Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 6.djvu/274

260 men adopted, developed, and diffused the dangerous doctrine of atoms and molecules which found its consummation in this city of Manchester at the hands of the immortal John Dalton. Now, the grand old pagans whom I have named, and their followers up to the time of Newton, had pictured their atoms as falling and flying through space, hitting each other, and clinging together by imaginary claws and hooks. They entirely missed the central idea that the atoms and molecules could come together, not by being fortuitously knocked against each other, but by their own mutual attractions. This is one of the great steps taken by Newton. He familiarized the world with the conception of molecular force.

But the matter does not end here; experience had given us the key to further mysteries. In the case of electricity and magnetism a double exercise of force had been observed—repulsion had been always seen to accompany attraction. Electricity and magnetism were examples of what are called polar forces; and, in the case of magnetism, experience itself pushed the mind irresistibly beyond the bounds of experience, compelling it to conclude that the polarity of the magnet was resident in its molecules. I hold a strip of steel by its centre, between my finger and thumb. One half of the strip attracts, and the other. half repels the north end of a magnetic needle. I break the strip in the middle, and what occurs? The middle point or equator of the magnetism has shifted to the centre of the new strip. This half, which a moment ago attracted throughout its entire length the north pole of a magnetic needle, is now divided into two new halves, one of which wholly attracts, and the other of which wholly repels, the north pole of the needle. Thus the half when broken off proves to be as perfect a magnet as the whole. You may break this half, and go on breaking till further breaking becomes impossible through the very smallness of the fragments; still you find at the end that the smallest fragment is endowed with two poles, and is, therefore, a perfect magnet. But you cannot stop here: you imagine where you cannot experiment; and reach the conclusion entertained by all scientific men, that the magnet which you can see and feel is an assemblage of molecular magnets which you cannot see and feel, but which must be intellectually discerned.

I shall endeavor to show you some of the actions of this polar force, at the same time asking you to remember that my main object here to-night is to show you the growth of scientific ideas, and to illustrate the manner in which the scientific investigator uses his thoughts and his hands in the investigation of Nature.

Scientific ideas, as already stated, spring out of experience, but they extend beyond the boundary of experience. And, indeed, in this power of ideal extension consists for the most part the differences between scientific men. The man who cannot break the bounds of experience, but holds on to the region of sensible facts, may be an