MODERN MAGNETIC THEORY
We have already shown how the magnetism of a magnet is converted into
electricity, by means of rotating coils cutting the lines of magnetic
force in the “field.” The energy used to drive the machinery may, of
course, be derived either from water-power or by steam. Gravity gives
energy to falling water; chemical energy produced by the oxidation
of coal becomes heat energy, which in turn causes the expansion of
steam, which produces energy of motion in a piston; and this motion,
transmitted to the parts of an engine to a dynamo, produces electrical
energy. When the electric current from the dynamo has been conducted
to any desired point by cables, another motor, acting in the opposite
sense, causes the electricity to change back again into the original
mechanical energy, less the loss due to imperfections in the operation.
Here we have, then a clear picture of what is meant by the phrase,
_transformation of energy_.
But another question naturally arises at this point. We know that with
a finite quantity of magnetism we can produce an unlimited quantity of
electricity. Yet we add no new material, no source of supply, to the
dynamo. Let the rotating coils continue to cut the lines of magnetic
force in the magnetic field, and the magnetism of the magnet will be
transformed into current electricity—furnishing a literally exhaustless
supply from the great storehouse of nature. For us the energy of
the universe is infinite in quantity. The reservoir of energy is
exhaustless, and the dynamo is man’s open sesame.
But just here the very interesting question arises: Is the
inexhaustible supply of electric current with the expenditure of a
limited quantity of magnetism fully explained by saying that it is due
to the rotational movement of the coil? Can the mere rotation of a
metal in a magnetic field actually _create_ an endless supply of
available energy? Not likely! As Dr. Gustave Le Bon well says: “Such a
metamorphosis would be as marvelous as transformation of lead into gold
by simply shaking it in a bottle. Another interpretation must be sought
for the phenomenon.”
Now, a current of electricity is known to be a stream of electrons
(negative charges) flowing along or in a conductor; and an electron
is an atom of—_energy_. But where was this energy stored? “In
the all-pervasive ether,” say many physicists. “There is no ether,”
say others. The electromagnetic field represents energy storage _in
space_—not in a universal, incomprehensible, paradoxical something
called “ether.”
A field of _energy_ is intelligible. It takes the place of the
conception of action at a distance and of the ether. No “ether” need
be postulated as the carrier of the field energy in space. It is its
own carrier. “Energy is the only real existing entity, the primary
conception, which exists for us because our senses respond to it”
(Steinmetz).
“Lines of force,” says Dr. N. R. Campbell, the famous English
physicist, “are just lines of force, independent for their existence of
all surrounding bodies, and there is no more to be said about them....
Our Electrical theory, so far from providing additional support for
the conception of the ether filling all space, does not require such a
conception at all.”
Dr. Le Bon finds the exhaustless source of electricity in the interior
of atoms. The atoms in one pound of earth contain enough energy to run
all the factories, mills, railroads, etc., and light all the cities and
villages of the United States, for a month, Steinmetz tells us. “It
would,” he states further (“Relativity and Space,” Page 45), “supply
the fuel for the biggest transatlantic liner for 300 trips from America
to Europe and back. And if this energy of one pound of dirt could be
let loose instantaneously, it would be equal in destructive powers to
over a million tons of dynamite.”
From the above statement, we may well understand Dr. Le Bon’s
interpretation of the work of a dynamo: “Matter being easily
dissociated and constituting an immense reservoir of intra-atomic
energy, it is enough to admit that the lines of force seized upon by
the conducting body (the coils), which cuts them and causes them to
flow in the form of an electric current, are constantly replaced at the
expense of the intra-atomic energy. This latter being relatively almost
inexhaustible, a single magnet can furnish an almost infinite number of
lines of force.”
It can be shown that the kinetic energy of one kilogram (2.2 pounds)
weight of matter is about 9000 millions of millions of kilogram-meters,
or 25 thousand million kilowatt-hours (a kilowatt-hour = 1000 watt
hours). This means, in other words, that the quantity of energy in the
atoms of 2.2 pounds of ordinary matter is thousands of million times
greater than the energy of an equal quantity of coal, _released by
chemical combustion_.
Estimating the total energy consumed during the year on earth for
heat, light, power, etc., as about 15 millions of millions (=
15,000,000,000,000) of kilowatt-hours, Steinmetz tells us that 600
kilograms, or less than two-thirds of a ton, of “dirt,” if it could be
disintegrated into energy, would supply all the heat, light and energy
demand of the whole earth for a year.
Several eminent physicists are now specializing on the problem of how
to liberate and control intra-atomic energy for man’s uses—or abuses.
Bearing in mind the present intellectual, moral and economic status of
our “leaders of thought” and their followers, and remembering that one
pound of common soil contains intra-atomic energy equal in destructive
power to more than a million tons of dynamite, let us hope that the
secret of releasing and “controlling” intra-atomic energy will not be
discovered in our day and age.