The following works are noted here, for further information, and from which the propositions have been taken, and full titles are not given : Alexander, Stephen. Harmonies of the Solar System, 1875. De Boucheporn, M. F. Researches on Physical Laws, 1849. J. E. W. Cycle. Climacteric Years; Planetary Numbers, 1868. Linton, Robert. Sizes and Rotations of Sun and Planets, 1858. Mattison, H. Geography of the Heavens (p. 274), Burritt's, 1856. Musick, Thomas H. The Conservation of Forces, 1878. Norton, Frank H. Newton, Isaac. New Astronomy (p. 382), David P. Todd, 1897. Wilson, John. Solar System of the Ancients Discovered, 1856. This paper was prepared for, expanded, and presented to the Principia Club, Manchester, N. H., on the evening of Jan. 31, 1901. A second paper will be prepared during the year. 49 49 "Newton, as Euler, as every philosopher worthy of the name, has seen in Nature but two things, Inertia and Motion, and it is with these two great facts of Inertia and Movement that advancing science will ultimately explain all the phenomena of the physical world," said Abbé Moigno the distinguished prophet of the phonograph; and this prophecy of motion as the ultimate explanation of all physical phenomena has been substantially reiterated by all leading thinkers, including Huxley and Tait of our own times. Action at a distance, a theory that is still held by some minds, remained a seeming outstanding fact irreconcilable with this long line of scientific prophecy from Newton to Tait. the last item of phenomena grouped under the head of action at a distance has been explained mechanically, and action at a distance must shortly be numbered with the theories that were and are not. Scientific bigotry, it is true, has hitherto prevented the publication of these explanations, and what would make a book of some four hundred pages I am asked to condense into a single article for a single number of a serial publication. Such limitation will of course restrict me to the merest statements of a few leading results without any of the accumulated proofs. Gravitation is held up to us as the great unsolved instance of the actio in distans, and gravitation is but an example and proof of the first law of motion, recognized by Galileo and stated in terms by Newton. A body at rest remains at rest until moved by some extraneous force. A body in motion will continue to move in a straight line unless opposed by some extraneous obstarle or force. That is the law and it is self evident. If a body at rest cannot put itself in motion neither can a body in motion stop itself, or change its direction from a straight line, because such a thing would imply a living power that does not reside in "brute matter." The stoppage and the bending from a straight path are due to something else. What then is it that bends the path of the projectile and brings it to rest upon the earth? Simply the resistance of the air and the greater velocity with which it was already moving as a part and parcel of the earth. A lump of dirt or any object at the equator revolves round the earth's axis at the rate of about one thousand miles per hour, and moves through space with the earth in its orbit at the rate of about sixty-six thousand miles per hour, which latter velocity we thus see is the great and controling motion. Now if a body cannot move in a right line it will describe as large a circle as possible. This is proved by the water ridging itself in the middle or equator of a rapidly revolving grindstone, and though the orbit of the earth is by no means a straight line it is straight as compared with a circle of the earth; or, in other words, it is a much wider circuit of motion, and hence, every particle of the earth presses toward the earth's axis in order to get rid of its cycloidal motion through space and move in a comparatively straight line with the axis of the earth in its orbit around the sun. A man might roll a ball around the top of a hill, but all the while, by virtue of the first law of motion and the principle of least action, the ball would be pressing toward the bottom and if left to itself would take the shortest route to get there; and so the particles of the earth, though rolled round the earth's axis, are all the time pressing toward the axis which pursues the shortest path through space around the sun; and this shortest path all the particles seek. They cannot all get there, of course, and since they must revolve around the axis, and have gotten as near to the axis as they can get, and it is impossible to get rid of the extra cycloidal motion, then again, in obedience to the first law of motion, they seek to make this enforced extra circuit ⚫ as large as possible, and hence, press toward the earth's equator which performs the widest circuit of cycloidal motion. The above latter statement may be proven in the parlor or kitchen with a clean cork, a glass tumbler aud a little clear soft water. The cork will always occupy the highest point on the water, which, when the tumbler is not full, is the rim of the glass, and when the glass is full and heaped up a little it will occcupy the center. This is no less than another proof of the rotation of the earth. The cork has already displaced its weight of water, and hence, the explanation usually given that the cork seeks the highest point because it is lighter than water is a mistake which may be further demonstrated by adding a little salt to the water which will make the water heavier, and then the cork will remain in any position that it is placed; whereas, according to the usual explanation, it should seek the highest point more quickly than before. Here then we have two pressures: one toward the axis of the earth and the other toward the equator, and both pressures as the result of the first law of motion. And what is the result when two pressures are exerted on a body and one pres. sure is at an angle or across the direction of the other? Answer: The body moves in a direction between the two, which, in this case, results in a pressure toward the one absolute center of the earth. And this is gravitation. But the sun with its system is also moving through space, and its rate of translation is greater than that of any planet in its orbit; and hence, all planets by virtue of the first law of motion, press toward the sun to avoid the extra, cyclodial motion around the sun; because if they could reach it, they would, with the sun, travel its path through space, which may be straight, since no curvature of its path has as yet been disovered. And this is gravitation. But why then does the earth continue to rotate on its axis, or perform its revolution around the sun? Here again my answer must be unsatisfactory for want of space. The accumulated proofs of a general atmosphere pervading the entire solar system, which form one long chapter in my unpublished work, the reader will have to take for granted or reject as he sees fit; if he rejects the universal atmosphere until he sees the proofs, it will, perhaps, not profit him to read further; if he takes it for granted he may go with me a little further. Each planet rotates an atmosphere as far out as the center of attraction, or, rather, point of equal attraction, between itself and the sun. These atmospheres all rotate from west to east and the general atmosphere of the sun rotates in the same direction, which makes a direct conflict of motion between the general atmosphere of the system and that of each planet as the reader may see by making two adjacent circles represented to turn in the same direction. It will be seen that the surface or rim of the one cuts into and opposes the surface or rim of the other. More than this, each planet is forced through the general atmosphere at a rate greater than the rotation of the latter around the sun, for the slowest planet travels in its orbit more than three times faster than the sun 1otates on its axis. This conflict of motion and consequent friction I hold to be the primary cause of atmospheric electricity, which is, in turn, the cause of the self-heat and self-light of both the planets and sun; and that the light and heat of the solar system has its origin, not in the sun per se, but in the regions between the sun and the plancts. The sun, of course, has the most of it, nearly all, in fact, but it is derived not from within, primarily, but from the celestial concave, which is proved by the phenomena of sun spots, which are openings in the outside portions of fierce heat, revealing the darker and cooler regions below. But why should the sun and planets continue to rotate in conflict, and why should the planets move faster around the sun than the general atmosehere of the system? It is not necessary to go into the first cause of the rotations, although a very probable cause of that can be shown. In this article we are, I hope, divesting ourselves of all pre |