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Newton on matter and activity
explored to provide an even broader picture of the problems the nation faces in deciding about energy policy. This behavioural constraint is bound to have a bearing on ‘how energy policy is made.’ M.D. Tom&son Solar-Hydrogen
Energy
Edited by T. Ohta. Pp. 280. Oxford. 1979. f 17.50.
Systems. Pergamon
Press,
Solar (including wind) and nuclear power are the only major long-term energy sources;each must be supplementedby energy storage. Fuel is the most versatile form of stored energy, and hydrogen is the lightest fuel. Moreover, the product of hydrogen combustion in air may be almost totally potable water, which is environmentally attractive. Hydrogen is also an important chemical feedstock; it is obtained today mostly from fossil fuels, which consist of hydrogen stored irreversibly in carbon. As the era of inexpensive fossil fuels ends, the scientific community is searching for economical ways to split water into hydrogen and oxygen with solar and nuclear energy. T. Ohta and eleven colleagues have produced a welcome Japaneseperspectiveon this problem. They discussthe following methodsof splitting and highwater: room-temperature temperature electrolysis, direct and indirect thermal decomposition, homogeneous and heterogeneous photoelectrolysis, biological and biochemical processes.Reversible metalhydride storage of hydrogen is also reviewed, and a systems speculation about direct solarenergy conversion at sea is added. The book tends to be more promotional than critical, but it provides a useful summary of the state of the art. J. B. Goodenough James Prescott Joule and the Concept of Energy by H. J. Steffens. Pp. vi + 172. Dawson: Connecticut.
Science 1979.
History El 0.00.
Publications,
For an older generation of historians of science the standard work of reference on the life and work of Joule was Osborne Reynolds Memoir which was published in 1892. This study, written nearly ninety years later, has the advantage of writing against a much fuller
130
understanding of the concept of energy and of a more mature evaluation of the influence of such contemporaries of Joule as John Dalton and William Thomson (Lord Kelvin). Like many pioneers,Joule found difficulty in gaining recognition for his new ideas. His theory of heat was first put forward in 1840 but not until 1849 was it communicated in full-through Michael Faraday-to the Royal Society. Even then, his concept of friction as the conversion of mechanical energy into heat was excluded by refereesfrom the published version. Today, when energy problems are a major preoccupation of the western world, laymen and scientists alike, it is difficult to realise that barely a century ago its very nature was obscure. Joule was pre-eminent among those who dispersed this obscurity, and this clearly written and well documented account of his work is both timely and useful. Trevor I. Williams
Newton on Matter and Activity by E. McMullin. Pp. v + 160. University of Notre Dame Press, London. 1979. Paperback
f2.80. Philosophy, not physics, is the subject of this book. McMullin closely scrutinizes Newton’s writings on matter and force in Principia, Opticks, and many drafts unpublished by Newton himself. His familiarity with the relevant passages is extensive and thorough. His conclusion is that while Newton attained the success of genius in the mathematical architecture of mechanics, the conceptual foundations that he sought to define (involving such terms as mass, weight, force, gravity, cause, essential) contain inconsistencies and other logical defects. Since ‘what [Newton] aimed at was a physics, and ultimately a philosophy’, not merely a natural mathematical scheme, his inadequacy at the conceptual and verbal level was the more serious. McMullin surely realises that Newton’s task, thus conceived, was impossible: he could not give a rational explanation of gravity, nor a unified physics of force, and did not hope to do so. Though this is in many ways an excellent book for the acuity of its criticism of Newton’s language, I do not
myself understand some of the difficulties that McMullin discovers, as in the Newtonian distinction between the vis insita of bodies (‘I mean nothing but their inertia. This is immutable’) and their gravity (‘diminished as they recedefrom the earth’). If by vis insita we understand inertial mass,and by gravity weight with respect to the earth, this is perfectly clear. Of course one agrees that Newton does use such words as gravity in different senses.In part, the issuesdiscussedby McMullin simply arise from the difference between the verbal language of philosophy and the numerical language of science. A. Rupert Hail History of Entomology. Editedby R. F. Smith, T. E. Mittler, and C. N. Smith. Pp. 517. Annual Reviews Inc., Palo Alto. 1973. f 10.50.
In comparison with their colleagues in the field of physics and chemistry, historians of biology are rather poorly supplied with works of reference. On general grounds, tberefore, a history of entomology is to be welcomed. As the publication of such a relatively specialised book is likely to discourage others from attempting it, it is fortunate that this work so adequately reviews the field. Its twenty-five contributors range widely over the whole field of academic and applied entomology. Although the bulk of the material relates to the period of modern science-roughly the nineteenth and twentieth centuries-about 100 pages are devoted to the history of entomology in ancient, mediaeval, and Renaissance times. The contributions are concisely written, well documented, and conclude with a comprehensive index. As a result, a remarkable amount of information is conveyed within a modest compass. In the preface, the editors apologize for the absence of a chapter on insecticides, but in fact a good deal of information on theseis included in Price Jones’ chapter on agricultural entomology. The Entomological Society of America and Annual Reviews are to be congratulated on producing a work that will be valuable and interesting not only to professional historians of scienceand technology but to many general readers. Trevor I. Williams
Energy
Edited by T. Ohta. Pp. 280. Oxford. 1979. f 17.50.
Systems. Pergamon
Press,
Solar (including wind) and nuclear power are the only major long-term energy sources;each must be supplementedby energy storage. Fuel is the most versatile form of stored energy, and hydrogen is the lightest fuel. Moreover, the product of hydrogen combustion in air may be almost totally potable water, which is environmentally attractive. Hydrogen is also an important chemical feedstock; it is obtained today mostly from fossil fuels, which consist of hydrogen stored irreversibly in carbon. As the era of inexpensive fossil fuels ends, the scientific community is searching for economical ways to split water into hydrogen and oxygen with solar and nuclear energy. T. Ohta and eleven colleagues have produced a welcome Japaneseperspectiveon this problem. They discussthe following methodsof splitting and highwater: room-temperature temperature electrolysis, direct and indirect thermal decomposition, homogeneous and heterogeneous photoelectrolysis, biological and biochemical processes.Reversible metalhydride storage of hydrogen is also reviewed, and a systems speculation about direct solarenergy conversion at sea is added. The book tends to be more promotional than critical, but it provides a useful summary of the state of the art. J. B. Goodenough James Prescott Joule and the Concept of Energy by H. J. Steffens. Pp. vi + 172. Dawson: Connecticut.
Science 1979.
History El 0.00.
Publications,
For an older generation of historians of science the standard work of reference on the life and work of Joule was Osborne Reynolds Memoir which was published in 1892. This study, written nearly ninety years later, has the advantage of writing against a much fuller
130
understanding of the concept of energy and of a more mature evaluation of the influence of such contemporaries of Joule as John Dalton and William Thomson (Lord Kelvin). Like many pioneers,Joule found difficulty in gaining recognition for his new ideas. His theory of heat was first put forward in 1840 but not until 1849 was it communicated in full-through Michael Faraday-to the Royal Society. Even then, his concept of friction as the conversion of mechanical energy into heat was excluded by refereesfrom the published version. Today, when energy problems are a major preoccupation of the western world, laymen and scientists alike, it is difficult to realise that barely a century ago its very nature was obscure. Joule was pre-eminent among those who dispersed this obscurity, and this clearly written and well documented account of his work is both timely and useful. Trevor I. Williams
Newton on Matter and Activity by E. McMullin. Pp. v + 160. University of Notre Dame Press, London. 1979. Paperback
f2.80. Philosophy, not physics, is the subject of this book. McMullin closely scrutinizes Newton’s writings on matter and force in Principia, Opticks, and many drafts unpublished by Newton himself. His familiarity with the relevant passages is extensive and thorough. His conclusion is that while Newton attained the success of genius in the mathematical architecture of mechanics, the conceptual foundations that he sought to define (involving such terms as mass, weight, force, gravity, cause, essential) contain inconsistencies and other logical defects. Since ‘what [Newton] aimed at was a physics, and ultimately a philosophy’, not merely a natural mathematical scheme, his inadequacy at the conceptual and verbal level was the more serious. McMullin surely realises that Newton’s task, thus conceived, was impossible: he could not give a rational explanation of gravity, nor a unified physics of force, and did not hope to do so. Though this is in many ways an excellent book for the acuity of its criticism of Newton’s language, I do not
myself understand some of the difficulties that McMullin discovers, as in the Newtonian distinction between the vis insita of bodies (‘I mean nothing but their inertia. This is immutable’) and their gravity (‘diminished as they recedefrom the earth’). If by vis insita we understand inertial mass,and by gravity weight with respect to the earth, this is perfectly clear. Of course one agrees that Newton does use such words as gravity in different senses.In part, the issuesdiscussedby McMullin simply arise from the difference between the verbal language of philosophy and the numerical language of science. A. Rupert Hail History of Entomology. Editedby R. F. Smith, T. E. Mittler, and C. N. Smith. Pp. 517. Annual Reviews Inc., Palo Alto. 1973. f 10.50.
In comparison with their colleagues in the field of physics and chemistry, historians of biology are rather poorly supplied with works of reference. On general grounds, tberefore, a history of entomology is to be welcomed. As the publication of such a relatively specialised book is likely to discourage others from attempting it, it is fortunate that this work so adequately reviews the field. Its twenty-five contributors range widely over the whole field of academic and applied entomology. Although the bulk of the material relates to the period of modern science-roughly the nineteenth and twentieth centuries-about 100 pages are devoted to the history of entomology in ancient, mediaeval, and Renaissance times. The contributions are concisely written, well documented, and conclude with a comprehensive index. As a result, a remarkable amount of information is conveyed within a modest compass. In the preface, the editors apologize for the absence of a chapter on insecticides, but in fact a good deal of information on theseis included in Price Jones’ chapter on agricultural entomology. The Entomological Society of America and Annual Reviews are to be congratulated on producing a work that will be valuable and interesting not only to professional historians of scienceand technology but to many general readers. Trevor I. Williams