Daily Kennebec journal., 1897-02-23

o.. stephen H. Emnshs Declares Il 10 y
Radically Mreag.

y
Il --l-s-------..
An assault. backed by seemingly
strong arguments and deductions, has
been made upon what has COME to be
regarded as one of the most automatic
Of scientific truths. Newton's law OF
gravitation, deduced from the histor-
ical apple, has been declared wrong.
wholly or at least in part, and an at
tempt has been made to overthrow the
foundation upon which Is based q. large
share Of the science Of astronomyl
The originator OF the attack il. Dr..
Stephen H. Emmens. an English scien-
tist and the author Of several works of
repute, and copies Of q memoir promul-
eating his new and astonishing theory
Of natural law We're mailed on the first
day of 1897 to the Smithsonian Institu-
ton at Washington. the Academy of
Sciences at Paris, and the Royal So
ciety at London. What the memoir
contains has been made known in gem
eral terms by a writer In the New York
Herald" 1t boldly assails the univer-
sally recognized Newtonian law of
gravitation and calls upon scientists to
revise their beliefs and square accepted
theory with existing fact. 1t is the
most revolutionary doctrine advanced
In many years.
DIR. Emmens endeav0rs to show that
the famous Wentonian law is mathe-
matically incorrect. He claims that
the earth is hollow she'll whose polar
walls are greatly thicker than those
of the equatorial regions. In support
of this he advances what he terms the
Centrifugal force theory" to replace in
part Newton's law, and applies it to
the solar system and the universe with
startling results.
Newton's law. familiar to most per-
sons since their school days. states the
accepted theory as follows:
Every particle OF matter in the uni
verse attracts every other particle with
force varying directly as the masses
concerned and inversely as the dis
Of the masses" "s
The law is universally and scientific
ally accepted as fact. but DIR. En-
mems takes exception to it.
THE geologists and the geodetic gen.
tlemen," he said. In speaking Of the
nature of his theory, make common
cause with the astronomers and physic-
lists. so far as the acceptance OF the
Newtonian system is concerned. And
yet somelof their most cherished theo-
ries are in glaring defiance Of Newtons
doctrine of gravitation.
Take, for example, their views as to
the interior of the earth. They say 1t
is composed of matter which grows
denser and heavier the deeper ii is sit
uated from the surface. They talk of
enormous pressure and the most
intense heat as characterizing the
matter forming the central portion of
the earth's mass. Yet Newton himself
proved with practical. il not absolute.
validity that gravity. and therefore
weight. grows less and less as we de-
scend from the earth's surface, until
at the center of the world no substance
weighs anything at all.
"A discussion of this subject forms
part of my paper. and l show that the
earth is in all probability hollow
shell. having polar walls greatly thicker
and denser than those OF the equatorial
regions. 4f-
In the center Of the earth, where
bodies have no weight, they are free to
move in accordance with centrifugal
force. A great mass of matter, there
FORE accumulates along the line of the
internal equator. 1t grows thicker and
thicker. and the inner part consequent
ly approaches more and more closely to
the center. 1t thus becomes more fully
acted upon by the centrifugal force.
and at the same time is nearer to the
great north and south polar masses.
This goes on until the attraction of
these masses becomes superior to the
outward tendency.
Then the innermost particles and bod
les detach themselves from the equato-
rial ring and fly across the great cavity to
dash forcibly against the north and south
walls. where they spread out in cloud
of shattered fragments and gradually
creep and glide outward once more. Try
to imagine what l have called in my pa
per the clash and whirl that is perpet-
ually occurring. Picture to yourself the
electric storms and the heat thus gene
rated!
Does not this fully and satisfactorily
account for the elevated temperatures OF
the earth's interior and for the magnetic
and electric condition OF the globe!
'.And suppose that We apply this centri-
fugal theory to the case of the heavenly
bodies as well.
Take the sum- for example Astrono-
mers and physicists have long sought
hopclessly for some acceptable cxp!ana-
tion of the source of the suns heat. They
have always acknowledged the problem
to be one that battles them. Yet the very
law of gravitation they have sworn by
should have pointed the way to a solution
The clash and whirl in the suns vertical
cavity must transcend to a well-nigh in
conceivable extent the internal hubbub
that Is forever heating the earth and
producing the earthquakes and volcan-
Oes that perpetually startlc and frequent
ly terrify us.
"The doctrine advance Is a legitimate
conclusion from observed facts.
For example. you are probably aware
that most nations have expended large
sums in scientific work relating to the de-
termination of the figures of the earth.
Arcs of the meridian have been meas
ured in many parts of the world and thou.
sands upon thousands of pendulum and
weight observations have been made for
ascertaining the varying force of terres-
trial gravity in various localities. The
general result of all this work has been to
demonstrate that the figure Of the earth
as determined by gravity differs consid-
crably from the figure as measured.
"'This discrepancy Is inexplirable on