Samuel Tolver Preston

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Samuel Tolver Preston ( July 8, 1844 , † 1917 ) was an English engineer and physicist .

Life

His parents were Daniel Bloom Preston (* 1807) and Mary Susannah Tolver from Norwich . Preston was trained as a telegraph engineer. He went to Munich , where he obtained his Ph.D. from Ludwig Boltzmann . Then he worked as a private teacher.

He was best known for his work (1875-1894) on the kinetic gas theory and his attempts to combine it with Le Sage gravity . In 1875 in Physics of the Ether Preston claimed that normal matter could decay into ether particles (which are also responsible for gravity). In doing so, they would reach the speed of light and thus have enormous kinetic energy. In this way, one grain of matter would release an energy of approx. 1000 million foot-tons (one foot-ton = 2240 foot-pounds ). According to Preston, matter represents an enormous reservoir of energy. However, Preston's considerations were based on classical physics and can not be compared with the equivalence of mass and energy developed by Albert Einstein .

Preston (1885) may have been the first to criticize the redundancy in Michael Faraday's explanation of electromagnetic induction . Einstein pointed out a similar problem at the beginning of his work on the electrodynamics of moving bodies (1905, the special theory of relativity ).

In 1876 he corresponded with James Clerk Maxwell and referred him to the work of John James Waterston . In 1880 he corresponded with Charles Robert Darwin .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ see Le Sage Gravitation # Kinetic Theory
  2. ^ Auffray: Samuel Tolver and E = mc² . arxiv : physics / 0611300
  3. ↑ Bjerknes: S. Tolver Preston's Explosive Idea: E = mc² and the Huyghens-Leibnitz Mass / Energy Identity as a Heuristic Principle in the Nineteenth Century ( Memento of the original from October 12, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / itis.volta.alessandria.it
  4. ^ Miller, AI: Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity. Emergence (1905) and early interpretation (1905-1911) . Addison – Wesley, Reading 1981, ISBN 0-201-04679-2 , pp. 156 .

Fonts

Wikisource: Samuel Tolver Preston  - Sources and full texts (English)
  • Physics of the ether ; 1875
  • On some dynamical conditions applicable to LeSage's theory of gravitation (1877); Phil. Mag., Fifth ser. 4: 206-213 (pt. 1) and 364-375 (pt. 2)
  • Mode of the Propagation of Sound, and the Physical Condition Determining its Velocity on the Basis of the Kinetic Theory of Gases ; (1877)
  • Temperature Equilibrium in the Universe in Relation to the Kinetic Theory ; Nature 20, 1879, p. 28
  • On the Possibility of accounting for the Continuance of Recurring Changes in the Universe, consistently with the Tendency to Temperature-Equilibrium ; Philosophical Magazine 8, 1879, p.152 / 163.
  • On the possibility of explaining the continuance of life in the Universe consistent with the tendency to temperature-equilibrium ; Nature 19, 1879, p. 460/462
  • On method in causal research ; in: Philosophical magazine , ix (1880), pp. 356-367
  • A Question regarding one of the Physical Premises upon which the Finality of Universal Change is based ; Philosophical Magazine 10, 1880, p. 338/342.
  • Science and sectarian religion ; in: ST Preston, Original essays ; London, 1884, pp. 19-51.
  • About the mutual relation of some hypotheses put forward for the dynamic explanation of gravitation ; Inaugural dissertation from 1894, Munich, Phil. Fak.
  • Comparative Review of some Dynamical Theories of Gravitation ; Philosophical Magazine 1895, Vol. 35, p. 145ff.
  • On Certain Questions connected with Astronomical Physics ; Philosophical Magazine 1906, Vol. 12, p. 560ff.
  • On Certain Questions connected with Astronomical Physics, Part II ; Philosophical Magazine 1907, Vol. 14, p. 265ff.
  • On some Physical Relations affecting Matter in Diverse Stages of Subdivision ; Philosophical Magazine 1908, Vol. 16, p. 345ff.

Web links

  • Bettini: A Cosmic Archipelago: Multiverse Scenarios in the History of Modern Cosmology . arxiv : physics / 0510111
  • R. Clausius: About the relation of the work done by diffusion to the second law of the mechanical heat theory. In: Annals of Physics and Chemistry. 240, 1878, pp. 341-343, doi: 10.1002 / andp.18782400703 .
personal data
SURNAME Preston, Samuel Tolver
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English scientist
DATE OF BIRTH July 8, 1844
DATE OF DEATH 1917