OFFICE OF INTREPID POTASH |
| DIRECTOR Phoibos Stück |
ABOUT
A digression may make this clear. Suppose the eye sees an event, a nerve of sensation conveys the impression to the brain, and then a nerve of motion directs the muscles of the fingers to record it. Now, in the case of amnity, before the nerve of sensation has telegraphed to the brain the commencement of the event whose duration we wish to record, the end of the event is there, and the retina has impression superimposed upon impression, and the ringers fail to enter the records. This leads to another difficulty—the nerves of different persons transmit impressions at different rates; hence observations and records of the duration of things seen and heard by two people do not agree, and certain corrections have to pe introduced consequent upon these personal differences in the speed of these nerve-conveying telegrams.
As regards mass. Assuming that our investigations are carried on in the same locality, then, speaking J*TMly. mass is fairly measured by weight in vacuo. If the bodies we see and handle were units, then we might recognise mass as the weight of the visible body. These b°are composed of elemental units, the masses of which we cannot see, and affinity deals with these elemental unit masses, and not with the bodies themselves. Certain considerations, based upon numerous observations, led Dalton and others to conclusions in regard to the weights of these ultimate unit masses. Admitting all to be correct, they are not sufficient for the purpose of estimating the energy of affinity through the fundamental units of time, space, and mass.