| Show A TALK ViI LORD KElV The Foremost Scientific Thinker of the Day Discusses the Vortex Theory Copyright 18D7 by S S McClure Co Whenever one bears reference made tQ such questions as the age of the sbFur system the future of the sun or the probable length of time that life has been possible on our globe the name of Lord Kelvin is sure to be mentioned as the authority for the opinion ren But for that matter there is hardly any other question to which physical science has application of which about the same thIng may not be said for Lord Kelvins interests and mental activities appear to have no barriers short of the very limits of present human knowledge while the original cast of his thought is such that almost any topic on which he touches is sure to reveal novel and unexpected relations It was in reference to one of his speculations and one that easily takes rank among the foremost scientific imaginings of any age that he very kindly granted an interview recently This speculation K > do with that everfascinating question of the ultimate ulti-mate nature of matter When Lord Kelvin Sir William Thomson as he was then came forward with his very extraordinary vortex theory it was based upon mathematical calculations of the other great physicist Von Helm holtz which took tangibla form in Lord Kelvins mind while he was i watching the activities of some curious i little whirling rIngs of smoke in the air similar to those with which every tobacco smoker is familiar Helmholtz had shown that such a vortex whirl once started in a frictionless medium must theoretically go on for ever The vortex whirls of smoke in the air of course do not go on forever because their medium is not frictionless but I Lord Kelvin observed that while they last they exhibit a similar stability and though composed of mere wreaths I of smoke take upon themselves the properties of solid bodies in virtue of the motion just as a moving bicycle assumes the property of upright rigidity rig-idity And the thought came to him that if a vortex whirl were started in the ether which physicists assume as penetrating space everywhere such an e L Portrait of Lord Kelvin ether vortex infinitesimal in size of course would have the properties of a particle of what we term matter This thought expanded became the vortex theory of matter THE BEAUTY OF THE VORTEX THEORY It is well within bounds to say that this is the most fascinating and beautiful n beauti-ful conception of the ultimate nature of matter that has ever been propounded pro-pounded The thinking world so regarded re-garded it and took it up with acclaim and made it the foundation of all mann man-n of other beautiful sepculations It had a simplicity that appealed to every ev-ery philosophical mind for it enabled the thinker to reduce the entire universe E uni-verse to ether in motion I One had but to assume a few different differ-ent kinds of vortices the simplest of them circular in form but others perhaps per-haps variously convoluted to account I for the different chemical and physical properties of the elementary bodies and in the minds eye one had in the ether that ultimate unique matter the foundation substance of the universe If then a man may take pride in his achievements it would seem that the author of this theory might well be excused ex-cused if he held this child of his brain In a little more tender regard than any other of his mental offspring and the astonishment of his interviewer may well be imagined when the vortex theory reins mentioned to hear him exclaim withall the emphasis that characterizes his delivery The vortex theory is only a dream It is only a dream But surely we are not to understand that you repudiate the vortex theory Not that not that he said I only say that It is unproven and hence that it can prove nothing it is only a ream Was ever there a more astounding pronouncement than that Was ever there finer test of the true greatness of any man A lesser man than Lord Kelvin Kel-vin having propounded a theory that Ound favor with the world would have dwelt and harped upon that theory the-ory all his life twisting facts if need were to correspond with it warping everything into shape to fit its needs Such is the history of almost every the ory true or false Yet here was the author of the vortex theory treating that theory as if it were a chance spark from his brain which might quite as well be allowed to die away and disappear True science differs from everyday knowledge mainly in the precision of its data and its inferences and it was interesting in-teresting to see how the most keenly active and most highly developed scientific scien-tific mind of our timea mind too gifted with imagination as wellis held rigidly in check and made to bow before be-fore the proven fact HIS IDEAS OF GRAVITATION Thus it was for example when Lord Kelvin was asked if he leaned toward the acceptance of any particular theory the-ory in explanation of gravitation that most universal and familiar of phenomena phe-nomena yet most Inscrutable of mysteries mys-teries Before the advent of the vortex vor-tex theory the only plausible attempt to explain gravitation was that of the Swiss philosopher Le Sage who sup po < f > d that myriads of what was called ultra mundane corpuscles are flying through space everywhere and have the effect of pushing all bodies toward one Brother But of late the thought of the vortex atom has suggested that gravitation may be in fact what it seems a pull due to a sort of suction of the whirling atoms When asked whether this theory appealed to him as it does to many thinkers of our time or whether he preferred the rival theory the-ory of Le Sage Lord Kelvin said with even more than wonted emphasis No no no I accept neither theory I accept 010 theory of gravitation Present science sci-ence has no right to attempt to explain gravitation We know nothing about it we simply know nothing about it To convey by words the peculiar emphasis em-phasis and intonation with which that verdict l was pronounced would be impossible im-possible It would require hardihood indeed in any one who heard it to attempt at-tempt an explanation of gravitation until such time as new data shall have r come to our aid A subject about the cause of which in the opinion of Lord > Kelvin we know absolutely nothing f is nr t likely to be illuminated by any other person speaking from the basis of present knowledge This of course i I is far from saying that new data may i not come to hand tomorrow or next year or next century which will solve I the problem Lord Kelvin gifted with perennial frankness of imagination I would be the last person to assert the I finality of present knowledge But it is certainly a salutary check upon the j egotism of our time to be told that 1 1 the wisest living physicist the man i who has been called the Newton of our i age knows as little of the cause why a stone tossed into the air falls back to j I earth as the boy who tosses the stone THE HIGHEST TEMPERATURE I Another most interesting speculation i in which Lord Kelvin is interested has reference to the absorbing question of II the limits of temperature As most people peo-ple know nowadays the condition we I term heat is held by the physicist to be merely a mode of motion a vibration I vibra-tion or quiver among the particles of matter The precise nature of this vibration vi-bration cannot of course be perfectly understood until the precise nature of the atoms ofmatter themselves is made clear But Professor Dolbear has pointed point-ed out that if the vortex theory be true then there must be peculiar limitations I to the atoms possibilities of vibration A ringshaped atom for example could I only vibrate to the extent of becoming completely collapsed just as a tuning fork can only vibrate to the extent of I bringing its two prongs in contact Corresponding Cor-responding limitations would be placed upon vortex atoms of any conceivable I 1 shape hence says Professor Dolbear if the vortex theory be true there must be an upper limit of temperature When 11 the vortex atom has reached its Ijmit of vibration heat cannot become more excessive Now the physicists have long held that there is a lower limit of temperature tempera-ture 3 socalled absolutezeroreached when the atom altogether ceases to vibrate vi-brate and the question has highly interesting in-teresting bearings because it brings into consideration no less a problem than the age of the solar system As trcnomers and physicists are agreed that the sun the earth and the other bodies of our system arecooling globes and the calculations of the age of our system are based on the rate of loss of heat an estimate of which is derived de-rived from direct observation of the sun in its present relatively cool state These estimates have been made most carefully by Lord Kelvin himself but neither he nor any one else thought of taking into account the possibility I that the original nebulous body which I was ultimately to become our solar system may have had a limited temperature I tem-perature Yet this possibility is a most I important one since of course the rate of cooling of any body depends in part upon its degree of temperature THINKS THE EARTH IS SOLID This entire Question is one that appears ap-pears to have had peculiar interest for Lord Kelvin It even brought him almost al-most to the point of a controversy atone at-one time with the biologists and his I life has been singularly free from controversies con-troversies because he could only allow al-low them 100000000 years for the existence exist-ence of life on the globe and with the geologists because his calculations led him to believe that the earth is solid to the core and at least as rigid as steel while they stood out for a lluid interior inter-ior Hence it was to be expected that Professor Dolbears suggestion based as it is on one speculation of Lord Kel I vins and tending if supported to vitiate I vit-iate the force of one of his important speculative calculations should at once interest the author of the vortex theory the-ory and the calculator of the earths age And so it did He either had not chanced to hear of the suggestion before be-fore or else courteously feigned surprise I sur-prise over it In either case it unquestionably I un-questionably interested him intensely but when it came to the expression of an opinion as to the validity of Professor Pro-fessor Dolbears conclusions that was quite another matter It is interesting he said most interesting in-teresting but it is based solely upon the vortex theory and the vortex theory the-ory as I have said is quite unnrover and itself can prove nothingnothIng whatever We must not heap theory on theory dream upon dream We must wait and see If there be an upper limit of temperature experiment may sometime some-time demonstrate it but the vortex theory cannot prove it in advance for the vortex theory is only a dream It can prove nothing Thus once more did the vortex theory which is the adopted darling of many a scientific imagination of our day receive re-ceive the cold shoulder from its rightful right-ful sponsor THE ABSOLUTE ZERO POINT Quite of the same tenor were the great physicists comments on the probable outcome of the experiments now being made with low temperatures tempera-tures Every one has heard that Professor Pro-fessor Dewar and other investigators have liquefied the gases and even reduced re-duced many of them to a solid condition condi-tion producing an almost unimaginable unimagin-able decree of cold It having been shown that the same body changes from gaseous to liquid and from liquid to solid states simply in virtue of changed temperature the question has naturallv arisen as to what will happen I hap-pen when a body is reduced a condition condi-tion in which the vibration of its atoms altogether ceases The particles of a I I gas are so active that they fly asunder as-under reduce their activity that is to say decrease their temperature and they move freely over one another and assume the liquid condition make them still more quiescent and a solid results Will there then be another change of state when they are made absolutely cuiescent at the absolute zero point But regarding this point also Lord Kelvins scientific caution asserted itself it-self The experiments now being made are most interesting and most important but as to what they would show beyond the range of present pres-ent experiment he declared himself utterly unable to surmise We must wait and see he said We musE wait and see If every scientific worker would adopt that for his maxim how much less there would be of crude speculation in the world how much less that we learn would have to be unlearned how much more rapid would be the real progress of every seeker after truth Speculation is easy but the greatest mind attaches no importance to its day dreams unless i they are surely built upon a broad I foundation of facts And so Lord Kelvins scientific caution II I cau-tion serves more almost than anything any-thing else visible about him to impress I one with the greatness of his mind The interviewer left the famous physicist phy-sicist feeling an enhanced appreciation apprecia-tion of his genius That freedom from prejudice which he had shown throughout through-out is perhaps the very highest of I mental endowments One feels glad that he answered just as he did about all these halfvisionary and halfscien tific speculations But all the same there is pleasure and sometimes profit in the occasional unleashing of the imagination and the scientific world is to be congratulated that once upon a time Sir William Thomson permitted himself to dream the dream of the vortex atom Nor is it at all certain that future generations will decide that it was only a dream Certainly the main body of scientists of our day could by no means be persuaded to hold the vortex theory as lightly as it is held by its author When genius I dreams they say there is always a chance that it may dream true Despite i Des-pite Lord Kelvins modest estimate I therefore the vortex theory certainly will not be discarded until some better theory shall have come to take its place and of that there is as yet no sign of promise |
