Samuel Tolver Preston

“ Our objection to uncommonly great or uncommonly small numbers rests in fact upon custom, and regularly disappears as soon as the theory in question has further introduced itself.
There exists in space field enough, when necessary, for finer material, as our conceptions are not limited in the direction of smallness, and the smaller the particles, the quicker is their natural speed of motion, and the more intense the enclosed store of concealed energy: also the whole arrangement becomes all the less appreciable by our senses. ”

“ How can one imagine to oneself a structure composed of perfectly hard molecules situated far apart which shall have only tolerable stiffness and stability? Such a body made up of widely separated spherical molecules, if no other forces but gravity acted, could at the most behave like a gas, but never as a solid or liquid body.
On the other hand, elastic molecules of open structure may be made to cohere at their boundaries by the pressure of the smaller atoms, which at the .same time easily fly through the open parts of the structure. ”

“ A locomotive, as we know, converts all its energy into heat (which is radiated into the aether) as it progresses with its train: so clearly we have the cyclical process of exchange of motion again here: the same being true of work ierived from falling water (cataracts) or from winds. If, finally, one pure speculation be permitted, we might suggest that overgrown stars may, towards their centres, become from excessive compression inadequately penetrable by the atoms of the aethereal gas, and so the overgrown masses be broken up by conversion of the aethereal motion into heat. ”

“ The author of this theory makes no mention of my theory, and it doubtless escaped his attention at that time. The gravitation theory of Dr. Isenkrahe is founded on inelastic collision, which obviously involves the annihilation of energy, whereby the gas producing gravity would, after a certain (even very long) epoch, come to rest, and so gravitation cease to exist.
In a plausible enough way (at first sight at least) the author despises elasticity as a qualitas occulta, which, as he thinks, needs an explanation just as much as gravity itself. ”

“ So, therefore, disappear the almost contradictory properties, "ponderable" and "imponderable," which have been arbitrarily attributed to matter: and we have therefore no reason for believing that the atoms diffused in space differ essentially from gross molecules, excepting in their dimensions. To the abandonment of the idea of two inherently different kinds of matter, the abandonment of two supposed different kinds of energy is analogous — viz., energy with motion, and energy without motion. Accordingly there would remain only one kind of energy, namely, that which a moving body possesses. ”

“ One knows how the cells of bees are formed by pressure, and how by pressure elastic spheres may be converted into angular, such as hexagonal-shaped, bodies.
As remarked, the gravitation theory (and many independent facts) demand that the molecules of bodies shall possess an open structure; which also satisfies the conditions of lightness and economy of material. As crystals exist, it is sometimes supposed that the molecules of bodies (whose open structure is often illustrated by cubes and other figures formed of wire) themselves represent the shapes of the crystals. ”

“ Hence it follows that when a system of atoms is left to itself, it will, by the principles of dynamics, automatically adjust the character of its motion in such a way that this motion is adapted to produce the gravitation effects. The motion of streams of atoms equally at all angles, which Le Sage gave forth as an arbitrary postulate, is attainable in a gas without any postulate. Instead of streams, each of which for itself maintains a constant direction of motion, and which cease to flow after a long epoch of time, we have a permanent motion of atoms correcting itself in a self-acting manner ”

“ All the consequences of the kinetic theory of gases are already built on the assumption of elasticity: the application of this principle to the smaller particles is therefore to be viewed as a perfectly natural and logical consequence. In fact the gravitation pressure by the encounters of elastic [158] particles is explained quite as completely as the air-pressure is explained by the encounters of such particles (molecules) . ”

“ As regards the behaviour of these streams of atoms towards gross matter, Le Sage assumes the following. Gross matter is chiefly freely penetrated by the streams of atoms, only a small part of their energy is absorbed by gross matter, which implies a continuous annihilation of energy. Whence it arises that every portion of gross matter opposes a certain shelter to every other neighbouring portion from the encounters of the streams of atoms; and from this the apparent attraction of the gross matter according to the Newtonian law of gravity is easily explained. ”

“ Evidently, if chemical action be caused by a material medium, then an animal or a steam-engine lifting a weight is an instance (again) of motion coming from a material substance, and going back to it in a circle at the same time. ”

“ It is a known consequence of the Newtonian law of gravitation, that the increase of attraction by diminution of distance is so small that two massive bodies, when they touch [157] each other, attract each other so much the less the smaller they are ”

“ On the other hand, the minute atom is thrown into strong vibration and rotation by the blow. This vibration or rotation ("internal motion") cannot evidently be generated out of nothing. The small atom therefore loses at impact a portion of its translatory motion, by converting the same into internal motion (vibration and rotation) . The diminution of the translatory motion of the small gravity-atoms at their encounter with gross molecules is therefore rather to be looked upon as a necessary deduction than as an hypothesis. ”

“ The atom gains its full translatory motion gradually again by collisions against atoms of its own kind, — from the fact that the proportionality existing between the amount of translatory motion and the amount of internal motion of the atom continually strives to maintain itself constant ”

“ The effects — called gravitational effects — on the other hand, do not escape detection by our senses; and reasoning from these effects, we trace and infer the invisible causes which lie at the basis of these effects. ”

“ In other words, that all gross matter must be raised to a white heat by the collisions of the aether atoms. But, independently of the fact that the above-named theorem, relating to thermal equilibrium, for molecules or atoms of very different size is still contested, it seems to me that no cogent reason exists for the assumption that N is smaller for the aether than for gross matter. One can, in fact, imagine the aether atoms as small as one pleases ”

“ Until Newton's time the notion of a direct action at a distance was completely unknown: on the contrary, many experiments exist by the Greek philosophers to account for the seeming action at a distance by the intervention of a medium ”

“ The freedom allowed to the molecules to arrange themselves in the case of solutions may be favourable for the production of crystalline structure, while rolling, hammering, &c., manifestly forces the molecules to aggregate in an irregular manner. ”

“ In the same sense speak many subsequent important scientists. For instance Count Rumford remarks: —
"Nobody surely in his sober senses has ever pretended to understand the mechanism of gravitation, and yet what sublime discoveries has our immortal Newton been enabled to make, merely by the investigation of the laws of its action" ("An Inquiry concerning the Source of the Heat which is excited by Friction" by Count Rumford, Phil. Trans. 1798) . ”

“ From the above considerations, it becomes easy to understand that elastic crystal forms can sometimes change into non-crystalline forms; so some crystallizable metals, such as iron and zinc, lose all crystalline structure by rolling and hammering, and become ductile. ”

“ Also, in general, if something is broken, the pieces will not readily unite of themselves, when placed in contact. The natural elasticity of shape of the elastic molecules causes an initial repulsion. By suitable assumption regarding thickness, stiffness, &c., of these ring-like molecular forms, the differences between the "chemical affinity" of different molecules might doubtless be accounted for. ”