Page:On an inversion of ideas as to the structure of the universe.djvu/27

 grains, in C.G.S. units is nine multiplied by ten to the power of twenty-four; and from this it follows that the rate of the transverse wave is that of light; while that of the normal wave is two and four-tenths greater than that of the transverse wave.

Then as the general result of the research, in spaces in which the piling is normal, which spaces are almost indefinitely greater than those occupied by matter, it is shown, that there is one and only one conceivable purely mechanical system capable of accounting for all the physical evidence, as we know it, in the universe.

The system being neither more nor less than an arrangement of indefinite extents of spherical grains in normal piling, so close that the grains cannot change their neighbours, although continually in relative motion with one another; the grains being of changeless shape and size. Thus constituting, to a first approximation, an elastic medium, with six axes symmetrically placed, see Fig. 2, p. 10. This, then, is the structure of the universe, except in the comparatively indefinitely small spaces in which there is matter;—grains in normal piling, of which the size, mean path, relative velocity and mean pressure are defined, and extend to infinity. Could anything be more simple?