A History of Science-3 [121]
and is estimated to be equivalent to two hundred and seventy- three degrees Centigrade below the freezing-point of water, or ordinary zero.
A temperature (or absence of temperature) closely approximating this is believed to obtain in the ethereal ocean of interplanetary and interstellar space, which transmits, but is thought not to absorb, radiant energy. We here on the earth's surface are protected from exposure to this cold, which would deprive every organic thing of life almost instantaneously, solely by the thin blanket of atmosphere with which the globe is coated. It would seem as if this atmosphere, exposed to such a temperature at its surface, must there be incessantly liquefied, and thus fall back like rain to be dissolved into gas again while it still is many miles above the earth's surface. This may be the reason why its scurrying molecules have not long ago wandered off into space and left the world without protection.
But whether or not such liquefaction of the air now occurs in our outer atmosphere, there can be no question as to what must occur in its entire depth were we permanently shut off from the heating influence of the sun, as the astronomers threaten that we may be in a future age. Each molecule, not alone of the atmosphere, but of the entire earth's substance, is kept aquiver by the energy which it receives, or has received, directly or indirectly, from the sun. Left to itself, each molecule would wear out its energy and fritter it off into the space about it, ultimately running completely down, as surely as any human-made machine whose power is not from time to time restored. If, then, it shall come to pass in some future age that the sun's rays fail us, the temperature of the globe must gradually sink towards the absolute zero. That is to say, the molecules of gas which now fly about at such inconceivable speed must drop helpless to the earth; liquids must in turn become solids; and solids themselves, their molecular quivers utterly stilled, may perhaps take on properties the nature of which we cannot surmise.
Yet even then, according to the current hypothesis, the heatless molecule will still be a thing instinct with life. Its vortex whirl will still go on, uninfluenced by the dying-out of those subordinate quivers that produced the transitory effect which we call temperature. For those transitory thrills, though determining the physical state of matter as measured by our crude organs of sense, were no more than non-essential incidents; but the vortex whirl is the essence of matter itself. Some estimates as to the exact character of this intramolecular motion, together with recent theories as to the actual structure of the molecule, will claim our attention in a later volume. We shall also have occasion in another connection to make fuller inquiry as to the phenomena of low temperature.
APPENDIX
REFERENCE-LIST
CHAPTER I
THE SUCCESSORS OF NEWTON IN ASTRONOMY [1] (p. 10). An Account of Several Extraordinary Meteors or Lights in the Sky, by Dr. Edmund Halley. Phil. Trans. of Royal Society of London, vol. XXIX, pp. 159-162. Read before the Royal Society in the autumn of 1714. [2] (p. 13). Phil. Trans. of Royal Society of London for 1748, vol. XLV., pp. 8, 9. From A Letter to the Right Honorable George, Earl of Macclesfield, concerning an Apparent Motion observed in some of the Fixed Stars, by James Bradley, D.D., Astronomer Royal and F.R.S.
CHAPTER II
THE PROGRESS OF MODERN ASTRONOMY
[1] (p. 25). William Herschel, Phil. Trans. for 1783, vol. LXXIII. [2] (p. 30). Kant's Cosmogony, ed. and trans. by W. Hartie, D.D., Glasgow, 900, pp. 74-81. [3] (p. 39). Exposition du systeme du monde (included in oeuvres Completes), by M. le Marquis de Laplace, vol. VI., p. 498. [4] (p. 48). From The Scientific Papers of J. Clerk-Maxwell, edited by W. D. Nevin, M.A. (2 vols.), vol. I., pp. 372-374. This is a reprint of Clerk-Maxwell's prize paper of 1859.
CHAPTER III
THE NEW SCIENCE OF PALEONTOLOGY
[1] (p. 81). Baron de Cuvier, Theory of the Earth, New York, 1818, p. 98. [2]
A temperature (or absence of temperature) closely approximating this is believed to obtain in the ethereal ocean of interplanetary and interstellar space, which transmits, but is thought not to absorb, radiant energy. We here on the earth's surface are protected from exposure to this cold, which would deprive every organic thing of life almost instantaneously, solely by the thin blanket of atmosphere with which the globe is coated. It would seem as if this atmosphere, exposed to such a temperature at its surface, must there be incessantly liquefied, and thus fall back like rain to be dissolved into gas again while it still is many miles above the earth's surface. This may be the reason why its scurrying molecules have not long ago wandered off into space and left the world without protection.
But whether or not such liquefaction of the air now occurs in our outer atmosphere, there can be no question as to what must occur in its entire depth were we permanently shut off from the heating influence of the sun, as the astronomers threaten that we may be in a future age. Each molecule, not alone of the atmosphere, but of the entire earth's substance, is kept aquiver by the energy which it receives, or has received, directly or indirectly, from the sun. Left to itself, each molecule would wear out its energy and fritter it off into the space about it, ultimately running completely down, as surely as any human-made machine whose power is not from time to time restored. If, then, it shall come to pass in some future age that the sun's rays fail us, the temperature of the globe must gradually sink towards the absolute zero. That is to say, the molecules of gas which now fly about at such inconceivable speed must drop helpless to the earth; liquids must in turn become solids; and solids themselves, their molecular quivers utterly stilled, may perhaps take on properties the nature of which we cannot surmise.
Yet even then, according to the current hypothesis, the heatless molecule will still be a thing instinct with life. Its vortex whirl will still go on, uninfluenced by the dying-out of those subordinate quivers that produced the transitory effect which we call temperature. For those transitory thrills, though determining the physical state of matter as measured by our crude organs of sense, were no more than non-essential incidents; but the vortex whirl is the essence of matter itself. Some estimates as to the exact character of this intramolecular motion, together with recent theories as to the actual structure of the molecule, will claim our attention in a later volume. We shall also have occasion in another connection to make fuller inquiry as to the phenomena of low temperature.
APPENDIX
REFERENCE-LIST
CHAPTER I
THE SUCCESSORS OF NEWTON IN ASTRONOMY [1] (p. 10). An Account of Several Extraordinary Meteors or Lights in the Sky, by Dr. Edmund Halley. Phil. Trans. of Royal Society of London, vol. XXIX, pp. 159-162. Read before the Royal Society in the autumn of 1714. [2] (p. 13). Phil. Trans. of Royal Society of London for 1748, vol. XLV., pp. 8, 9. From A Letter to the Right Honorable George, Earl of Macclesfield, concerning an Apparent Motion observed in some of the Fixed Stars, by James Bradley, D.D., Astronomer Royal and F.R.S.
CHAPTER II
THE PROGRESS OF MODERN ASTRONOMY
[1] (p. 25). William Herschel, Phil. Trans. for 1783, vol. LXXIII. [2] (p. 30). Kant's Cosmogony, ed. and trans. by W. Hartie, D.D., Glasgow, 900, pp. 74-81. [3] (p. 39). Exposition du systeme du monde (included in oeuvres Completes), by M. le Marquis de Laplace, vol. VI., p. 498. [4] (p. 48). From The Scientific Papers of J. Clerk-Maxwell, edited by W. D. Nevin, M.A. (2 vols.), vol. I., pp. 372-374. This is a reprint of Clerk-Maxwell's prize paper of 1859.
CHAPTER III
THE NEW SCIENCE OF PALEONTOLOGY
[1] (p. 81). Baron de Cuvier, Theory of the Earth, New York, 1818, p. 98. [2]