Book Description

Excerpt from The Unity of Natural Phenomena: A Popular Introduction to the Study of the Forces of Nature Since the discovery of the laws of gravity, more than two hundred years ago, no scientific achievement has been so fruitful in results as the determination of the mechanical equivalent of heat. In 1842 Dr. Mayer, of Heilbronn, in Swabia, demonstrated that the blow of a hammer weighing four hundred and twenty-four kilograms upon an anvil, with the velocity it has acquired by falling through a distance of one metre, produces an elevation of temperature equal to one degree centigrade. This experiment has wrought a marvellous change in all our conceptions of Matter and Force, and still gives promise of results which the imagination fails to grasp. It is now considered as demonstrated that heat, electricity, light, magnetism, chemical attraction, muscular energy, and mechanical work, all are but exhibitions of one and the same power acting through matter. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.