MASTER NEGA TIVE NO. 91-80259 MICROFILMED 1991 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES/NEW YORK ii as part of the Foundations of Western Civilization Preservation Project' Funded by the NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITffiS Reproductions may not be made without permission from Columbia University Library COPYRIGHT STATEMENT The copyright law of the United States - Title 17, United States Code - concerns the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material... Columbia University Library reserves the right to refuse to accept a copy order if, in its judgement, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of the copyright law. St^iiihiitiiHBiifctaiMUiiiMBtethaifcflaaaiiAfcaM A UTHOR : DONALD, JO TITLE: SOME CONCLUSIONS BY A STUDE ;^fe T OF ATURE.. PLACE: NEW YORK DA TE : 1892 Restrictions on Use: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES PRESERVATION DEPARTMENT BIBLIOGRAPHIC MTCROFORM TARHRT Master Negative # Original Material as Filmed - Existing Bibliographic Record '■■ J 113 '. • Ewl McDonald, John Cooe conclusions by a student of nature on sone of nature's problems ... H Y 1892 .0 22 p Bound v/ith another work b';'5J^s ^ ; FILM SIZE: TECHNICAL MICROFORM DATA £M^ IIB IMAGE PLACEMENT: lA DATE FILMED: ±1_U^_^ INITIALS REDUCTION RATIO: 10 IB HLMEDBY: RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS. INC WOODBRIDGe!"ct Ibc. .*2). *;X> v:. c Association for information and Image IManagement 1100 Wayne Avenue, Suite 1100 Silver Spring, Maryland 20910 301/587-8202 Centimeter 1 2 3 UJJ niliiiilii V^-TTJ Inches UillUiiluillliUll^^ i^^^MiTTTTTTTTTi miiiii III 8 ^ 9 10 iiiilniiliiiiliiiil i I I I n ] iiiiiiiiiii 1.0 yi 1 2.8 lao Li ^ SilAU 1.4 2.5 1 ^-^ 2.0 1.8 1.6 I.I 1.25 12 13 14 15 mm m I MflNUFfiCTURED TO fillM STflNDflRDS BY APPLIED IMPGEp INC. MiiiiiSi^ttiiidtfgiiaiiiijiMiM^MM^iil SOME CONCLUSIOJ^JS BY A STUDENT OF NATURE, ON SOME OF NATURE'S PROBLEMS That are at variance with some of the accepted Theories of Scientists. By JOHN Mcdonald, Hardin, 111. NEW YORK: 21 COLLEGE PLACE. 1892. ^M^m S'i' 's^h- l4f. ^"\ ; ^^ ^. -T ". ^4>;t' ^\~ ' ^toI^^ f' b^^^t^^ ^ki^S*" " ti In^^^' ' t, H^f^v \t S ' k fi } •r - •J te. »»"i. ^ ■*, - ' i* l^-;e> . V-%';; . ts^ '^ ;«- ^J ifj* t'f ' * > <» . ' ..-•' "w -^ « _ " -" * f ■i i: >!. ^ ^ - ' .;. "%^*/^. ^ w^ . • ' <■ 1 ji^"f=* ^ SO^E CONCLUSIOJ\JS BY A STUDENT OF NATURE, ON SOME OF > > Wi" 1' NATURE'S PROBLEMS it ^imm That are at variance with some of the accepted Theories of Scientists. By JOHN Mcdonald, Hardin, IlL NEW YORK: BRO"WIT, Fr^i -n tex* €i-n<3. BiXLcLear, 21 COLLEGE PLACE. I«^' 1892. - \ ..IN .4' ATTRACTIVE OR ELECTRICAL AGENTS. Copyright by JOHN Mcdonald, 1892. / I believe there exists upon the surface of the earth in addition to what is recognized as ponderable matter a great many attractive or electrical agents or classes of attractive or electrical agents. Those agents I believe possess certain properties in common with ponderable matter, notably the susceptability of existing in great tenuity in certain conditions and great degrees of condensation in other conditions. I believe that those agents possess a varied attrac- tion or affinity for each other and for the varied types of ponderable matter. 1 believe that those agents exist in more or less condensed conditions as component parts of all or nearly all the varied types of matter existing on the surface of the earth. The action of the sun and other causes operate to cause more or less ot those agents to become seperated from other agents or matter for which they have attracted or affinity and there recombination with such agents or matter is some times recognized as chemical action, and some times as electrical action. LIGHT. I believe light results from an unsatisfied condition of attractive agents corresponding to the colors of the spectrum. I believe that more or less of those agents exist as component parts of all light giving substances. When those substances are transformed 2 by chemical action, those agents are set free and radiate in tenuous conditions, as light until they are absorbed or combined with matter or other agents for which they have an attraction or affinity. Hence I believe that light results from changing conditions of agents and matter existing on the surface of the earth. I believe that while the sun may be a lumi- nous body radiating more or less light that the greater part of sun or day light existing on the surface of the earth results from chemical action, or changes of agents and matter on the earth surface caused by the rays or attraction of the sun. I be- lieve that agents that play a part in the produc- tion of light exist in a condensed form as component parts of an organ of the brain, and the nerve of the eye is the electrical channel by which that portion of the brain is affected, by a disturbed condition of those agents in surrounding objects. I believe that observations noted by the mind are absorbed by the eye, conveyed by its nerve to the brain and become in a condensed form a component part of the same, enabling memory to recur to it at will. HEAT« Heat I believe to be an unsatisfied condition ot a class of attractive agents that like light, are suscep- table of existing in condensed or tenuous conditions when those agents exist in a satisfied condition with matter and other agents heat is not apparent. When they exist in an unsatisfied condition as a component part of matter the substance is hot when such sub- \ / 8 stance is chemically transformed. Those agents having existed therein in condensed forms radiate as heat until they combine or are absorbed by matter or other agents for which they have attraction or affinity. If the substance is not chemically trans- formed it remains hot until other agents or matter is combined or absorbed in sufficient quanttiies to cause them to exist in the substance in a satisfied condition. COLD. Cold like light and heat I believe to be an unsatis- fied condition of a class of attractive agents. Those agents are suscaptable of existing in condensed or tenuons conditions when they exist in condensed forms as component parts of matter and in unsatis- fied conditions the substance is cold. When the air is saturated with those agents while they are in an unsatisfied condition it is sensibly cold. Hence I believe that whether a substance is hot or cold de- pends upon the quality and combination of the agents that are component parts of it. A substance may be warned by the infusion of agents that repre- sent heat to neutralize the agents that represent cold that exist therein or it may be warmed by the with- drawal of agents representing cold to neutralize agents representing heat in contiguous bodies. I believe that water in its various forms is Natures greatest reservoir of condensed cold. I claim that an ice house filled with ice is a represen- tative store house of cold. The continued exposure to cold necessary to freeze water after it becomes ice cold is due to the amount of condensed cold necessary to harden the same, and the continued application of heat after ice is reduced to the melting point, is due to the amount of heat necessary to neutralize the condenced cold that exists in the ice. Water under certain conditions remains liquid when reduced several degrees below the freezing point when in that condition a slight agitation causes a small portion of the water to form into ice, and the remainder of the water rises in temperature to the freezing point. I believe that in such cases the ex- cess of cold is consumed by its being condensed in the formation of the ice. 1 do not believe that any heat is given out when water is frozen, in such cases heat cannot be produced above the freezing point and the temperative is only raised to the freezing point by the consumption of cold in the act of forming ice. A pound of ice at 32 F. mixed with a pound of water at 142 F. the whole becomes ice cold water. The no degrees of heat has disappeared. We are told that it has become lattent or has done work and will reappear when the work is undone or the pound of water is again frozen, a statement I do not be- lieve, but, believe that there was condensed cold enough in the pound of ice to neutralize the no degrees of heat in the pound of water. Water vaporizes when the condensing agents representing cold that it contains is neutralized by heat. When air and vapor are withdrawn from the surface of r water the condenced cold existing as a component of water and having no existance as a component of vapor remains and soon transforms the remainder of the water into ice. Ice and salt as solids contain more condensed cold than they do when they are combined to form a liquid. When they unite and form a liquid that condensed cold is set free and appears as sensible cold. Condensed cold becomes sensible cold when water is evaporated. When our clothing becomes wet a sensation of cold accom- panies the evaporation that follows. Moisture evinces an effinity for condensed cold by forming on cold substances. The sun, I believe, attracts cold and moisture, or the agents that produce them, trum substances on the surface of the earth, holding them suspended in the upper regions of the atmosphere; when the sun's action ceases as night approaches the cold and mois- ture returns to the surface of the earth and tries to unite with agents and matter from which they have been separated, and to this cause, I believe, is due the degree of moisture on and the degree of cold existing in vicinity of vegetation at dawn of day in summer time, the sun's action having effected more chemical change in vegetation than in other sub- stances on the surface of the earth. A line of reason- ing led me to believe that the rays of the sun did not produce heat in substances wherein they did not effect chemical action. As a test, I let the concen- trated rays of the sun impinge in an indenture made in pulverized salt. . They could not pass through, 6 neither could they be reflected or refracted to any material extent, yet they did not heat the salt more than might be accounted for by impurities therem. This theory is sustained by the fact that the sun's rays does not heat dried air or the elementary gasses, as no chemical action is effected in such cases. I have seen the sun shine on snow-covered fields for days without softening the frosty crust thereon, ex- cept where vegetation stubs protruded through the snow. Around each stub the snow was melted to the ground. I have seen the same thing where fields were covered with ice. If the snow-capped peaks in Equatorial regions had a proper admixture of carbonous compounds permeating their snow it would soon all be melted ; but, under existing con- ditions, the waves constituting the sun's efflux of heat that beat against those snow-capped peaks fail to perform the duty that men of science have assigned to them. SOUND. Sound, I believe, is a disturbed condition of a class of attractive agents. Those agents, 1 believe, exist in tenuous conditions as component parts of air. I believe also that they are susceptible of existing in condensed conditions and do so exist in all explosives or sound-producmg substances. Whether sound is the concussion caused by a disturbed conditions of those agents, or is due to an interchange of attrac- tion between them and matter, I have not formed a definite opinion, but believing those agents do exist \ *' in condensed conditions, and that the organ of the brain that enables us to distinguish sound has con- densed in it agents that electrically or attractively enable it to receive and note sounds. I am inclined to believe that attraction or affinity between certain classes of agents have to do with the production, transmission and reception of sounds. The air and other matter being component parts of those agents that play a part in the production of sounds are so affected by the interchange of those agents in the production of sounds that sensible vibrations may occur therein. ELECTRICITY. 1 believe that the agents I have been describmg and, perhaps, others, when they exist in more or less condensed conditions, and without being combined with matter, are recognized as electricity. I believe that the manifestations produced by electrical action are not all caused by one agent or one class of agents, but are due to changing conditions of different classes of attractive agents. Current electri dty and frictional electricity are, I believe, produced by different classes of agents. Current electricity ap- pears to be susceptible of passing through the substance of conductors, while trictional elec- tricity only travels on the surface of conductors and only becomes component parts of matter by being chemically combined with same in processes result- ing in the formation of different types of matter. When not combined with matter, whether dense or tenuous, it has an attraction or affinity for various 8 types ot matter and it also has an attraction for cur- rent electricity. 1 believe that frictional electricity exists in tenuous conditions as component parts ot air from whence it is principally derived either directly or indirectly. Current electricity, I believe, is principally derived by its being liberated when chemical action trans- forms substances wherein it existed in condensed conditions. / believe that attractive or electrical agents have an affinity or attraction for various types of mat- ter, which may be partly due to their affinity or attrac- tion for varies types of matter as such, but is likely in greater part due to their affinity or attraction for other attractive or electrical agents that are com- ponent parts of such matter. I believe that the behavior of magnets is partly due to a condensation of different agents, attractive or electrical, in the respective ends thereof, and partly due to other agents that condense on the surface of the respective ends of them, being attracted thereto partly by affinity for iron and partly by affinity for agents condensed therein. Electro-magnets wherein soft iron becomes by electrical action as hard as hardened steel, evinces that there is an addition therein of condensing agents. The behavior of platinum under certain conditions leads me to believe that it is capable of absorbing attractive or electrical agents. FRICTIONAL ELECTRICITY, I believe, is the only stype of electricity that pro- duces sparks. Frictional electricity having attrac- (' •j i 9 tion for current electricity, likewise for conductors thereof m long galvanic circuits, sufficient frictional electricity condenses on the wire and accompanies the current to produce sparks when the circuit is broken. The frictional electricity condensed on the wire in seeking the coming galvanic current causes what is called self-inductive currents. Induced currents are due to the same cause, the length and small size of the wire in inductive coils admit of the wire and the air more intimately permeating each other, and consequently more electricity is con- densed upon the wire. Induced electricity readily giving sparks evince its being of the frictional type. I believe that there are agents that play a part in the production of frictional electricity that likewise play a part in the production of sounds. Galvanic elec- tricity I do not believe plays any part in the produc- tion of sounds but by attracting to and carrying with it frictional electricity. It serves an efficient purpose in transmitting for long distances without material loss that frictional electricity that does play a part in the production of sounds. In using the telephone, I believe that the inspir- ations and expirations that produces articulate speech causes changing conditions in electrical agents that are stored or condensed in the transmitter, and the conducting wire causes similar changing conditions in similar condensed electrical agents that are com- ponent parts of the receiver, and the nerve of the ear acting as a conducting medium causes a similar changing condition of similar agents stored in the brain. 8 types ot matter and it also has an attraction for cur- rent electricity. 1 believe that frictional electricity exists in tenuous conditions as component parts of air from whence it is principally derived either directly or indirectly. Current electricity, I believe, is principally derived by its being liberated when chemical action trans- forms substances wherein it existed in condensed conditions. / believe that attractive or electrical di^^XiX.^ have an affinity or attraction for various types of mat- ter, which may be partly due to their affinity or attrac- tion for varies types of matter as such, but is likely in greater part due to their affinity or attraction for other attractive or electrical agents that are com- ponent parts of such matter. I believe that the behavior of magnets is partly due to a condensation of different agents, attractive or electrical, in the respective ends thereof, and partly due to other agents that condense on the surface of the respective ends of them, being attracted thereto partly by affinity for iron and partly by affinity for agents condensed therein. Electro-magnets wherein soft iron becomes by electrical action as hard as hardened steel, evinces that there is an addition therein of condensing agents. The behavior of platinum under certain conditions leads me to believe that it is capable of absorbing attractive or electrical agents. FRICTIONAL ELECTRICITY, I believe, is the only stype of electricity that pro- duces sparks. Frictional electricity having attrac- ts tion for current electricity, likewise for conductors thereof in long galvanic circuits, sufficient frictional electricity condenses on the wire and accompanies the current to produce sparks when the circuit is broken. The frictional electricity condensed on the wire in seeking the coming galvanic current causes what is called self-inductive currents. Induced currents are due to the same cause, the length and small size of the wire in inductive coils admit of the wire and the air more intimately permeating each other, and consequently more electricity is con- densed upon the wire. Induced electricity readily giving sparks evince its being of the frictional type. I believe that there are agents that play a part in the production of frictional electricity that likewise play a part in the production of sounds. Galvanic elec- tricity I do not believe plays any part in the produc- tion of sounds but by attracting to and carrying with it frictional electricity. It serves an efficient purpose in transmitting for long distances without material loss that frictional electricity that does play a part in the production of sounds. In using the telephone, I believe that the inspir- ations and expirations that produces articulate speech causes changing conditions in electrical agents that are stored or condensed in the transmitter, and the conducting wire causes similar changing conditions in similar condensed electrical agents that are com- ponent parts of the receiver, and the nerve of the ear acting as a conducting medium causes a similar changing condition of similar agents stored in the brain. 10 When water is decomposed by electricity, a mag- nifying glass detects no agitation or transfer of matter between the poles from which is delivered the separated types ot matter that water is composed of. This leads me to infer that it may be true that oxygen gas and hydrogen gas represent the same type of matter combined, with different types of attractive or electrical agents. When I consider the varied forms and appearances of substances, especially in organic chemistry, formed from a few elementary types of matter, 1 believe that there exists, as component parts of those substances, agents that like the scent and effluvia that eminate from many of them that have not been taken in account when chemists analize them. Scents and effluvia, I believe, are considered as material matter, and I be- lieve that material matter exists as component parts thereof, but that the ability to detect them and dis- tinguish between them is due to attractive or elec- trical agents that are component parts oi them. Air currents, winds and tornadoes, while in part are due to differences in density of the air, I believe in far greater part are due to agents that have been by chemical action separated from agents or matter for which they have attraction or affinity, and in seeking a readjustment, carrying with them the air that they have become component parts of. The energy with which the air moves in time of storms and tornadoes is caused by the intense chemical action occurring at the time the transformation of matter and agents that occur during storms often leave electrical agents uncombined with matter, when they condense and ^1 ) A seek a satisfactory combination — when doing so they are recognized as lightning. CONSERVATION OF ENERGY. The followmg extracts from Fergusons work on electricity page 82, defines the law of the conser- vation of energy as taught by scients. " The law of the Conservation of Energy asserts that the quantity of energy in the universe is a con- stant quantity. No energy can be created, no energy can be destroyed. Energy may be transformed from one form to another. Water or any raised mass may fall and so lose potential energy ; but in falling it will either gain kinetic energy or do work by turning a wheel or in some other way. Gun- powder may explode and so lose its potential energy ; but the bullet it has propelled and the gun which has recoiled have kinetic energy. Some of the energy of the powder has changed into energy of sound, and some into energy of heat and light. But il the energy of the bullet, and the gun, the energy of the sound, the heat, and the light be all measured, it will be found that their sum will equal the origi- nal energy of the powder. In other words, to do work of any kind, energy must be transformed form one form into another ; and if any energy is seen to come into existence at one place, that must be due to an equivalent amount of energy having dis- appeared in another. No energy can disappear in one form without appearing in some other. Hence wherever we see energy of one form produced, we should always be able to hnd that it is due to the transformation ofenergy of some other form." 1 do not believe in the theory that energy never disappears under one form, without its equivalent appearing under some other form. I believe that stored energy is an unsatisfied condition of agents and matter wherein certain agents and matter remain in their present condition, until predisposing causes aid them in readjusting themselves. Their attractive affinity is such that in readjusting themselves they may be made to perform work, or may be made to so act upon other agents and matter that the sec- ondary action may be made to perform work. Such secondary action may be called transformed energy. The energy observed in the animal system may be said to be transformed from the vegetable kingdom. The energy exhibited in the steam engine may be said to be transformed from the fuel burned. The action ol the sun is the principal cause of stored energy on the surface of the earth. The suns action was as effective four hundred years ago in storing energy on this continent as it is at the present time. The stored energy at that time, that was not dis- troyed by prairie fires was transformed into wild animals thence into wild men, that cared little for work and who possessed but little means to accom- plish work, so but little work was done. Then it required a good deal of energy in rubbing sticks together to kindle a fire, and now but little energy is required for that purpose. The amount of work that a given amount of stored energy may be made to produce will depend upon the adaptability of the .1 13 means used to attain the end sought. The striking of a cold bullet placed on a cold anvil with a cold sledge hammer is not in my opinion a judicious manner to develop heat to be converted into mechanical energy for the purpose of raising sledge hammers, believing as I do that the heat generate under any circumstances would serve but little purpose, in raising the hammer back to the height from whence it decended, notwithstanding Prof, Tyndall's belief to the contrary as the following extract from a work of his indicates. '* And now for the effect of percussion. I have here a cold lead bullet, which I place upon this cold anvil, and strike it with a cold sledge hammer. The sledge decends with a certain mechanical force, and its motion is suddenly destroyed by the bullet and anvil; apparently the force of the sledge is lost. But let us examine the lead ; you see it is heated, and could we gather up all the heat generated by the shock of the sledge, and apply it without loss mechanically, we should be able, by means of it, to lift this hammer to the height from which it fell." THE HEAT DEVELOPED BY CONCUSSION. I quote the following extract from Prof. Tyndall's work on heat as a mode of motion. " Let us, then, fix our attention upon the wonderful substance, water, and trace it through the various stages of its existence. First we have its constituents as free atoms, which attract each other, fall, and clash together. The mechanical value of this atomic act is easily determined ; knowing the number of i!-.'!ses.>» * J ,1 ,,f »)■ I I ! H ^^■ 4 r^ ^V ;*«.. -. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES II' ! Ii n i 010658890 Si''- ' s^ as- -^i.. '. ..'i ■ .= ' r • 'If i •if, A V - I* f I r J i ' ' * ^'-t^",^'"' '' •'"J. H'f.lkS-.O- * •yc'° -.HL.