EXPLAINING THE UNIVERSE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14700, 7 December 1909, Page 5

EXPLAINING THE UNIVERSE

THEORY OF PARTIAL IMPACT. PROFESSOR BICKERTOX'fi LECTURES. Much has been heard lately about Professor Riekorlon'* theory of partial impact. And, naturally, ihe public will ask, What is it all about? What does partial impact signify? It; has been called "ihe inrster key to tne mystery of the Cosmos,"' Lord Kelvin, one of the world's greatest scientist#. said that the theory was " a great, generalisation. A remarkable theory. The most beautiful correlation it has over been my lot to know." In so many words, Professor Bickerton has advanced a theory by which he seeks to explain the formation of worlds and the evolution of the universe, and to prove that Ihe Cosmos is eternal. For centuries Ihe world's greatest scientific men have been seeking a. working hypothesis on which they iniirht base their investigations of tho mysteries of space, and, altogether, some 12 have been put forward. One theory which lnis received great support, and which is still believed in by many scientists, was one which foretold' in a very awful way tlyj total destruction of the universe. It is known as I.ord Kelvin's second law of thormo-dvnainics, and will be referred to later. Every scientist has endeavoured to learn how the great bodies of snao; originated, under what conditions they at present, exist, and what is to be the end of the universe—if it has an end. Thirty yoara ago Professor Biekarton. then nearly 40 years of ape, evolved his theory of partial imnact—the formulation of a (bird body as tho result of a collision between two others.—and submitted it to the scientific world. It was considered by some as being in jts way as great and as epoch-making a discovery as any of tho nineteenth contuvv, but it did not rccciw immediate recognition from the savanta of thei Old World. It upset too many preconceived theories believed then to be unassailable, and, in many respects, it proposed a complete revolution in scientific thought. But' Professor Bickerton was wedded to his theory. For 30- years ho has preached and advocated ■ it, and. ho lias written innumerable articles and letters concerning it. One writer has said- of him: "Despite snccre, ridicule, and, above all, that indifference which chills and kills, ho has battled on, always defending his theory and eagerly noting the evidence which the phenomena of the stellar universe have provided in support of his idea of <x»inic evolution. ... He works on, full of splendid optimism, loving his kind and smiling bonisnantly upon them. Like Galileo, necessarily regretting that his colleagues refuse to look through liis telescopic theories and see with the eye of the mind l the wondera that* as Giffordl has put it, ' his keen intellectual vision and wonderful scientific imagination have pointed out to them.' 110 still hopes that somo person or society with means and power will come forward with financial and other aid ami assist him in his stupendous undertaking." This undertaking is tho work of submitting his theory to the great scientific bodies of the world, and winning for it at least the possibility of its being thoroughly explored. Sooner or later this will happen, for astronomers everywhere are, since tho advent of the twentieth century, giving tho professor's hypothesis more attention, and its claims (or recognition are being more, and more generally admitted. A movement is afoot now in Christclmrch to .send Professor Bickerton to Europe, and, in order that his mission may bo thorough!# understood, he is delivering a series of lectures. He arrived in Duncdin on Saturday, and yesterday afternoon ho spoke for an hour before a semi-private meeting at the-Metaphysical Club rooms in Liverpool street. THE VALUE OF A THEORY.

Professor "lickerton said that people lia<l told him that generalisations were not of much value, Why did ho not invent a clothes-pog or some useful article instead of wandering amongst the stars? Hut the' stars ha 4 always been of interest to us from the very earliest times, and we had learned much from thorn. Tho heavens were changelces, jot always changing. One saw tho same pattern in the heavens that the anoients saw: six months later, as tho earth swung through its course in space, ono saw a different pattern. And so tho ancients, observing this, divided t.he heavens seen during & year into 12. equal parts, and thus tlicy had the stars of tho Zodiac. The movements of the-planetary bodies givo us Venus as an. evening star, and then Venus .is a., morning star; • for'the same reason-we saw Jupiter pursuing his strangely erratic course in tho skies. But great fundamental laws governed the marvellously 'complex movements. of tho -univorse, and men, from the time the monk Copernicus formulated his theories, had been seeking to understand those laws. And so it had been discovered that there was one movement or revolution taking place which the earth completed once every 26,000 years. This movement was responsible for the " procession of the equinoxes," and lor some of tho most extraordinary phenomena conceivable. Because it imperceptibly drew the water from one hemisphere to another, ami effected changes ih' temperature, it oaused recurrent gJaciation. It explained why great caves, worn by sea water, appeared in cliffs 40 feet above high water marl;. By it one understood that the mysterious Easter Island, now showing in every direction monuments find othey traces of a worshipping race of prehistoric men, was once a sacred mountain, towering in a Sreat. continent. "There is the most intimate relationship between a study of the heavens and tho lifo on tho earth," said the professor, and he proceeded to explain. The greater the igonoralisations of scientists, the greater tliu influence of human enterpriw and philosophic thought. _ For instance, that simplo idea of Danvuvs—evolved from a study of the effect of environment on young animals and seeds—of tho survival of tho fittest, had completely altered tho character of philosophic thought, and had had a tremendous influence on everyday life, Mepdefs Javf, applied to the .growing of wheat, saved the human rac; a sum of £100,000,000 a year. THE THIRD BODY. Unfortunately, a new theory, no matter how strong its claims, was not always readily accepted, and its origination was handicapped accordingly. Thirty years ago he ■had discovered the idea of the third body, uid. by this much light was thrown on things that had been before entirely hidden from astronomers. Further than that, history showed that the discovery had anticipated every subsequent discovery. It added another to those great doctrines which sought to explain the whv and wherefore of the univorse. Its basic thought was ycry siinple, yet it extended in tremendous directions; It might be likened to a 'gold mine, in which, for instance, deco down, there was Tioh gold, but in which there were nuggets right on the surface waiting to be picked up.- It was .simple—aamingly simple—but had not been taken hofd of yet by any astronomer. It provided for the formation of a third-body as tho result of two bodies, travelling at tremendous speed', grazing each other. They had an illustration of his theory in the spark thrown off when a flint and steel were struck together. Two bodies in .space, travelling, at such awful speed as could not be realised, just touched. Instantly, matter was torn from each, and this, coalescing, appeared •as a brilliant sp.irk and later bcoatne a new world.

THE ETERNAL HEAVENS. So it was that'.ho was calling his series of lectures "The Cycle of the Eternal Heavens." He wished them to understand that lie did not believe that the heavens in the- oourse of ages were tending to beoome a great cemetery. He believed thai the universe was, in the manner described, gradually , being rejuvenated 1)V t ho birih of new worlds. Two stars _ might be very, very old—reduced, practically to cinders—but their partial impart -was sufficient to create a new world. The probabilities of any two celestial bodies meeting square were just as unlikely as the chance of &nv inexperienced marksman getting the bull's-eye with' a casual el'ot: he would probably only hit the target itself. Their collision would probably amount to_ little more than a ?raze, but their velocity was such that a piece would be torn from cach. These pieces would tie incredibly hot—so Lot that an explosion, semes of thousands of times the intensity of rhat produced by dynamite, would ensue. 1 ho' professor then proceeded to give some illustrations of tlic fearful velocity of the colliding bodies, and the inconceivable intensity of the explosion that would ensue. If they, by any chance, were looking towards the heavens, at a soot where a collision' occurred, they would see a light ap. par suddenly and increase with tremendous rapidity for about an hour. The explosion presently would be over, but a point of light of wonderful intensity would continue to show for a long- time, perhaps 24 hours, before it. began to fade. They had seen tho birth of a new world. SCIENTIFICALLY DESCRIBED. This, in tli3 language of a scientist, is what bad happened: —" Before suns collide they have been falling' towards each other and getting up speed for hundreds of years. In their linal velocity may particle hoi

energy many spores of million times that of an express train. This tremendous tearing speed is stopped suddenly in the colliding parte, and is converted into a motion of molecules—that is, into heat. &o tha now hedtv id welded, fused, and made into

gas ien thousand times as hot as our hottest furnace, while a pressure oE many millions of atmospheres tends to blow the glowing body into its separate atoms. Thus by a tearing blow, in about an hour a new star is born. The explosive force expands it, and the giant bonfire swells out its diameter at a speed of millions of miles an hour. The two torn suns do not immediately get clear of Ihe third body, but presently' the third body is complebly detached, and ihev have recovered sphericity, and are sending the b?ams of their revolving searchlights throughout the universe as they shine as variable stars. At the same time you see the central body has grown larger, the whole series representing about two of the birth hours of a new star oi vast brilliancy. After that comes the fading of that marvellous Jignt. The bright star throws off shells of gas, the swift light atoms groi ti«' first; then the slower ones; element after element, following according to the weight of its atoms. As these gases are dissipated into space the light of th« bright star diminishes, and in a few <\eeks it is nearly gone, ihe heaviest atoms have expanded into an almost non-luminous meteoric swarm; the lightest- gases are wandering as isolated atoms in space: and the atoms of intermediate weight are enspheiing shells of a planetary nebula."

A THEORY OF DEATH. The Professor went on to explain mai<r points of his theory, and to shovv how, if iis main idea was tne essence of simplicity, it had many extraordinary and nteresting ramifications. He told of the difficulties that had lain in tho way of the general acceptance of his rheorv, and of the manner in which these were being gradually overcome. And, in particular, he showed how it had to be measured with a dozen other theories, evolved by master minds, which sought to show the beginning and end of the Cosmos, And, because it brought to the world a promise of the indestructibility of tho universe, it oturie into direct collision wth Lord Kelvn's second law. of thermodynamics—which told of tho ultimate dissipation of all matter. According to this belief, everything was to die. The bodies of space, coming together rcpsatedly, and fusing into one, would ultimately form one great mass, which in its turn would become burnt and dead. And tlien, wh«a that happened, this epoch—or this period of eternity, if it may be so described— would oease, and the groat death would reign for over. Thirty years ago this tarfully pcasimistio theory stood without a doubter in the scientific world. Otic after another groat scientists had crossed lances with Lord Kelvin, and had retired defeated, and to-day there were many who believed implicitly in his theory. Naturally, in the face of this, tho theory of partial impact, which meant tho rejuvenation of the universe, did not readily find favour. But articles on it had been distributed over the world in tejis of thousands, and had received desultory reading. It was gaining ground steadily, and it meant a. new ora of- thought. The human 6oul, naturally optimistic, rejected such an abhorrent theory as that of the total dissipation of matter, and clutched at any hope held out from other directions. Was this theory of Lord Kelvin's right? He had said he had no doubt concerning it; ho could find no flaw in it. But in later years Lord Kelvn had told Professor Rutherford that lie had given up his theory of eternal death: it was evident that ho had not been able to keep to it with the same tenacity as was shown by many of his followers.

Tho truth of the theory, concluded tho Professor, even to the minutest detail, had been amply demonstrated, and there was a wealth of evidence to spare. Tho Professor will lecture again this afternoon and this evening.,