Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-04-19
TIE COUNCIL. 0v scsENrssTA
Three Men made Members % sh~ Acss>
emv-Pros. O~sl's Paper Ie-day.

The members OF the Academy OF Science were In
private session until after noon to-day. Three frw
menbeS OF the academy were elected one vzs
Mr. a. Brown ooode OF this Guy, assistant se,re-
tary OF the Smithsonian IN charge OF the National
Museum and q well-known naturalist Another
was Albert Nicholson. the physicist OF Clevsano,
asademy. Prot Nicholson Is the man who. wnen
IN the Navy, undertook aud carried on. mover "a
periments at Annapolis 70 determine tne nessay
Of ght The third member elected vas frot y
c. Chandler, the distinguished asfrononer Oh c@m-
noon PROT A. Graham Bell Of this city, ne. ID.
troduced and read paper ''on Apparent Elasuuy
Produced In an Apparatus by the Pressure OF the
upon the hypothesis OF POTENTIAL Energy" ne
began by eiucidation OF the theory OF potential
come q enersy thai Is seeminsiy soss when ocdy
comes 70 rest Prot Ball exhibited series OF ap-
paratus looking like the bellows part OF an accor-
dcon. HM asststantS by means OF IN a4f-pufnp,
nlled or exhausted the air IN the apparatua TkS
purpose WAS % show that the accordeon OF apps-
air. Il exnie,ssd tne properties Of cooled spring
VI bow, and still there was no potential energy.
Prot Bell en- niolted bow made OF air..ight chain
oers and strings the bow showing that u wss
elastic ana would discharge an arrow. IL vas In
reality bow OF afr. Ne showed other apparatus
misst explain what Is Escsn as poteuSlai energy.
PROT Newcomo thought Prof Bells experiments
suggested that molecular attraction, com monl
dium, but be did not think It advanced them at al
on their way 10 the discovery OF this medium It
seemed TO be mainly directed against what was
known M potential energy. Potential enefRJ,
however, was not a prsposiuon; &c was a name
merely
Prof J. W. Powell thought the use OF the term
potential energy was unscientinc To the ordinary
student lt meant something that could DO some
thing. IL the word was accepted 20 mean some
thing they knew nothing about he would not OBJ
lect 70 IL As ordinarily used he Thought The seIn
Prof, Ne~eornb maintained that th.r.,. noth,,y
unknown ana lndefninite about potential energy.
ne maintained that accounts were balanced, The
loss OF energy being compensated for by change
OF position, on the theory OF conservatism o
energy.
Prof. Bell said that the accoun, was balanced
BY an assumption.
one o; the members suggested that mechani-
clkns would explain the Phenomena shown oy
ProI. Bell oy reference 10 the man VINO expended
energy on the alr-pump and MADE the air In the
apparatus dense The energy thus expended wss
transferred 10 the apparatus
PrcL Aooe SAID The CONFUSION arose because
physicists gave q definite aning 20 potentlhl
energy which naturalists did not
Prof Powell SAID that &c did not matter what
crank Was turned or pump was worked the appar.
atus enabled them 70 see that impact was con-
verted into elast lefty.
Prof. Able said he saw no impact sf all
Al lnis point recess was taaen. Alter the re.
cess Prof h A. Newton read a paper on The
Orbits CT Aeroltcs."
The sssxlons VIII be continued tomorrow.