Magnetism: its potency and action, with suggestions for a new cosmography and a new celestial geography

Preface

For many years the writer of the following pages has been much interested in, given much thought to, and made- sundry notes on the subjects of which they treat. Not, however, until his removal to Ithaca, in 1882, where he could avail himself of the facilities for further study and experiment afforded by Cornell University, has he been able to make a systematic attempt to formulate his ideas and conclusions.

Still he has been obliged to quote some authorities at second hand, while some he wished to consult he could not procure. He has also been obliged to omit some experiments he would have been glad to perform. A slight fire in his room partially destroyed some of his notes, the result of which is that some passages appear in quotation marks for which his memory does not enable him to quote the authorities.

The reader will observe that much consideration has been given to the subject of magnetism, a form of energy whose universal action, the various and

2 PREFACE.

numerous ways in which it is manifested, the subtle influences which it exerts and exhibits in different conditions have not, as the writer believes, been accorded the importance they deserve. Except in its most striking manifestations in connection with electricity — electro-magnetism — and in animal magnetism it has not been fully investigated. In its finer and more subtle form as manifested in animal and vegetable life, especially in the minutest bodies, it seems to have been still less studied. Those forms of energy, the universality, pervasiveness and constancy of their action, it is one object of the writer to set forth and demonstrate. The same form of energy that swings the stars in their well-ordered courses forever wings the flight of the tiniest moth that perishes in a day.

The facts and observations concerning the influences that prompt the action of animals, kine, dogs, birds and insects, the multifarious forms and conditions of animal and vegetable life, and the persistence of the life force are chiefly new so far as shown by the authorities we have consulted in the excellent reference libraries of Cornell University and Columbia College. The field is wide and fertile and we have entered into details that would be irrelevant except that they elucidate the varied forms of magnetic energy.

Some of our readers may prefer to consider electricity rather than magnetism to be the most effi-

PREFACE. 3

cient of the natural forces. We have given our reasons for preferring the latter. Our views concerning magnetism will be held to be entirely untenable by those who believe, it to be " only electricity in rotation " and that electricity is not a " form of energy." After the writer had finished his notes on the properties of magnetism he saw for the first time Dr. Hodge's " Modern Electricity " and was gratified to find that some of his (the writer's) views and suggestions are fortified by so acute a thinker and so vigorous a writer. He was also gratified to note the just tribute offered by Dr. Hodge to the memory of the late Prof. Joseph Henry, the first discoverer of Telegraphy.

If the writer has seemed to express himself with undue earnestness and confidence in some portions of his work, he begs the reader to believe that it has been in no spirit of dogmatism. Further observations and experiments with improved instruments and under favorable conditions may tend to prove the truth of our main hypothesis. If we have presented any new truth, or any new fact or suggestion of permanent value that may help other students to take other onward and upward steps in this sublime field of investigation, we shall be satisfied. The labor has been one of ever increasing love, admiration, and adoration.

Ithaca, N. Y., July 18th, 1891.

Explanation.

The reader will note that the author, in treating of " matter " in several portions of the work, has described it in different terms, not contradictory but disconnected. Instead of rearranging them in order to present a more condensed and logical conclusion, he decided to leave them, with this explanation, as they were copied from his original notes.

Errata,.

which the reader will please correct before reading the book. Page 7, second line from bottom, read " widest " for " wildest." Page 65, first line, read "an " for "and." Page 69, sixth line from top, between the words "beings" and " that " insert the

words "permits us to suppose."

Page 72, attach asterisks (*) to the numerals IV, I, II, III. Page 89, at end of first paragraph, omit the quotation marks. Page 128, twelfth line from top, read " rhythmic " for " rhythmatic." Page 171, second line from top, read " pairs " for "pair." Page 183, seventh line from top, read "a" for "the." Page 201, seventeenth line from top, read "intense " for "immense." Page 224, third line in first stanza of poem, read " starry " for " stony." Page 226, third line in ninth stanza, read " upbore " for "implore." Page 277, the first two lines of the last paragraph should read as follows :

" The hyperbolas that revolve about their principal axes generate a hyper-

boloid of two nappes."

MAGNETISM.

Subject Proposed. — Object to be Attained.

Since Sir Isaac Newton's announcement and exposition of the laws of gravitation, so called, and their application to all matter, but more especially to the stars and planets and all other celestial bodies, no other subject, probably, has so fully occupied and exercised the minds of investigators of natural phenomena. This is especially true in regard to the stellar systems, and what may be called the Geography of the Heavens. The profound and intensely interesting investigations of Swedenborg, the Herschels, Laplace, Kant, Struve, Father Secchi and others, large as is the store of knowledge they have supplied, still leave much to be learned.

The facts concerning the stars, suns, planets,

nebulae and other celestial bodies considered as

things, as material bodies moving in space, their

6 SUBJECT PROPOSED.

elements, motions, periods, their mass, volume and weight, their relations to and influence on each other, have been more or less fully and satisfactorily ascertained and described. But the system under which the whole mass, the grand aggregation of the celestial bodies is arranged, their common centre, if they have one, their present and future positions, the probable or possible changes to which they may be subjected and the probable or possible periods of their existence, are still undetermined.

The object of this memoir is to consider the present state of our knowledge on the subject, to glance at the different theories of the stellar cosmography, and then, after classifying and collating such truths and facts as observation — which is a mental act, — experiment — which is a physical one, — and experience — which is the knowledge gained by experiment — have supplied us, to consider what further progress may be possible in our explorations of this most extensive and sublimest field of human knowledge.

From Prof. Newcomb's lucid and admirable work " Popular Astronomy " we quote a striking paragraph which will more fully suggest the range and scope of our design. It is as follows : " The widest question which the study of the stars presents u to us may be approached in this way : We have seen in our system of sun, planets, and satellites, a very orderly and beautiful struct-

OBJECT TO BE ATTAINED. 7

ure, every body being kept in its own orbit through endless revolutions by a constant balancing of gravitating and centrifugal forces. Do the millions of suns and clusters scattered through space and brought into view by the telescope, constitute a greater sj^stem of equally orderly structures ? and if so, what is that structure ? If we measure the importance of a question, not by its relations to our interests and our welfare, but by the intrinsic greatness of the subject to which it relates, then we must regard this question as one of the noblest with which the human mind has ever been occupied. In piercing the mystery of the solar system, and showing that the earth on which we dwell was only one of the smaller of eight planets which move around the sun, we made a great step in the way of enlarging our ideas of the immensity of creation and of the comparative insignificance of our sublunary interests. But when, on extending our view, we find our sun to be but one out of unnumbered millions, we see that our whole system is but an insignificant part of creation, and that we have an immensely greater fabric to study. When we have bound all the stars, nebulae and clusters which our telescopes reveal into a single system, and shown in what manner each stands related to all the others, we shall have solved the problem of the material universe considered, not in its details but in its wildest scope."

While most profoundly impressed with the

8 OBJECT TO BE ATTAINED.

magnitude of our task we may say, varying and extending slightly the phrase of Bacon, that " if we shall succeed in effecting anything to the purpose, what led us to it was a true and genuine humiliation of mind " and a sincere desire to somewhat enlarge the boundaries of human knowledge and manifest forth the Divine Glory.

SPACE, MATTER AND TIME.

II. Space, Matter and Time

Before considering the stellar systems and more particularly the planetary system of which our sun is the centre, it will be profitable to consider some preliminary and most important questions which stand in direct and most intimate relation to the whole subject. They relate to Space, Matter and Time. It is not proposed to consider the abstruse metaphysical nor the elaborate physical definitions of these elements, but merely to define them in the simplest terms that will enable the general reader to understand their value. While we have many speculations and suggestions concerning them, we have no succinct, comprehensive and satisfactory definition of either. Still we know their functions, their uses, and distinguishing characteristics. Space is the medium which contains all Matter and in which all forces are developed and manifested. It can be bounded only by itself, and, since any limit whatever must be contained within another limit, it follows inevitably that it has no limit.

10 SPACE, MATTER AND TIME.

Matter is an accretion, larger or smaller, of atoms or molecules that exist in a gaseous, liquid or solid state. It cannot exist without Space. It can have no extension or motion* without Time. The swing of a pendulum records a second of time ; it also passes, simultaneously, through a second of arc in space, and by friction at the pivot of the pendulum-rod a molecule of matter is dissipated.

Matter may fill all space, or, in isolated portions, it may fill different parts of space. It may exist under an infinite variety of conditions and forms, and consequently may be changed, transformed and transmuted, but can never be destroyed. It may have an infinite number of deaths, it must have an equal number of resurrections.

It is interesting to note one of the earliest expressions of this idea of the indestructibility of matter. Marcus Aurelius in Meditation V. 13, writes : " I am composed of the formal and the material ; and neither of them will perish into non-existence, as neither of them came into existence out of non-existence. Every part of me then will be reduced by change into some part of the universe, and that again will change into another part of the universe, and so on forever." Again, in Med. VI. 15, " Some things are hurrying into existence and others are hurrying out of it ; and of that that is coming into existence part is already extinguished. Motions and changes are forever

SPACE, MATTEB AND TIME. 11

renewing the world, just as the uninterrupted course of time is always renewing the infinite duration of ages."

Again, in Med. IX. 28, " Soon will the earth cover all : then the earth too will change, and the things also which result from change will continue to change forever, and these again forever."

Time is the element — Bacon and Kant called time and space " forms" — which marks the growth, development, continuance, change or decay of all things and of all forms and conditions of life, organic or inorganic. In particulars it is limited-; in the concrete it is limitless. Strato of Lampsacus wished time to be called the " measure of movement and rest." Aristotle called it the " measure of duration." Newton would make " duration another name for absolute time." Condensing these suggestions we may say that Time is the measure of motion and rest. The motion of a point in space generates a line ; the motion of a line in the direction of its greatest dimension generates a plane ; the motion of a plane in the direction of its greatest dimension generates a solid.

The infinitesimal quantity of space is a point ; the same quantity of matter is an atom or a molecule ; the same quantity of time is an instant. If we could conceive of the beginning of all things and at the same time imagine the existence at once and together, of a point in space, an atom of matter and an instant of time, then the addition of another

12 SPACE, MATTER AND TIME.

atom of matter would require the addition of another point in space, and to make this addition would consume another instant of time. By the continuous and perpetual repetition of this process we should make an infinite accretion of the different constituents. Thus in this trinity we have the germ of a physical universe, and in it we also observe the direct, intimate and perpetual union of Space, Matter and Time, their perfect and absolute correlation. In and by and through them we become acquainted with the somatology of matter and all the forms, varieties, properties and uses of force or energy.

THE STELLAR AND PLANETARY SYSTEMS. 13

III. The Stellar and Planetary Systems

In studying the stellar and planetary systems the first objects to demand our attention are the stars themselves, including both suns and planets ; and after these, asteroids, nebulae, comets and meteorites. It is not proposed to enter into any historical details concerning them. We know, as already stated, their position, their composition, their characteristics and the laws which govern their motions. Of the medium, space, that they occupy and in which all their motions are executed ; of the force or forces which insure their stability ; of the manner in which those forces act ; of the system and order in which they are arranged and distributed in space ; concerning all these we have much to learn. It is proposed to collect and collate such facts and theories as bear upon these points, and then to determine whether, from strict analogy and legitimate deduction, we are not entitled to advance still farther from the known into the unknown.

" I am," says Faraday,* " exceedingly adverse

* Conservation of Force.

14 THE STELLAR AND PLANETARY SYSTEMS.

to the easy and unconsidered admission of one supposition upon another, suggested as they often are by any imperfect induction from a small number of facts, or by a very imperfect observation of the facts themselves ; but, on the other hand, I think the philosopher may be bold in his application of principles which have been developed by close inquiry, have stood through much investigation, and continually increase in force."

IV. Force and Motion

Let us now turn our attention to force and motion. The chief forces of nature, so called, are magnetism, electricity, heat, light, chemical affinity and gravitation. From these, singly or in combination, all motion is derived, what are called the " mechanical powers " not, of course, being considered. Since the general acceptation by physicists of the validity and efficacy of what Grove calls the " correlation," Faraday the " conservation " and Herbert Spencer the " persistence " of force, all meaning the same thing, the law which Faraday characterizes as " the highest in physical science which our faculties permit us to perceive," the progress of physical science has been unprecedented in extent and never exceeded in importance. In the long and earnest endeavor to establish the principle of the correlation of forces some physicists entertained the idea, amounting almost to a conviction, that it might ultimately be proven that there is, if not an absolute unification of all physical forces, which are differentiated only by variation of conditions, at least a single force which should permeate all others, and connection with which should be indispensable for their efficiency. Says Faraday * (§ 2146), " I have long held an opinion amounting to conviction, in common I believe with many other lovers of natural knowledge, that the various forms under which the forces of matter are made manifest have one common origin, or, in other words, are so directly related and mutually dependent that they are, as it were, convertible into one another and possess equivalents of power in their action. Again, farther on, he says (§ 2702), " The long and constant persuasion that all the forces of nature are mutually dependent, having one common origin, or rather being different manifestations of one fundamental power, has made me often think of the possibility of establishing by experiment a connection between gravity and electricity, and so introducing the former into the group, the chain of which, including also magnetism, chemical force and heat, binds together so many and such varied exhibitions of force by common relations."

" All the non-magnetic metals," he says (§ 2295), " are subject to the magnetic power," and further after the discovery of diamagnetism he says (§ 2420), that " all matter appears to be subject to the magnetic force as universally as it is to the gravitating, the electric and the chemical or cohesive * Experimental Researches in Magnetism.

forces ;" also (§ 3174), " that whatever idea we employ to represent the (magnetic) power ought ultimately to include electric forces, for the two are so related that one expression ought to serve for both.

Magnetic and electric lines of force are analogous, and considering the existence of these lines of force he says (§ 3273), " The magnet is evidently the sustaining poiver. In every point of view, therefore, the magnet deserves the utmost exertions of the philosopher for the development of its nature both as magnet and a source of electricity" Such are the opinions of this distinguished philosopher. They are more or less fully corroborated by many others. One of his most distinguished contemporaries, the late Prof. Maxwell, commenting upon his experiments in magnetism in its relation to the ether and the electro-magnetic rotation of light says (Address before the London Institution), u The vast planetary and inter-stellar regions will no longer be regarded as waste places in the universe which the Creator has not seen fit to fill with the symbols of the manifold order of His kingdom. We shall find them to be already full of this wonderful medium ; so full that no human power can remove it from the smallest portion of space or produce the slightest flaw in its infinite continuity. It extends unbroken from star to star ; and when a molecule of hydrogen vibrates in the Dog-star the medium receives the impulses of these vibrations." Of similar purport is the following extract from Sir W. Thomson's Papers on electrostatics and magnetism: "It is often asked, are we to fall back on facts and phenomena and give up all idea of penetrating that mystery which hangs around the ultimate nature of matter? ...

It does seem that the marvellous train of discovery, unparalleled in the history of experimental science, which the last years of the world have seen to emanate from experiments, must lead to a stage of knowledge in which laws of organic nature will be understood in this sense : that one will be known as essentially connected with all, and in which unity of plan through an inexhaustibly varied execution will be recognized as a universally manifested result of creative wisdom." More emphatically accordant with the foregoing views are those expressed by Helmholtz in his "Aim and Progress of Physical Science " : " It has actually been established as the result of investigations, that all the forces of nature are measurable by the same mechanical standard, and that all pure motive forces are, as regards performance of work, equivalent." .... " Whether the foregoing considerations chiefly seek to elucidate the logical value of the law of conservation of forces, its actual signification in the general conception of the processes of nature is expressed in the grand connection which it establishes between the entire processes of the universe through all distances of place or time. The universe appears, according to this law, to be endowed with a store of energj 7 " which, through all the varied changes in natural processes, can neither be increased nor diminished ; which is maintained therein in ever-varying phases but, like matter itself, is from eternity to eternity of unchanging magnitude."

Says Grove in " concluding remarks " on the " Correlation of Physical Forces " : " The conviction that the so-called imponderables are modes of motion, will, at all events, lead the observer of natural phenomena to look for changes in these affections, whenever the intimate structure of matter is changed ; and conversely to seek for changes in matter, either temporary or permanent, whenever it is affected by these forces. ... It is a great assistance in such investigations to be intimately convinced that no physical phenomena can stand alone ; each is inevitably connected with anterior changes, and as inevitably productive of consequential changes, each with the other, and all with time and space ; and either in tracing back these antecedents or following up their consequents, many new phenomena will be discovered, and many existing phenomena, hitherto believed distinct, will be connected and explained. Explanation is, indeed, only relation to something more familiar, not more known, i. e., known as to causative or creative agencies.

" In all phenomena the more closely they are investigated, the more we are convinced that, humanly speaking, neither matter nor force can be created or annihilated, and that an essential cause is unattainable. Causation is the will, creation the act, of God." " The natural philosophy of the future," says Tyndall (Heat as Motion, p. 351), " will certainly, for the most part, consist in the investigation of the relations subsisting be-- tween the ordinary matter of the universe and the wonderful ether in which this matter is immersed." These citations are sufficient to indicate the current of scientific opinion on the point above referred to, and also to convince us that there is an earnest, abiding hope and conviction that grand results are yet to be attained by further faithful work in this direction.

In this chapter we have preserved the nomenclature of the distinguished scientists whom we have quoted, in order that we might show the change that has taken place in that nomenclature, by giving the terminology finally adopted by modern scientists. The terms "correlation," " conservation," and " persistence " of force are no longer used. It is now settled that energy, to which we have referred in the sequel, is the thing conserved, and forces are factors of energy, of which there are different kinds or varieties exhibited under different and varying conditions. Of the unity of what are called the " forces of nature " all physicists are practically convinced, but what term shall define that unity is not settled. The unity consists in reducing them all to modes of motion of which there is an almost infinite variety, many of which we have set forth in the sequel.

V. Magnetism and Electricity

We propose now to set forth in detail the more important results of observation and experiment which have been reached up to the present time, results of truths and facts in the grand curriculum of physical science which furnish the material for both the foundation and the superstructure of a new Cosmography and a new system of Celestial Geography. Let us begin with magnetism and electricity. To the strong, earnest, reverent genius of Faraday, science is indebted for the most original, extended, subtle and lucid expositions of the properties, characteristics and effects of magnetism considered as a force, and also of those of electricity, though less fully. After finishing his famous experiments in which he succeeded in rotating a ray of polarized light by magnetic and electric forces he says:* " Thus is established, I think for the first time, a true, direct relation and dependence between light and the magnetic and electric forces, and thus a great addition made to the facts and considerations which

* Exp. Kes. in Magnetism, Vol. III. pp. 19-20.

tend to prove that all natural forces are tied together and have one common origin."

" A magnet placed in the best vacuum we can conceive acts as well upon a needle as if it were surrounded by air, water or glass, and therefore these lines exist in such a vacuum as well as where there is matter." * " All magnets first originate lines of magnetic force which other magnets under one condition will receive and conduct, and, under another condition resist and repel, exhibiting the ordinary conditions of magnetic attraction and repulsion. But currents of electricity are competent to produce or induce collateral currents, and magnets are proved competent to produce like currents, thus showing the identity of action of magnets and currents, in producing effects different from those of ordinary magnetic attractions and repulsions. External to the magnet, those concentrations which are named poles may be considered as connected by what are called magnetic curves or lines of magnetic force, and which exist in the space around." " These phrases have a high meaning, and represent the ideality of magnetism. They imply not merely the directions of force which are made manifest by the smallest magnet, but also those lines of power which connect and sustain the magnetic polarities and which exist as much when there is no magnetic needle to show their presence as when there is."

* Exp. Ees. in Magnetism, p. 415.

The earth, according to Gauss, is a great magnet whose power is expressed by the utterly incomprehensible sum of eight octillions of pounds. " Experiments prove that there is no loss, or destruction, or evanescence, or latent state of magnetic power, caused by distance, nor in consequence of the convergence or divergence of the lines of force or obliquity of their intersection." (§§ 3110, 3112, 3113.) " Such an action (Magnetism, § 3075) may be a function of the ether, for it is not at all unlikely, if there be an ether, it should have other uses than simply the conveyance of radiations." " It may be a vibration (§ 3263) of the Irypothetical ether, or a state of tension of that ether equivalent to either a dynamic or static condition."

" A magnet presents a system of forces perfect in itself, and able, therefore, to exist by its own mutual relations." Let us especially note that there is no other force of which this can be said. " It has a dual and antithetic character belonging to both static and dynamic electricity, as is demonstrated by the opposite powers of like kind formed at its poles. These poles are related to each other not only through or within the magnet itself, but also by external curves or lines of force, without which they cannot exist," * since it is impossible to construct a magnet with a single pole. " Though the physical lines of force of a magnet

*Exp. Res., Vol. III., p. 441.

must be considered as extending to an infinite distance around it, so long as it is isolated, yet they may be condensed, compressed into a very small local space by other systems of magnetic power."

From ordinary magnetism, Faraday (Vol. I., §157) developed electricity, and refers (Vol. III., p. 524) to Carnot's experiment with a revolving disk, in which he found currents of electricity competent to produce collateral currents and magnets proved competent to produce like currents. And notwithstanding the generally accepted impression that all metals lose their magnetism when raised to a red heat, he declares that the magnetic metals retain a certain amount of magnetic power, whatever their temperature.

Arago discovered the fact that when a copper plate or disk is rotated below a freely suspended magnet, the latter tends to follow the motion of the plate. This is the effect of a magnetic force pure and simple. And Faraday explains it as arising from electrical currents induced by the magnets in the rotating disk, thus proving, in this case at least, that the action of magnetism and electricity are identical. He also states (§ 2514) that " if a copper disk suspended by a long string is set whirling, and is then introduced into the field of an electro-magnet, its motion will be instantly arrested, and it cannot be further rotated in the field." In this case, also, it is the magnetic force that proves effective.

Again, Helmholtz * writes, a copper disk set in a wood frame, with multiplying gear, and rotated with great rapidity, was placed between two pieces of iron which did not touch it, being part of the armor of an electro-magnet. Turn the current of a 3-cell battery round this magnet, and the pieces of iron act like a break that entirely stops the rotation of the disk, and it can only be started again by the application of a strong force. Here, also, the result is due to magnetism, or the magnetic force. Prof. Tait, also, a conservative and accomplished physicist, notes f that " where a conducting body is made to move in the neighborhood of a magnet, the relative motion of the two produces currents of electricity in the conductors. If a copper disk be kept so moving, the faster it moves the stronger the currents become, until, finally, the disk is heated and melted; " thus proving that intense heat is evolved from magnetism alone, there being no friction of surfaces. This is in conformity with Oersted's investigations, which linked together magnetism and electricity, and also with Ampere's conclusion, that all the properties of a permanent magnet can be explained on the hypothesis of electrical currents circulating in a fixed direction around the magnet. If two polished disks of zinc and copper be brought into close proximity and kept there for some time, and either of t Recent Advances in Physical Science.