PART II (continued 2)

On these general considerations, deduced from the observation of terrestrial phenomena, allied with the conception of energy machines and separate masses in space, the author bases one aspect of the denial of energy transmission between celestial masses. The doctrine of transmission cannot be sustained in the face of legitimate scientific deduction from natural phenomena. In the later parts of this work, and from a more positive point of view, the denial is completely justified.

31. Identification of Forms of Energy

Before leaving the question of energy transmission, there are still one or two interesting features to be considered. Although energy, as already pointed out, is ever found associated with matter, this association does not, in itself, always furnish phenomena sufficient to distinguish the precise phase in which the energy may be manifested. Some means must, as a rule, be adopted to isolate and identify the various forms.

Now one of the most interesting and important features of the process of energy transmission is that it usually provides the direct means for the identification of the acting energy. Energy, as it were, in movement, in the process of transmission, is capable of being detected in its different phases and recognised in each. The phenomena of transmission usually serve, either directly or indirectly, to portray the precise nature of the energy taking part in the operation. One of the most direct instances of this is provided by the transmission of heat energy. For illustrative purposes, let it be assumed that a body A, possessed of heat energy to an exceedingly high degree, is isolated within a spherical glass vessel CC, somewhat as already shown (Fig. 6). If it be assumed that the space within CC is a perfect vacuum, and that no material connection exists between the walls of the vessel and the body A, the latter is completely isolated, and no means whatever are available for the detection of its heat qualities (§ 30). It may seem that, if the temperature of the body A were sufficiently high, its energy state might be detected, and in a manner estimated, by its effect on the eye or by its luminous properties, but we take this opportunity of pointing out that luminosity is not invariably associated with high temperature. On the contrary, many bodies are found in Nature, both animate and inanimate, which are luminous and affect the eye at comparatively low temperatures. How then is the energy condition of the body to be definitely ascertained? The only means whereby it is possible to identify the energy of the body is by transmitting a portion of that energy to some other body and observing the resultant phenomena. Suppose, then, another body, such as B (Fig. 6), at a lower temperature than A, is brought into contact with A, so that a transmission of heat energy ensues between the two. The phenomena which would result in such circumstances will be exactly as already described in the case of the transmission of energy through a solid (§ 27). Amongst other manifestations it would be noticeable that the material of B was expanded against its inherent cohesive forces. Now if, instead of a spherical body such as B, a mercurial thermometer were utilised, the phenomena would be of precisely the same nature. A definite portion of the heat energy would be transmitted to the thermometer, and would produce expansion of the contained fluid. By the amount of this expansion it becomes possible to estimate the energy condition and properties of the body A, relative to its surroundings or to certain generally accepted standard conditions. Thermometric measurement is, in fact, merely the employment of a process of energy transmission for the purpose of identifying and estimating the heat-energy properties of material substances.

In everyday life, rough ideas of heat energy are constantly being obtained by the aid of the senses. This method is, however, only another aspect of transmission, for it will be clear that the sensations of heat and cold are, in themselves, but the evidence of the transformation of heat energy to or from the body.

The process of energy transmission by a flexible band or cord (§ 28) also provides evidence leading to the identification of the peculiar form of energy which is being transmitted. At first sight, it would appear as if this energy were simply energy of motion or kinetic energy. A little reflection, however, on the general conditions of the process must dispel this idea, for it is clear that the precise nature of the energy transmitted has no real connection with the kinetic properties of the system. The latter, truly, influence the rate of transmission and impose certain limits, but evidently, if the pull in the band increases without any increase in its velocity, the actual amount of energy transmitted by the system would increase without altering in any respect the kinetic properties. It becomes necessary, then, to distinguish clearly the energy inherent to, or as it were, latent in the system, from the energy actually transmitted by the system, to recognise the difference between the energy transmitted by moving material and the energy of that material. In this special instance, to identify the form of energy transmitted it must of necessity be associated with the peculiar phenomena of transmission. Now the energy is evidently transmitted by the movement of the connecting belt or band. Before any transmission can take place, however, a certain amount of energy must be stored in the moving system, partly as cohesion or strain energy and partly as energy of motion or kinetic energy. It is this preliminary storage of energy which, in reality, constitutes the transmission machine, and for a given rate of transmission, the energy thus stored will be constant in value. It is obtained at the expense of the applied energy, and, neglecting certain minor processes, will be returned (or transmitted) in its entirety when the moving system once more comes to rest. This stored energy, in fact, works in a reversible process. But when the transmission machine is once constituted, the energy transmitted is then that energy which is being continually applied at the spindle A (Fig. 4) and as continually withdrawn at the spindle B. It must be emphasised that the energy thus transmitted is absolutely different from the kinetic or other energy associated with the moving material of the system. It is the function of this energised material of the band to transmit the energy from A to B, but this is the only relationship which the transmitted energy bears to the material. The energy thus transmitted by the moving material we term mechanical or work energy. We may thus define mechanical or work energy as "that form of energy transmitted by matter in motion."

The idea of work is usually associated with that of a force acting through a certain distance. The form of energy referred to above as work energy is, in the same way, always associated with the idea of a thrust or of a pressure of some kind acting on moving material. Work energy thus bears two aspects, which really correspond to the familiar product of pressure and volume. Both aspects are manifested in transmission. Since work energy is invariably transmitted by matter in motion, every machine for its transmission must possess energy of motion as one of its essential features. As shown above (see also § 28), this energy of motion is really obtained at the expense of the originally applied work energy, and as it remains unaltered in value during the progress of a uniform transmission, it may be regarded as simply transformed work energy, stored or latent in the system, which will be returned in its entirety and in its original form at the termination of the operation. The energy stored against cohesion or other forces may be regarded in the same way. It is really the manifestation of the pressure or thrust aspect of the work energy, just as the kinetic energy is the manifestation of the translational or velocity aspect.

Our definition of work energy given above enables us to recognise its operation in many familiar processes. Take the case of a gas at high pressure confined in a cylinder behind a movable piston. We can at once say that the energy of the gas is work energy because this energy may quite clearly be transmitted from the gas by the movement of the piston. If the latter form part of a steam-engine mechanism of rods and crank, the energy may, by the motion of this mechanism, be transmitted to the crank shaft, and there utilised. This is eminently a case in which energy is transmitted by matter in motion. The moving material comprises the piston, piston-rod, and connecting-rod, which are, one and all, endowed with both cohesive and kinetic energy qualities, and form together the transmission machine. So long as the piston is at rest only one aspect of the work energy of the gas is apparent, namely, the pressure aspect, but immediately motion and transmission take place, both aspects are presented. The work energy of the gas, obtained in the boiler by a transformation of heat energy is thus, by matter in motion, transmitted and made available at the crank shaft. The shaft itself is also commonly utilised for the further transmission of the work energy applied. By the application of the energy at the crank, it is thrown into a state of strain, and at the same time is endowed with kinetic energy of rotation. It thus forms a machine for transmission, and the work energy applied at one point of the shaft may be withdrawn at another point more remote. The transmission is, in reality, effected by the movement of the material of the shaft. So long as the shaft is stationary, it is clear that no actual transmission can be carried out, no matter how great may be the strain imposed. If our engine mechanism were, by a change in design, adapted to the use of a liquid substance as the working material instead of a gas, it is clear that no change would be effected in the general conditions. The energy of a liquid under pressure is again simply work energy, and it would be transmitted by the moving mechanism in precisely the same manner.

From the foregoing, it will now be evident to the reader that the energy originally applied to the primary mass (§ 3) of our cosmical system must be work energy. It is this form of energy also which is inherent to each unit of the planetary system associated with the primary. In this system it is of course presented outwardly in the two phases of kinetic energy and energy of strain or distortion. It is apparent, also, that work energy could be transmitted from the primary mass to the separate planets on one condition only, that is, by the movement of some material substance connecting each planet to the primary. Since no such material connection is admitted, the transmission of work energy is clearly impossible.

32. Complete Secondary Cyclical Operation

A general outline of the conditions of working and the relationships of secondary processes has already been given in the General Statement (§ 9), but it still remains to indicate, in a broad way, the general methods whereby these operations are linked to the atmospheric machine. In the example of the simple pendulum, it has been pointed out that the energy processes giving rise to heating at the bearing surfaces and transmission of energy to the air masses are not directly reversible processes, but really form part of a more extensive cyclical operation, in itself, however, complete and self-contained. This cyclical operation may be regarded as a typical illustration of the manner in which separate processes of energy transmission or transformation, such as already described, are combined or united in a continuous chain forming a complete whole.

It has been assumed, in all the experiments with the pendulum, that the operating energy is initially communicated from an outside source, say the hand of the observer. This energy is, therefore, the acting energy which must be traced through all its various phases from its origin to its final destination. At the outset, it may be pointed out that this energy, applied by hand, is obtained from the original rotational energy of the earth by certain definite energy processes. Due to the influences of various incepting fields which emanate from the sun (§§ 17-19), a portion of the earth's rotational energy is transformed into that form of plant energy which is stored in plant tissue, and which, by the physico-chemical processes of digestion, is in turn converted into heat and the various other forms of energy associated with the human frame. This, then, is the origin of the energy communicated to the pendulum. Its progress through that machine has already been described in detail (§§ 21-26). The transformation of energy of motion to energy of position which takes place is in itself a reversible process and may in the meantime be neglected. But the final result of the operations, at the bearing surfaces and in the air masses surrounding the moving pendulum, was shown to be, in each case, that heat energy was communicated to these air masses. The effect of the heat energy thus impressed, is to cause the expansion of the air and its elevation from the surface of the earth in the lines or field of the gravitative attraction, so that this heat energy is transformed, and resides in the air masses as energy of position. The energy then, originally drawn from the rotational energy of the earth, has thus worked through the pendulum machine, and is now stored in the air masses in this form of energy of position. To make the process complete and cyclical this energy must now, therefore, be returned once more to the earth in its original rotational form. This final step is carried out in the atmospheric machine (§ 41). In this machine, therefore, the energy of position possessed by the air masses is, in their descent to their original positions at lower levels, transformed once more into axial or rotational energy. In this fashion this series of secondary processes, involving both transformations and transmissions, is linked to the great atmospheric process. The amount of energy which operates through the particular chain of processes we have described is, of course, exceedingly small, but in this or a similar manner all secondary operations, great or small, are associated with the atmospheric machine. Instances could readily be multiplied, but a little reflection will show how almost every energy operation, no matter what may be its nature, whether physical, chemical, or electrical, leads inevitably to the communication of energy to the atmospheric air masses and to their consequent upraisal.

It is interesting to note the infallible tendency of energy to revert to its original form of axial energy, or energy of rotation, by means of the air machine. All Nature bears witness to this tendency, and although the path of energy through the maze of terrestrial transformation often appears tortuous and uncertain, its final destination is always sure. The secondary operations are thus interlinked into one great whole by their association in the terrestrial energy cycle. Many of these secondary operations are of short duration; others extend over long periods of time. Energy, in some cases, appears to slumber, as in the coal seams of the earth, until an appropriate stimulus is applied, when it enters into active operation once more. The cyclical operations are thus long or short according to the duration of their constituent secondary energy processes. But the balance of Nature is ever preserved. Axial energy, transformed by the working of one cyclical process, is being as continuously returned by the simultaneous operation of others.