another.

Since Tyndall gave us his book called _Heat as a Mode of Motion_ neither
lecturers nor text-books have attempted to explain how all phenomena are
the necessary outcome of the various forms of motion. In general,
phenomena have been attributed to _forces_--a metaphysical term, which
explains nothing and is merely a stop-gap, and is really not at all
needful in these days, seeing that transformable modes of motion, easily
perceived and understood, may be substituted in all cases for forces.

In December 1895 the author gave a lecture before the Franklin Institute
of Philadelphia, on "Mechanical Conceptions of Electrical Phenomena," in
which he undertook to make clear what happens when electrical phenomena
appear. The publication of this lecture in _The Journal of the Franklin
Institute_ and in _Nature_ brought an urgent request that i