Solid state

“ By the processes of art and manufacture, by the operation of those powers on which organisation and life depend, solid matter is constantly poured off in such a state that it cannot be detected, as matter, by any of the human senses. Yet a thousand results, daily and hourly accumulating as truths around us, prove that the solid metals, the gross earths, and the constituents of animal and vegetable life, all pass away invisible to us, and become “thin air.” ”

“ Cohesion, act of sticking together, union of the constituent parts of a body.
Which is supposed to be the most natural state of all bodies?
Solidity; for by the combination of caloric with them we can reduce most substances to the fluid state; while the greatest number of liquid substances take a solid form by the loss of [199] caloric. Thus, water congeals and forms ice; and even the gases show this disposition to become solid, when they lose their elasticity by forming some combination.
Explain the terms Repulsion and Attraction. ”

“ The ordinary mechanical explanation of the molecular states of matter, or states of aggregation, on the basis of the atomic theory, proceeds on the assumption that the molecular states are produced by the conflict of antagonistic central forces—molecular attraction and repulsion—the preponderance of the one or the other of which gives rise to the solid and gaseous forms, while their balance or equilibrium results in the [pg 795] liquid state. ”

“ Again, leaving this insoluble question, let us ask whether substance has, in reality, anything like that extended solidity which it presents to our consciousness. The portion of space occupied by a piece of metal, seems to eyes and fingers perfectly filled: we perceive a homogeneous, resisting mass, without any breach of continuity. Shall we then say that Matter is as actually solid as it appears? Shall we say that whether it consists of an infinitely divisible element or of ultimate units incapable of further division, its parts are everywhere in actual contact? ”

“ On solidity depend impulse, resistance, and protrusion. By this idea of solidity is the extension of body distinguished from the extension of space : – the extension of body being nothing but the cohesion or continuity of solid, separable, movable parts ; and the extension of space, the continuity of unsolid, inseparable, and immovable parts. Upon the solidity of bodies also depend their mutual impulse, resistance, and protrusion. Of pure space then, and solidity, there are several (amongst which I confess myself one) who persuade themselves they have clear and distinct ideas ”

“ Science has demonstrated what has been termed the "Convertibility of Forces," or, that when one form of energy disappears, another form (or forms) of energy, and in precisely equivalent amount, is produced in its stead, either in a latent or active state. ”

“ On the contrary, I attach importance to having precisely designated the condition in which are grounded all the sensible differences that have caused mankind to recognize, although the same forces rule in both, two distinct kingdoms in living and inanimate nature. This condition is, that, in the inorganic individual, the crystal, matter exists in stable equilibrium, while in the organic individual a more or less complete dynamic equilibrium sways the matter, sometimes with a positive, sometimes with a negative balance. ”

“ It follows from the first law that the intrinsic energy of a substance in a given state must always be the same, or that the change of E in any transformation must depend only on the initial and final states, and not on the path or process. ”

“ So in our programme of creation, mark How 'tis that, though the bodies of all stuff Are solid to the core, we yet explain The ways whereby some things are fashioned soft— Air, water, earth, and fiery exhalations— And by what force they function and go on: The fact is founded in the void of things. But if the primal germs themselves be soft, Reason cannot be brought to bear to show The ways whereby may be created these Great crags of basalt and the during iron; For their whole nature will profoundly lack The first foundations of a solid frame. ”

“ The inherent nature of cause may be so constituted and fixed, that the nisus by which it determines itself to produce phenomena, shall take place according to invariable and necessary laws. This we believe to be true with respect to all physical causes. Heat, electricity, galvanism, magnetism, gravitation, mechanical forces in general, and the powers at work in chemical of affinities, produce their phenomena according to fixed, and, with respect to the powers themselves, necessary laws. ”

“ In such cases, a more or less considerable force must be applied, in order to break the body, or to tear its parts asunder. Such is the quality which characterises the state, which in mechanics is called the state of solidity. ”

“ Now the state, including the shape or form, of a portion of matter, is the resultant of a number of forces, which represent or symbolise the manifestations of various kinds of energy; and it is obvious, accordingly, that a great part of physical science must be understood or taken for granted as the necessary preliminary to the discussion on which we are engaged. ”

“ We consider it, therefore, as what we call a Substance, or as a thing that subsists by itself, and independent of any other thing. Solid and substantial, accordingly, are two words which, in common language, are considered either as altogether or as nearly synonymous.
Solidity necessarily supposes some degree of extension, and that in all the three directions of length, breadth, and thickness. All the solid bodies, of which we have any experience, have some degree of such bulk or magnitude. ”

“ Heat, electricity, chemical power—whatever that may be—and the forces of cohesion, are known to be involved in the production of the forms we see; but contemplation soon leads to the conviction that these powers are subordinate to others which we know not of. We know only the things belonging to the surface of our planet, and these but superficially. ”

“ Beside the real system of which the stability is in question, it will be convenient to conceive of another system, to which we shall attribute in its initial state the same homogeneous masses and surfaces of discontinuity which belong to the real system. ”

“ And here a physical analogy may fitly be used to give the greatest definiteness to this cardinal truth. A mass of matter, of whatever kind, maintains its state of internal equilibrium, so long as its component particles severally stand toward their neighbors in equi-distant positions. Accepting the conclusions of modern physicists, which imply that each molecule moves rhythmically, then a balanced state implies that each performs its movements within a space bounded by the like spaces required for the movements of those around. ”

“ We know that those atoms obey certain conditions which appear to be dependent upon the influences of motion, gravitation, heat, light, electricity, and chemical force. These powers are only known to us by their effects; we only detect their action by their operations upon matter; and although we regard the several phenomena which we have discovered, as the manifestations of different principles, it is possible they may be but modifications of some one universal power, of which these are but a few of its modes of action. ”

“ Now, the same balanced form is necessary for the preservation of a revolving solid. The creator, therefore, of a revolving solid, would make it an oblate spheroid, that figure alone admitting a perfect equilibrium. ”

“ We acquire power by being first obedient; and this is in accordance with the principles and facts of science; we must obey nature before we can make nature obey us; the elementary bodies, also, usually acquire the free state, latent power, and the ability to evolve heat and electric energy, only by being first subjected in their crude state to a process of reduction and purification. ”

“ All the various forms of energy are thus reducible to unity; they are one force transformed by mechanical arrangements. "Electricity and magnetism, heat and light, muscular energy and chemical action, motion and mechanical work, are only different forms of one and the same power.... Moreover, chemical union of the elements of matter, the attraction of gravitation in all the bodies of the universe, are but varied forms of this universal motive force." ”

“ We have thus endeavoured to obtain a view of some of the peculiar characters which belong to the Force of Organic Assimilation;—the Force by which life is kept up, conceived in the most elementary form to which we can reduce it by observation and contemplation. It appears that it is a force which not only produces motion and chemical change, but also vitalizes the matter on which it acts, giving to it the power of producing like changes on other matter, and so on indefinitely. ”

“ So when gases of different kinds are mixed, if we ask what changes in external bodies are necessary to bring the system to its original state, we do not mean a state in which each particle shall occupy more or less exactly the same position as at some previous epoch, but only a state which shall be undistinguishable from the previous one in its sensible properties. ”

“ But we may have a substance, or system, in which the force at work is not gravity, but chemical affinity, and the substance, or system, may, under certain peculiar conditions, become chemically unstable. ”

“ Before proceeding farther, we must decide whether we are to examine the question of stability under the condition of a constant external temperature, or under the condition of no transmission of heat to or from external bodies, and in general, to what external influences we are to regard the system as subject. It will be convenient to suppose that the exterior of the system is fixed, and that neither matter nor heat can be transmitted through it. ”

“ That notable doctrine known as the correlation of physical forces, or the convertibility into one another of heat, light, electricity, chemical affinity, etc., each being a mode of manifestation of an unknown energy which “lives through all life, extends through all extent,” has its counterpart in the correlation of spiritual forces. ”

“ In fine, do not the varying powers calculated to produce the phenomena, consist of the varying qualities of bodies, and the varying circumstances in which they are placed in regard to each other; and may not the active power be fixed and always the same? Does not this conclusion best accord with the simplicity of nature? Is it probable that two active powers could be co-existent? May not the elasticity of a universal medium account for most of the intricate phenomena of bodies? May not motion grow out of the vacuum between the atoms of that universal medium? ”

“ In all the operations of chemical transmutations no material is lost and no power wasted, and, by the law of the conservation and correlation of force, both energy and material must exist as correlatives. [Pg 55] This places the nature of matter upon the same basis as the origin of power. The transformation of force into material is impossible. Force follows the laws of motion, and atoms the law of form obedient to the lines of motion. ”

“ Indeed, it only manifests itself when a transmutation is taking place into some other form of Energy. Now it is the universal association of these two forms of potential Energy with the common and fundamental data of our sense-experience that has suggested the construction in our minds of the conception of Matter, and furnished us with the ideas of solidity, impenetrability, and weight which constitute its groundwork. ”

“ The principles of compensation and equilibrium are found also in the physical universe, the product of matter and force, whose cause is God. Force, naturally expansive and operating on the homogeneous atoms which constitute elemental matter, is subject to the law of equilibrium, or equivalence of action and reaction. ”

“ In the first place, the recent doctrine of the correlation and mutual convertibility of the physical forces, as a part of the theory of the conservation of energy, has shaken, if not destroyed, the conception of a multiplicity of independent original forces. ”

“ This great principle which fills the earth and all spheres, and governs and binds them together—this great principle which is the source of all life, animate and inanimate—this principle dominates in every vital system, from man down through and beyond the microscopic forms of existence. ”

“ Let us now return to our former suppositions—that the film is thick enough for the interior to have the properties of matter in mass, and that the matter in each element is invariable, except with respect to those substances which have their potentials determined by the contiguous gas-masses—and consider what conditions are necessary for equilibrium in such a case. ”

“ Every condition of organised forms is due to the external excitation of light and heat, and in the chemical changes which take place, an equivalent of these principles, or powers—it signifies but little according to which view we may regard them—is absorbed, and retained as essential to the condition of the matter formed. ”

“ Now, the same is true also of the forces operating on these planes—of the different grades of force, and their corresponding groups of phenomena. The change from one grade to another, as from physical to chemical, or from chemical to vital, is not, as far as we can see, by sliding scale, but suddenly. The groups of phenomena which we call physical, chemical, vital, animal, rational, and moral, do not merge into each other by insensible gradations. In the ascensive scale of forces, in the evolution of the higher forces from the lower, there are places of rapid, paroxysmal change. ”

“ Theriade wished to talk continuously of the infinite energy stored up in the atoms of matter, and of the illimitable power which the release of that energy, by the system that he had all but completed, would place at the disposition of man ”