William Bower Taylor

“ The attraction theory is also in opposition to the principle of the conservation of force, as has been shown, I think clearly, by Faraday. When a stone for example is thrown upward from the earth, it not only loses all its motion, but it loses its attraction in proportion to the square of its distance from the center of the earth. What becomes of the motion imparted to the stone ? It is not transformed into attraction, for the attraction diminishes as well as the motion. When the stone again falls to the earth it gains both motion and attraction. ”

“ Again endeavoring to fortify his assumptions by scholastic dogmas, he reiterates, " the conception of attraction does not represent the modus operandi of gravitation, because attraction implies action at a distance, or in other words, that a thing acts where it is not, which is just as impossible as that a thing can act when it is not." ”

“ At the very outset we have the objection urged against the theory that it implies the absurdity of action at a distance. Now the mere facts of gravitation imply no such thing. That A and B placed at a distance should tend toward each other does not imply action at a distance. A moves by virtue of a force, but it does not follow that this force is at a distance from A. But if we assert that A and B 'attract' each other, then we imply action at a distance ”

“ These venerable "adages" are about as valuable in directing us to the actual facts of nature, as that other celebrated adage of Zeno, " a body cannot move where it is not;" and conversely, "it cannot move where it is." ”

“ Gravity in all probability is of the nature of an impact or a pressure. Some of our most eminent physicists state that the force of gravity must either result from impact of ultramundane corpuscles, in some respects analogous to that of the particles of a gas, (which has been found to be capable of accounting for gaseous pressure,) or it must result from difference of pressure in a substance continuously filling space, except where matter displaces it. That gravity is a force of the nature of pressure is I think beyond all doubt ”

“ Again comparing gravitation to steam, whose pressure is weakened by the absorption of molecular motion in the rising piston, the writer repeats his questionings, " May not the same be equally true of gravity ". In fact, if gravity has a dynamical origin, it must hold equally true of gravity and of heat." Again recurring to Mr. Waterston's conception that " gravitation is a function of space," he would almost lead us to forget that " space cannot be a form of energy." ”

“ And yet hypothetical as the speculation pre-eminently and undoubtedly is, — baseless, formless, insubstantial, — it comes to us with the prestige of a distinguished physicist as its propounder, and of a learned, association as its audience and recipient. ”

“ As a fact of daily observation, motion is a variable function, and like heat, color, form, or density, is not conserved.
When a stone is thrown upward therefore, it loses tension, because this Ms been found empirically to be the inflexible law of distance-ratio for the gravitative force, and for no other human reason. It gains in potential energy by the ascent because there has been a corresponding expenditure of kinetic energy in effecting the ascent ”

“ But it never was demonstrated or proved by any one that the bodies attract each other. The thing which has been demonstrated is that B tends toward A; but the theory does not rest here ; it goes on to account for this tendency by referring it to a hypothetical cause, viz, to the ' attraction' of A. This however is a mere hypothesis, and no way essential to the theory. All that the theory requires is that it be demonstrated that A tends to move toward B. It is not necessary that we should go beyond this, and attempt to explain the cause of this tendency. ”

“ As a fact of observation, gravitation is always found to be a property of gross tangible matter, with its tensions mathematically directed to the mass-centers, and in quantity always directly proportioned to the number of material molecules, agreeably to the first and second propositions. ”

“ Croll, " along with all the others which we have been considering, will entirely vanish if we adopt the view of gravity which has been ably advocated by Faraday, Waterston, and other physicists, viz, that it is a force pervading space external to bodies, and that on their mutual approach this force is not increased, as is generally supposed; the bodies merely pass into a place where the force exists with greater intensity ”