The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-09-08
KINETIC STABILITY.
BY ROBERT STEVENSON, C.E.
SIXTH PAPER.

In the preceding paper gave the Smith
sonian conditions which are considered
necessary to a true solution of the problem
of gravitation.
First-N acts rddially.
l acknowledge that the cause of gravity
appears to act along the radius vector
joining the sun and planet, but I deny
that the true cause acts along the resultant
line of motion. (See papers 2 and of
this series for explanatory
Then, if it acts through its components,
we can easily see how Its rectiIinear trac-
ton is capable of DETECTION by force act
ing alright angles to the other component,
and that explains why a body sucn as a
rifle bullet, fired point blank with a We
locity of 1000 feet per second, is not acted
on by gravity during the first 600 yards
(see report of rife practice by military
authorities at Washington month ago
with the new army rif1e); and that is why
l have asked the univ ersity authorities
| to make an exhaustive test of the fact in
vacuum, and so determine the matter sci
entifically and definitely, because every
astronomer and scientist acknowledges
| that If a body in motion in horizontal
plane does not fall sixteen feet in the first
second of its motion then the attraction of
matter is fallacy. Then l shall get them
to adopt my little founding as the long
tic Stability will then be placed on his vice.
regal throne, amidst the resounding ap-
plause OF earth and heaven, and once more
satan will have to take a back seat, after
deceiving the nations so long with his
false theories of attraction and evolution
| as inherent powers in nature.
Second-Its quantity IS e1actly proportional
| to the acting mass
Kinetic stability is exactly proportional
to Hnetic energy, and kinetic energy is
exactly proportional to the acting mass
Hence kinetic stability fills the bill COM
pletely.
Third-its intensity IS diminished by recess
SION an proportion to the square of the daS-
lance through achicb 1t acts Indefinitely.
That is the kinematical law which took
Sir Isaac Newton thirty years to discover
and demonstrate, and for which he has re-
ceived the weli-deserved thanks of CRATE
full world for over 200 years. Now, if can
show that kinetic stability not only obeys
that law. but is itself the very author of
that law, then there will be no need for
science to deny that kinetic stability is the
true and proximate cause Of universal
gravitation.
Let us take the same case that Newton
took to prove his law, the case of the earth
and moon, and let US try to find out how
kinetic stability can keep the moon revolv-
ing in an orbit round the earth without
any rigid stress between the two bodies.
If the university authorities would
kindly verify the fact, that the resultant
motion from the superposition of two
transverse energies is curyilinear, instead
of rectillnear, it would be the simplest
thing in the world to prove that kinetic
stability is the true cause OF an apple, a
stone, or any other body falling to the
earth. Now. although | have proven that
fact to my own satisfaction, yet dare not
use that fact in my demonstration, until it
is verified by the authorities. | might,
like Euclid, take it for granted and pro-
coed to show that anything else was alb
surd or unreasonable, but, although the
authorities think action at distance is
absurd, yet we are not prepared TO ac-
knowledge that an ether pervading all
space and the interstices of all bodies, hav
ing rigidi.y 100 times greater than steel
and yet as thin az q vacuum, is unrea-
sonable. They are still searching for it,
and no scientific papers on the subject
which did not acknowledge the probable
ity of its existence would be treated with
the smallest consideration, either by the
editors of scientific Journals or by the ex-
amining committee of any scientific asso-
make this fact known, and that is through
the columns of popular newspaper. And
[ can tell you it is about as difficult to
make a technical subject interesting
enough to please a newspaper editor as it
is to get Berkeley to test these expert
ments.
However, there is one discovery 1 have
made since these articles began to appear
in THE CALL-namely, that there are quite
a number of people in this State who are
anxious to acquire the faith power to
enable them to remove mountains.
To illustrate the action of kinetic sta
bility in the case of the earth and moon
we will take whirling table, such as is
used in the universities to show the action
of centrifugal force, and we will fix a steel
ball exactly in the center of the table to
represent the earth, and close to that we
will place boys small marble. Then we
will start the table in whirling motion
roIihd vertical axis, and that instant the
marble, representing the moon, flies off
from the steel ball in the center represent
ing the earth, and the marble does not
reaches the rim of the whirling disk or
table.
If the motion of the whirling table is
uniform the marble presses against the
rim and rotates with the rim. Now, If
that rim was invisible like the ether, and
yet could keep Jne marDle from receQlng,
here you would have an apparent case of
action at a distance. Suppose we were to
enter that room with Newton, and all the
parts of the apparatus were made of per-
fectly transparent and invisible glass, ex-
cept the steel ball representing the earth
and the marble representing the moon.
Then Newton would say that marble is
being held in its orbit by the attraction
exercised on it by the steel ball. and all
MT IcfS oy,d fho
cranks would stump the country and pro-
claim the end of the world to be close at
hand when such great philosophers were
being produced.
And Mr.. Newton, who had now become
a great philosopher and high scientific
authority determined to demonstrate
automatically the law of the action of
this wonderful force of attraction, and he
reasoned thus:
fit is true what the great astronomer, KEEP
Ter, says that the planets in their orbital mo-
ton describe areas proportional to the times
round the sun as a center, then they must be
drawn toward the sun by a centripetal force
Now, this marble describes equal areas in
equal time round this steel ball therefore II