Vacillation

“ Is not the Heat of the warm Room convey'd through the Vacuum by the Vibrations of a much subtiler Medium than Air, which after the Air was drawn out remained in the Vacuum? And is not this Medium the same with that Medium by which Light is refracted and reflected, and by whose Vibrations Light communicates Heat to Bodies, and is put into Fits of easy Reflexion and easy Transmission? And do not the Vibrations of this Medium in hot Bodies contribute to the intenseness and duration of their Heat? ”

“ That the descent is a mechanical effect of the whirlwind, which creating a vacuum, or high degree of rarefaction, extending between the clouds and the earth, the clouds descend in it by their gravity, or by the pressure of the surrounding clouds or air. That the convolutions of the descending mass, and the sensible whirlwind felt at the earth, as well as the appearance of the commencement, increase and decrease of the mass, all demonstrate the whirl of the air to be the mechanical cause. ”

“ Thus when any body which has a free period of vibration is subject to periodic impulses of the same period as its own, it will vibrate very vigorously and absorb nearly all the energy of the impulses. ”

“ In both these cases, too, that portion of the energy which goes into the air takes ultimately the shape of heat. The oscillating pendulum communicates a motion to the air, and this motion ultimately heats the air. The vibrating bell, or musical instrument, in like manner communicates part of its energy to the air. This communicated energy first of all moves through the air with the well-known velocity of sound, but during its progress it, too, no doubt becomes partly converted into heat. ”

“ Heat and light come and go, as vapors of water condense into rain and dissolve into vapor to return again to the atmosphere. Electricity and magnetism appear and disappear; like summer storms they move in diversified channels, or even turn and fly from contact with some bodies, seemingly forbidden to appear, but thou, Gravitation, art omnipresent and omnipotent. Thou createst motion, and yet maintainest the equilibrium of all things mundane and celestial. An attempt to imagine a body destitute of thy potency, would be to bankrupt and deaden the material universe. ”

“ No matter how the disturbance is first set up, whether by the sun, or by a dynamo, or by a warm flat-iron, in every case the ether conveys nothing at all but the energy of wave-motion, and when the waves, encountering some material obstacle which does not reflect them, become quenched, their energy takes another form, and some kind of work is done, or heat is generated in the obstacle. ”

“ On the earth's surface men arrest the fitful wind, and by so doing divert the energy of its motion into movement of machinery; they induce it to turn mills and propel vessels. This motion of air is a disturbance, mass motion transmitted to the air by heat, heat in turn being a disturbance or interruption of pure motion. ”

“ In the first place, each particle is carried round by the rotation of our luminary. Secondly, each particle is influenced by the gigantic meteorological disturbances of the surface, in virtue of-which it may acquire a velocity ranging as high as one hundred and thirty or one hundred and forty miles a second; and lastly, each particle, on account of its high temperature, is vibrating with extreme rapidity, and the energy of these vibrations communicated to us by means of the ethereal medium produces the well-known light and heat effect of the sun. ”

“ Free fall in a vacuum, propagation of light and sound waves without absorption and reflection and unchecked electrical oscillations. All the latter processes are either naturally periodic, or they can be made completely reversible by suitable devices so that no sort of change in Nature remains behind; for example, the free fall of a body by utilizing the velocity acquired to bring the body back to its original height, light and sound waves by suitably reflecting them from perfect mirrors. ”

“ Let us take, for instance, the pressure of the air as indicated by the height of the barometer, and show that the oscillations of the mercury must be due to the sun. Imagine for a moment that the sun were to be extinguished, one consequence of the cessation of the arrival of heat at the earth would be that winds would blow no longer. There could be hardly any movements whatever in the air except such as might arise from atmospheric tides. ”

“ This is not the moment for any detailed explanation, Rob. I need only say this: As I told you a while ago, the fundamental substance of which our bodies are composed is—not substance, but a mere vortex. A whirlpool, a vibration let me term it. And the quality of this vibration—this vortex—the time-factor controlling it, governs the material character of our conscious universe. From birth to death—from the beginning to the end—we and all the substance of our universe move along this unalterable, measured flow of time. ”

“ We must suppose the streams of light to be always acting on one side of this terraqueous globe, and there dividing, expanding and rarifying the air; the consequence of which must be a kind of vacuum, which is immediately filled by the pressing in of the congealed air from the extremities; and as the earth is placed in this fluid of airs, we may as easily conceive that the air pressing in as above, must, with it, turn round the earth, in the same manner, and with as much ease, as water does a common mill-wheel, or the air a wind-mill. ”

“ Now if a cloud happens to be exactly in the point where two such furious currents of wind meet, it is turned round and round by them with great speed and is condensed into the form of a cone; this whirling motion drives from the centre of the cloud all the particles contained in it, producing what is called a vacuum, or empty space, into which the water or any thing else lying beneath it has an irresistible tendency to rush. ”

“ All winds are caused by the disturbances of indifferent equilibrium, and the motion of the air is to restore equilibrium.
2. These disturbances are caused through overheating of the layers of air near the surface of the earth by insolation, through unsymmetrical cooling of the higher layers by radiation, and through the heaping up of air masses caused by obstructions.
3. The disturbances are adjusted by ascending currents, wherein the particular species of acceleration occurs in which the increase of velocity is proportioned to the diminution of pressure. ”

“ And each particle moves, not straight forward, but backwards and forwards in the same space, so that its motion may be roughly compared to that of a pendulum, or to that of the balance-wheel of a watch. It is in fact a sort of vibratory movement; each vibration taking place through a very short distance and with extreme rapidity. The sensation of heat is caused by the vibratory movements of the particles of matter, just as sound is so caused. ”

“ Propagation of a Disturbance.—We may next consider the manner in which a disturbance, in which there are both vibrations of compression and of distortion, is propagated. The first or normal set of vibrations are propagated in a manner similar to that in which sound vibrations are propagated. From a centre of disturbance these movements approach an observer at a distant station, so to speak, end on. The other vibrations have a direction of motion similar to that which we believe to exist in a ray of light. ”

“ But if, on the other hand, the molecules of the one mass have periods of oscillation different from those of the other mass, their mutual impacts will not agree with the period of oscillation of either, but will generate a new rhythm, differing from, and much slower than, that of either. ”

“ Atoms and molecules may vibrate to and fro, or may execute various oscillations about each other, with a moderate velocity, or perform their motions with a rapidity beyond conception; and be the intensity of the vibrations ever so great or ever so small, these same vibrations determine the amplitude of the ethereal waves—those waves of greatest length giving rise to all the phenomena of radiant heat, while shorter ones constitute light in all its luminous and chromatic effects ”

“ Ultimately, it is transmitted by the air to other bodies, and by means of their internal viscosity is sooner or later converted into heat. Thus we see that heat is the form of energy, into which all visible terrestrial motion, whether it be rectilinear, or oscillatory, or vibratory, is ultimately changed. ”

“ We can account for these phenomena and explain the intermittence of the wind-puffs by assuming that the molecules of air, displacing each other, excite a vibratory movement, which gives rise to little undulations following one after another at intervals of a few seconds. ”

“ A circulatory motion will thus be set up in the atmosphere. In the upper regions the elevated and energised air masses move towards the poles; at lower levels the replacing masses move towards the equator, and in their passage may be operated on by the aqueous vapour which they encounter, energised, and raised to higher levels. ”

“ Oscillation is distinguished from continuous or progressive motion by its affecting the atoms of the body, while the latter acts upon the body itself. Through the vibration heat is engendered, because the poles are free and the matter passes over into æther. ”

“ So great may be the strain exerted in the air, or whatever separates the two conducting bodies, that it may break down, and we observe sparks or bundles of light or streamers, as they are called. These streamers form abundantly when the force through the air is rapidly varying. ”

“ We have seen that the Radiant Energy was caused by the Motion or Vibrations of the Particles, which Motion or Vibration was the result of the workings of the Law of Attraction, and which Law was but the manifestation of Vital-Mental Action. ”

“ But when the process is reversed, and we deduce effects from only one among concurrent and conflicting causes, theory is confounded by discordant facts. Theories of sound in purely elastic air might give results approximately realized in practice, if the actual pulses with which we are concerned were given by a flail; but are pregnant of error when the atmosphere is mixed with vicious vapors, and the pulse is a breath of air. ”

“ But if the amplitude of that circular vibration which agrees in sense with the rotation will continually increase, and the particle will work its way in an ever-widening spiral path towards the eccentric position of secular stability. ”

“ Whenever the lower end of the plane of meeting between the two opposing currents at B oscillates or passes over any place on the surface of the earth, it will cause storm or change of weather there a change of wind, of temperature, and of atmospheric pressure. ”

“ In each type of vibration the periodic time of vibration is determined by the nature of the system, and is invariable for the same system. The relative amount of motion in different parts of the system is also determinate for each type, but the absolute amount of motion and the phase of the vibration of each type are determined by the particular circumstances of the last encounter, and may vary in any manner from one encounter to another. ”

“ The mass of water-vapor which forms the clouds becomes electrically charged just as a rubber comb does when rubbed on the hair on a dry day, or as an ebonite ruler does when rubbed on a cat-skin. Perhaps by contact with the air, which is in motion, the particles of water become charged, and by the union of multitudes of these the clouds are charged to a tremendous pressure. ”

“ For handling and transporting liquid gases glass receptacles with a double skin from which all air has been exhausted are employed. The surrounding vacuum is so perfect an insulator that a “Dewar bulb” full of liquid air scarcely cools the hand, though the intervening space is less than an inch. This fact is hard to square with the assertion of scientific men that our atmosphere extends but a hundred or two miles from the earth’s surface, and that the recesses of space are a vacuum. ”

“ When the decomposition of vapour, from the decline of the heat, is as yet but in commencement, or while the electricity remaining in the air continues to give buoyancy to the suspended particles, a delicious calm often prevails for many days in succession, amidst a perfect sunshine, mellowed by the vaporous air, and diffusing a rich golden tint, as the day declines, upon the landscape. ”

“ We have now seen that air is the common vehicle of sound, and that the sound-impulse moves in all directions at a high speed/ But what is it that actually moves? The particles of air are certainly not shot from the vibrating body to the ear, for then we should live in the midst of storms ten times more violent than tropical cyclones. The wonderful elastic properties of gases here come into play. The vibrations of bodies produce waves or pulses in the air. ”

“ We cannot produce an air wave by moving any object such as a fan slowly to and fro through the air. In order to produce an air wave we must strike the air a very sudden blow, or, which comes to the same thing, we must apply and remove a very sudden pressure to the air; and under these circumstances we start into existence an air wave, which travels away from the vibrating or rapidly moving body, and continues its journey out into surrounding space. ”

“ Because the equilibrium of the atmosphere is disturbed by the heat and velocity of lightning, and the condensation of vapour. Air, therefore, rushes towards those parts where a degree of vacuity or rarefaction has been produced. ”

“ If an electric bell is placed in a bell jar attached to an air pump, as in Fig. 315, on exhausting the air the loudness of the sound is found to diminish, indicating that in a perfect vacuum no sound would be transmitted. This effect of a vacuum upon the transmission of sound is very different from its effect upon radiation of heat and light. Both heat and light are known to pass through a vacuum since both come to the earth from the sun through space that so far as we know contains no air or other matter. ”