What is heat? : a peep into nature's most hidden secrets / by Frederick Hovenden.

  • Hovenden, Frederick.
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: What is heat? : a peep into nature's most hidden secrets / by Frederick Hovenden. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and-twenty years, of the great subject which is now to occupy our attention . . . the subject is an entangled one, and, in the pursuit of it, we must be prepared to encounter difficulties. In the whole range of Natural Science, however, there are none more worthy of being overcome—none the subjugation of which ensures a greater reward to the worker. For the various agencies of Nature are so connected, that in mastering the laws and relations of Heat, we make clear to our minds the interdependence of •■' natural powers generally.* 2. By common consent the solutions of the fundamental problems—What is Heat ? and What is Electricity? are placed in the hands of the physicist. The physicist, in great part, derives his fundamental notions from mathematical concepts. Mathematical concepts are metaphysical—pure and simple. What are these metaphysical ideas ? 3. The result obtained by the mode adopted by the physicist is unsatisfactory, for all parties agree (including the physicist) that the kinetic or dynamical theory of Heat, which is based on mathematical notions, must be held as a useful temporary theory only. Thus we are as far from the real solutions of the problems What is Heat? and also What is Electricity? as we ever were. Heat, a Mode of Motion, by John Tyndall, D.C.L. 4th edition, 1870, p. 1. [We venture to think it is a pity the late Dr. Tyndall eliminated this beautiful introduction in his last edition.] B 2