Antecedents of Electricity--Nature of what is
transformed--Series of transformations for the
production of light--Positive and negative
Electricity--Positive and negative twists--Rotations
about a wire--Rotation of an arc--Ether a
non-conductor--Electro-magnetic waves--Induction
and inductive action--Ether stress and atomic
position--Nature of an electric current--Electricity
a condition, not an entity.
So far as we have knowledge to-day, the only factors we have to consider
in explaining physical phenomena are: (1) Ordinary matter, such as
constitutes the substance of the earth, and the heavenly bodies; (2) the
ether, which is omnipresent; and (3) the various forms of motion, which
are mutually transformable in matter, and some of which, but not all,
are transformable into ether forms. For instance, the translatory motion
of a mass of matter can be imparted to another mass by simple impact,
but translatory motion cannot be imparted to the ether, and, for that
reason, a body moving in it is not subject to friction, and continues
to move on with velocity undiminished for an indefinite time; but the
vibratory motion which constitutes heat is transformable into
wave-motion in the ether, and is transmitted away with the speed of
light. The kind of motion which is thus transformed is not even a
to-and-fro swing of an atom, or molecule, like the swing of a pendulum
bob, but that due to a change of form of the atoms within the molecule,
otherwise there could be no such thing as spectrum analysis. Vibratory
motion of the matter becomes undulatory motion in the ether. The
vibratory motion we call heat; the wave-motion we call sometimes radiant
energy, sometimes light. Neither of these terms is a good one, but we
now have no others.
It is conceded that it is not proper to speak of the wave-motion in the
ether as _heat_; it is also admitted that the ether is not heated by the
presence of the wave--or, in other words, the temperature of the ether
is absolute zero. Matter only can be heated. But the ether waves can
heat other matter they may fall on; so there are three steps in the
process and two transformations--(1) vibrating matter; (2) waves in the
ether; (3) vibration in other matter. Energy has been transferred
indirectly. What is important to bear in mind is, that when a form of
energy in matter is transformed in any manner so as to lose its
characteristics, it is not proper to call it by the same name after as
before, and this we do in all cases when the transformation is from one
kind in matter to another kind in matter. Thus, when a bullet is shot
against a target, before it strikes it has what we call mechanical
energy, and we measure that in foot-pounds; after it has struck the
target, the transformation is into heat, and this has its mechanical
equivalent, but is not called mechanical energy, nor are the motions
which embody it similar. The mechanical ideas in these phenomena are
easy to grasp. They apply to the phenomena of the mechanics of large and
small bodies, to sound, to heat, and to light, as ordinarily considered,
but they have not been applied to electric phenomena, as they evidently
should be, unless it be held that such phenomena are not related to
ordinary phenomena, as the latter are to one another.
When we would give a complete explanation of the phenomena exhibited by,
say, a heated body, we need to inquire as to the antecedents of the
manifestation, and also its consequents. Where and how did it get its
heat? Where and how did it lose it? When we know every step of those
processes, we know all there is to learn about them. Let us undertake
the same thing for some electrical phenomena.
First, under what circumstances do electrical phenomena arise?
(1) _Mechanical_, as when two different kinds of matter are subject to
friction.
(2) _Thermal_, as when two substances in molecular contact are heated at
the junction.
(3) _Magnetic_, as when any conductor is in a changing magnetic field.
(4) _Chemical_, as when a metal is being dissolved in any solution.
(5) _Physiological_, as when a muscle contracts.
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--Frictional electrical machine.]
Each of these has several varieties, and changes may be rung on
combinations of them, as when mechanical and magnetic conditions
interact.
(1) In the first case, ordinary mechanical or translational energy is
spent as friction, an amount measurable in foot-pounds, and the factors
we know, a pressure into a distance. If the surface be of the same kind
of molecules, the whole energy is spent as heat, and is presently
radiated away. If the surfaces are of unlike molecules, the product is a
compound one, part heat, part electrical. What we have turned into the
machine we know to be a particular mode of motion. We have not changed
the amount of matter involved; indeed, we assume, without specifying and
without controversy, that matter is itself indestructible, and the
product, whether it be of one kind or another, can only be some form of
motion. Whether we can describe it or not is immaterial; but if we agree
that heat is vibratory molecular motion, and there be any other kind of
a product than heat, it too must also be some other form of motion. So
if one is to form a conception of the mechanical origin of electricity,
this is the only one he can have--transformed motion.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Thermo-pile.]
[Illustration: FIG. 7.--Dynamo.]
(2) When heat is the antecedent of electricity, as in the thermo-pile,
that which is turned into the pile we know to be molecular motion of a
definite kind. That which comes out of it must be some equivalent
motion, and if all that went in were transformed, then all that came out
would be transformed, call it by what name we will and let its amount be
what it may.
(3) When a conductor is moved in a magnetic field, the energy spent is
measurable in foot-pounds, as before, a pressure into a distance. The
energy appears in a new form, but the quantity of matter being
unchanged, the only changeable factor is the kind of motion, and that
the motion is molecular is evident, for the molecules are heated.
Mechanical or mass motion is the antecedent, molecular heat motion is
the consequent, and the way we know there has been some intermediate
form is, that heat is not conducted at the rate which is observed in
such a case. Call it by what name one will, some form of motion has been
intermediate between the antecedent and the consequent, else we have
some other factor of energy to reckon with than ether, matter and
motion.
(4) In a galvanic battery, the source of electricity is chemical action;
but what is chemical action? Simply an exchange of the constituents of
molecules--a change which involves exchange of energy. Molecules capable
of doing chemical work are loaded with energy. The chemical products of
battery action are molecules of different constitution, with smaller
amounts of energy as measured in calorics or heat units. If the results
of the chemical reaction be prevented from escaping, by confining them
to the cell itself, the whole energy appears as heat and raises the
temperature of the cell. If a so-called circuit be provided, the energy
is distributed through it, and less heat is spent in the cell, but
whether it be in one place or another, the mass of matter involved is
not changed, and the variable factor is the motion, the same as in the
other cases. The mechanical conceptions appropriate are the
transformation of one kind of motion into another kind by the mechanical
conditions provided.
[Illustration: FIG. 8.--Galvanic Battery.]
(5) Physiological antecedents of electricity are exemplified by the
structure and mode of operation of certain muscles (Fig. 9, _a_) in the
torpedo and other electrical animals. The mechanical contraction of them
results in an electrical excitation, and, if a proper circuit be
provided, in an electric current. The energy of a muscle is derived from
food, which is itself but a molecular compound loaded with energy of a
kind available for muscular transformation. Bread-and-butter has more
available energy, pound for pound, than has coal, and can be substituted
for coal for running an engine. It is not used, because it costs so much
more. There is nothing different, so far as the factors of energy go,
between the food of an animal and the food of an engine. What becomes of
the energy depends upon the kind of structure it acts on. It may be
changed into translatory, and the whole body moves in one direction; or
into molecular, and then appears as heat or electrical energy.
If one confines his attention to the only variable factor in the energy
in all these cases, and traces out in each just what happens, he will
have only motions of one sort or another, at one rate or another, and
there is nothing mysterious which enters into the processes.
We will turn now to the mode in which electricity manifests itself, and
what it can do. It may be well to point out at the outset what has
occasionally been stated, but which has not received the philosophical
attention it deserves--namely, that electrical phenomena are reversible;
that is, any kind of a physical process which is capable of producing
electricity, electricity is itself able to produce. Thus to name a few:
If mechanical motion develops electricity, electricity will produce
mechanical motion; the movement of a pith ball and an electric motor are
examples. If chemical action can produce it, it will produce chemical
action, as in the decomposition of water and electro-plating. As heat
may be its antecedent, so will it produce heat. If magnetism be an
antecedent factor, magnetism may be its product. What is called
induction may give rise to it in an adjacent conductor, and, likewise,
induction may be its effect.
[Illustration: FIG. 9.--Torpedo.]
[Illustration: FIG. 10.--Dynamo and Motor.]
Let us suppose ourselves to be in a building in which a steam-engine is
at work. There is fuel, the furnace, the boiler, the pipes, the engine
with its fly-wheel turning. The fuel burns in the furnace, the water is
superheated in the boiler, the steam is directed by the pipes, the
piston is moved by the steam pressure, and the fly-wheel rotates
because of proper mechanism between it and the piston. No one who has
given attention to the successive steps in the process is so puzzled as
to feel the need of inventing a particular force, or a new kind of
matter, or any agency, at any stage of the process, different from the
simple mechanical ones represented by a push or a pull. Even if he
cannot see clearly how heat can produce a push, he does not venture to
assume a genii to do the work, but for the time is content with saying
that if he starts with motion in the furnace and stops with the motion
of the fly-wheel, any assumption of any other factor than some form of
motion between the two would be gratuitous. He can truthfully say that
he understands the _nature_ of that which goes on between the furnace
and the wheel; that it is some sort of motion, the particular kind of
which he might make out at his leisure.
Suppose once more that, across the road from an engine-house, there was
another building, where all sorts of machines--lathes, planers, drills,
etc.--were running, but that the source of the power for all this was
out of sight, and that one could see no connection between this and the
engine on the other side of the street. Would one need to suppose there
was anything mysterious between the two--a force, a fluid, an immaterial
something? This question is put on the supposition that one should not
be aware of the shaft that might be between the two buildings, and that
it was not obvious on simple inspection how the machines got their
motions from the engine. No one would be puzzled because he did not know
just what the intervening mechanism might be. If the boiler were in the
one building, and the engine in the other with the machines, he could
see nothing moving between them, even if the steam-pipes were of glass.
If matter of any kind were moving, he could not see it there. He would
say there _must_ be something moving, or pressure could not be
transferred from one place to the other.
Substitute for the furnace and boiler a galvanic battery or a dynamo;
for the machines of the shop, one or more motors with suitable wire
connections. When the dynamo goes the motors go; when the dynamo stops
the motors stop; nothing can be seen to be turning or moving in any way
between them. Is there any necessity for assuming a mysterious agency,
or a force of a _nature_ different from the visible ones at the two ends
of the line? Is it not certain that the question is, How does the motion
get from one to the other, whether there be a wire or not? If there be a
wire, it is plain that there is motion in it, for it is heated its whole
length, and heat is known to be a mode of motion, and every molecule
which is thus heated must have had some antecedent motions. Whether it
be defined or not, and whether it be called by one name or another, are
quite immaterial, if one is concerned only with the _nature_ of the
action, whether it be matter or ether, or motion or abracadabra.
Once more: suppose we have a series of active machines. (Fig. 11.) An
arc lamp, radiating light-waves, gets its energy from the wire which is
heated, which in turn gets its energy from the electric current; that
from a dynamo, the dynamo from a steam-engine; that from a furnace and
the chemical actions going on in it. Let us call the chemical actions A,
the furnace B, the engine C, the dynamo D, the electric lamp E, the
ether waves F. (Fig. 12.)
[Illustration: FIG. 11.]
The product of the chemical action of the coal is molecular motion,
called heat in the furnace. The product of the heat is mechanical motion
in the engine. The product of the mechanical motion is electricity in
the dynamo. The product of the electric current in the lamp is
light-waves in the ether. No one hesitates for an instant to speak of
the heat as being molecular motion, nor of the motions of the engine as
being mechanical; but when we come to the product of the dynamo, which
we call electricity, behold, nearly every one says, not that he does not
know what it is, but that no one knows! Does any one venture to say he
does not know what heat is, because he cannot describe in detail just
what goes on in a heated body, as it might be described by one who saw
with a microscope the movements of the molecules? Let us go back for a
moment to the proposition stated early in this book, namely, that if any
body of any magnitude moves, it is because some other body in motion and
in contact with it has imparted its motion by mechanical pressure.
Therefore, the ether waves at F (Fig. 11) imply continuous motions of
some sort from A to F. That they are all motions of ordinary matter from
A to E is obvious, because continuous matter is essential for the
maintenance of the actions. At E the motions are handed over to the
ether, and they are radiated away as light-waves.
[Illustration: FIG. 12.]
[Illustration: FIG. 13.]
A puzzling electrical phenomenon has been what has been called its
duality-states, which are spoken of as positive and negative. Thus, we
speak of the positive plate of a battery and the negative pole of a
dynamo; and another troublesome condition to idealize has been, how it
could be that, in an electric circuit, there could be as much energy at
the most remote part as at the source. But, if one will take a limp
rope, 8 or 10 feet long, tie its ends together, and then begin to twist
it at any point, he will see the twist move in a right-handed spiral on
the one hand, and in a left-handed spiral on the other, and each may be
traced quite round the circuit; so there will be as much twist, as much
motion, and as much energy in one part of the rope as in any other; and
if one chooses to call the right-handed twist positive, and the
left-handed twist negative, he will have the mechanical phenomenon of
energy-distribution and the terminology, analogous to what they are in
an electric conductor. (Fig. 13.) Are the cases more dissimilar than the
mechanical analogy would make them seem to be?
Are there any phenomena which imply that rotation is going on in an
electric conductor? There are. An electric arc, which is a current in
the air, and is, therefore, less constrained than it is in a conductor,
rotates. Especially marked is this when in front of the pole of a
magnet; but the rotation may be noticed in an ordinary arc by looking at
it with a stroboscope disk, rotated so as to make the light to the eye
intermittent at the rate of four or five hundred per second. A ray of
plane polarized light, parallel with a wire conveying a current, has its
plane of vibration twisted to the right or left, as the current goes
one way or the other through the wire, and to a degree that depends upon
the distance it travels; not only so, but if the ray be sent, by
reflection, back through the same field, it is twisted as much more--a
phenomenon which convinces one that rotation is going on in the space
through which the ray travels. If the ether through which the ray be
sent were simply warped or in some static stress, the ray, after
reflection, would be brought back to its original plane, which is not
the case. This rotation in the ether is produced by what is going on in
the wire. The ether waves called light are interpreted to imply that
molecules originate them by their vibrations, and that there are as many
ether waves per second as of molecular vibrations per second. In like
manner, the implication is the same, that if there be rotations in the
ether they must be produced by molecular rotation, and there must be as
many rotations per second in the ether as there are molecular rotations
that produce them. The space about a wire carrying a current is often
pictured as filled with whorls indicating this motion (Fig. 14), and one
must picture to himself, not the wire as a whole rotating, but each
individual molecule independently. But one is aware that the molecules
of a conductor are practically in contact with each other, and that if
one for any reason rotates, the next one to it would, from frictional
action, cause the one it touched to rotate in the opposite direction,
whereas, the evidence goes to show that all rotation is in the same
direction.
[Illustration: FIG. 14.]
How can this be explained mechanically? Recall the kind of action that
constitutes heat, that it is not translatory action in any degree, but
vibratory, in the sense of a change of form of an elastic body, and
this, too, of the atoms that make up the molecule of whatever sort. Each
atom is so far independent of every other atom in the molecule that it
can vibrate in this way, else it could not be heated. The greater the
amplitude of vibration, the more free space to move in, and continuous
contact of atoms is incompatible with the mechanics of heat. There must,
therefore, be impact and freedom alternating with each other in all
degrees in a heated body. If, in any way, the atoms themselves _were_
made to rotate, their heat impacts not only would restrain the
rotations, but the energy also of the rotation motion would increase the
vibrations; that is, the heat would be correspondingly increased, which
is what happens always when an electric current is in a conductor. It
appears that the cooler a body is the less electric resistance it has,
and the indications are that at absolute zero there is no resistance;
that is, impacts do not retard rotation, but it is also apparent that
any current sent through a conductor at that temperature would at once
heat it. This is the same as saying that an electric current could not
be sent through a conductor at absolute zero.
So far, mechanical conceptions are in accordance with electrical
phenomena, but there are several others yet to be noted. Electrical
phenomena has been explained as molecular or atomic phenomena, and there
is one more in that category which is well enough known, and which is so
important and suggestive, that the wonder is its significance has not
been seen by those who have sought to interpret electrical phenomena.
The reference is to the fact that electricity cannot be transmitted
through a vacuum. An electric arc begins to spread out as the density of
the air decreases, and presently it is extinguished. An induction spark
that will jump two or three feet in air cannot be made to bridge the
tenth of an inch in an ordinary vacuum. A vacuum is a perfect
non-conductor of electricity. Is there more than one possible
interpretation to this, namely, that electricity is fundamentally a
molecular and atomic phenomenon, and in the absence of molecules cannot
exist? One may say, "Electrical _action_ is not hindered by a vacuum,"
which is true, but has quite another interpretation than the implication
that electricity is an ether phenomenon. The heat of the sun in some way
gets to the earth, but what takes place in the ether is not
heat-transmission. There is no heat in space, and no one is at liberty
to say, or think, that there can be heat in the absence of matter.
When heat has been transformed into ether waves, it is no longer heat,
call it by what name one will. Formerly, such waves were called
heat-waves; no one, properly informed, does so now. In like manner, if
electrical motions or conditions in matter be transformed, no matter
how, it is no longer proper to speak of such transformed motions or
conditions as electricity. Thus, if electrical energy be transformed
into heat, no one thinks of speaking of the latter as electrical. If the
electrical energy be transformed into mechanical of any sort, no one
thinks of calling the latter electrical because of its antecedent. If
electrical motions be transformed into ether actions of any kind, why
should we continue to speak of the transformed motions or energy as
being electrical? Electricity may be the antecedent, in the same sense
as the mechanical motion of a bullet may be the antecedent of the heat
developed when the latter strikes the target; and if it be granted that
a vacuum is a perfect non-conductor of electricity, then it is
manifestly improper to speak of any phenomenon in the ether as an
electrical phenomenon. It is from the failure to make this distinction
that most of the trouble has come in thinking on this subject. Some have
given all their attention to what goes on in matter, and have called
that electricity; others have given their attention to what goes on in
the ether, and have called that electricity, and some have considered
both as being the same thing, and have been confounded.
Let us consider what is the relation between an electrified body and the
ether about it.
When a body is electrified, the latter at the same time creates an ether
stress about it, which is called an electric field. The ether stress may
be considered as a warp in the distribution of the energy about the body
(Fig. 15), by the new positions given to the molecules by the process of
electrification. It has been already said that the evidence from other
sources is that atoms, rather than molecules, in larger masses, are what
affect the ether. One is inclined to inquire for the evidence we have as
to the constitution of matter or of atoms. There is only one hypothesis
to-day that has any degree of probability; that is, the vortex-ring
theory, which describes an atom as being a vortex-ring of ether in the
ether. It possesses a definite amount of energy in virtue of the motion
which constitutes it, and this motion differentiates it from the
surrounding ether, giving it dimensions, elasticity, momentum, and the
possibility of translatory, rotary, vibratory motions, and combinations
of them. Without going further into this, it is sufficient, for a
mechanical conception, that one should have so much in mind, as it will
vastly help in forming a mechanical conception of reactions between
atoms and the ether. An exchange of energy between such an atom and the
ether is not an exchange between different kinds of things, but between
different conditions of the same thing. Next, it should be remembered
that all the elements are magnetic in some degree. This means that they
are themselves magnets, and every magnet has a magnetic field unlimited
in extent, which can almost be regarded as a part of itself. If a magnet
of any size be moved, its field is moved with it, and if in any way the
magnetism be increased or diminished, the field changes correspondingly.
[Illustration: FIG. 15.]
Assume a straight bar electro-magnet in circuit, so that a current can
be made intermittent, say, once a second. When the circuit is closed and
the magnet is made, the field at once is formed and travels outwards at
the rate of 186,000 miles per second. When the current stops, the field
adjacent is destroyed. Another closure develops the field again, which,
like the other, travels outwards; and so there may be formed a series of
waves in the ether, each 186,000 miles long, with an electro-magnetic
antecedent. If the circuit were closed ten times a second, the waves
would be 18,600 miles long; if 186,000 times a second, they would be but
one mile long. If 400 million of millions times a second, they would be
but the forty-thousandth of an inch long, and would then affect the eye,
and we should call them light-waves, but the latter would not differ
from the first wave in any particular except in length. As it is proved
that such electro-magnetic waves have all the characteristics of light,
it follows that they must originate with electro-magnetic action, that
is, in the changing magnetism of a magnetic body. This makes it needful
to assume that the atoms which originate waves are magnets, as they are
experimentally found to be. But how can a magnet, not subject to a
varying current, change its magnetic field? The strength or density of a
magnetic field depends upon the form of the magnet. When the poles are
near together, the field is densest; when the magnet is bent back to a
straight bar, the field is rarest or weakest, and a change in the form
of the magnet from a U-form to a straight bar would result in a change
of the magnetic field within its greatest limits. A few turns of
wire--as has been already said--wound about the poles of an ordinary
U-magnet, and connected to an ordinary magnetic telephone, will enable
one, listening to the latter, to hear the pitch of the former loudly
reproduced when the magnet is struck like a tuning-fork, so as to
vibrate. This shows that the field of the magnet changes at the same
rate as the vibrations.
Assume that the magnet becomes smaller and smaller until it is of the
dimensions of an atom, say for an approximation, the fifty-millionth of
an inch. It would still have its field; it would still be elastic and
capable of vibration, but at an enormously rapid rate; but its vibration
would change its field in the same way, and so there would be formed
those waves in the ether, which, because they are so short that they can
affect the eye, we call light. The mechanical conceptions are
legitimate, because based upon experiments having ranges through nearly
the whole gamut as waves in ether.
The idea implies that every atom has what may be loosely called an
electro-magnetic grip upon the whole of the ether, and any change in the
former brings some change in the latter.
Lastly, the phenomenon called induction may be mechanically conceived.
It is well known that a current in a conductor makes a magnet of the
wire, and gives it an electro-magnetic field, so that other magnets in
its neighbourhood are twisted in a way tending to set them at right
angles to the wire. Also, if another wire be adjacent to the first, an
electric current having an opposite direction is induced in it. Thus:
Consider a permanent magnet A (Fig. 15), free to turn on an axis in the
direction of the arrow. If there be other free magnets, B and C, in
line, they will assume such positions that their similar poles all point
one way. Let A be twisted to a position at right angles, then B will
turn, but in the opposite direction, and C in similar. That is, if A
turn in the direction of the hands of a clock, B and C will turn in
opposite directions. These are simply the observed movements of large
magnets. Imagine that these magnets be reduced to atomic dimensions, yet
retaining their magnetic qualities, poles and fields. Would they not
evidently move in the same way and for the same reason? If it be true,
that a magnet field always so acts upon another as to tend by rotation
to set the latter into a certain position, with reference to the stress
in that field, then, _wherever there is a changing magnetic field, there
the atoms are being adjusted by it_.
[Illustration: FIG. 16.]
Suppose we have a line of magnetic needles free to turn, hundreds or
thousands of them, but disarranged. Let a strong magnetic field be
produced at one end of the line. The field would be strongest and best
conducted along the magnet line, but every magnet in the line would be
compelled to rotate, and if the first were kept rotating, the rotation
would be kept up along the whole line. This would be a mechanical
illustration of how an electric current travels in a conductor. The
rotations are of the atomic sort, and are at right angles to the
direction of the conductor.
That which makes the magnets move is inductive magnetic ether stress,
but the advancing motion represents mechanical energy of rotation, and
it is this motion, with the resulting friction, which causes the heat in
a conductor.
What is important to note is, that the action in the ether is not
electric action, but more properly the result of electro-magnetic
action. Whatever name be given to it, and however it comes about, there
is no good reason for calling any kind of ether action electrical.
Electric action, like magnetic action, begins and ends in matter. It is
subject to transformations into thermal and mechanical actions, also
into ether stress--right-handed or left-handed--which, in turn, can
similarly affect other matter, but with opposite polarities.
In his _Modern Views of Electricity_, Prof. O. J. Lodge warns us, quite
rightly, that perhaps, after all, there is no such _thing_ as
electricity--that electrification and electric energy may be terms to be
kept for convenience; but if electricity as a term be held to imply a
force, a fluid, an imponderable, or a thing which could be described by
some one who knew enough, then it has no degree of probability, for
spinning atomic magnets seem capable of developing all the electrical
phenomena we meet. It must be thought of as a _condition_ and not as an
entity.
THE END
_Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, London & Bungay._
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Transcriber's Note
Minor typographical corrections have been made without comment.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation, and the author's use of commas
when writing large numbers, have been retained.