Side-Lights on Astronomy and Kindred Fields of Popular ScienceNewcomb, Simon
Science
Side-Lights on Astronomy and Kindred Fields of Popular Science
Newcomb, Simon
Astronomy; Compass; Flying-machines; Hyperspace; Learning and scholarship; Rain-making
In view of the scientific discoveries of the past ten years, which,
after bringing about results that would have seemed chimerical if
predicted, leading on to the extraction of a substance which seems to
set the laws and limits of nature at defiance by radiating a flood of
heat, even when cooled to the lowest point that science can reach--a
substance, a few specks of which contain power enough to start a
railway train, and embody perpetual motion itself, almost--he would be
a bold prophet who would set any limit to possible discoveries in the
realm of nature. We are binding the universe together by agencies which
pass from sun to planet and from star to star. We are determined to
find out all we can about the mysterious ethereal medium supposed to
fill all space, and which conveys light and heat from one heavenly body
to another, but which yet evades all direct investigation. We are
peering into the law of gravitation itself with the full hope of
discovering something in its origin which may enable us to evade its
action. From time to time philosophers fancy the road open to success,
yet nothing that can be practically called success has yet been reached
or even approached. When it is reached, when we are able to state
exactly why matter gravitates, then will arise the question how this
hitherto unchangeable force may be controlled and regulated. With this
question answered the problem of the interaction between ether and
matter may be solved. That interaction goes on between ethers and
molecules is shown by the radiation of heat by all bodies. When the
molecules are combined into a mass, this interaction ceases, so that
the lightest objects fly through the ether without resistance. Why is
this? Why does ether act on the molecule and not the mass? When we can
produce the latter, and when the mutual action can be controlled, then
may gravitation be overcome and then may men build, not merely
airships, but ships which shall fly above the air, and transport their
passengers from continent to continent with the speed of the celestial
motions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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