I am reconsidering old ontologies, discarded in the middle 19th century, as a jumping off point.
This paper published in 1984 describes a little known experiment in radiant cooling done in the late 18th century by Pictet and repeated a few years later by Count Rumford. https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BxxczzEYA5C5Rmg2b0ljZG9yaVk What we usually hear about Rumford is his canon boring evidence against the caloric theory of heat. However, less well known is his theory of frigorific rays.He held that cold emanations were as real as hot emenations and he interpreted the Pictet experiment as evidence of his theory. In the paper the radiant cooling effect observed is _qualitatively_ explained using modern radiantive heat transfer theory. However, the geometric symmetry of the experiment does not invalidate the existence of frigorific rays. Rumfords proposed a resonant model of radiation which could excite motion in materials (radiant heating) or dampen motioninmaterials (frigorific cooling). Th author of the paper points out some predictive difficulties with his model, but I think this comes from taking Rumfords ringing bell analogy too literally. Anyway what interests me was his intuition that cold is more than just the absence of heat, i.e. that cold has some positive existence. I think it is possible to redesign the experiment so that it would either clearly support Rumfords intuition or dispose of it. It is relevant to note that well before Rumford, Francis Bacon also regarded cold as having an independent existence from heat, although his particular of conceptions of cold as a "contractive power" and heat as an "expansive power" were different from Rumford's. Harry On Sun, Jul 15, 2012 at 1:50 PM, Jojo Jaro <jth...@hotmail.com> wrote: > Interesting! > > We always thought of cold as the absence of heat, darkness as the absence of > light, evil as the absence of good, weightlessness as the absence of > gravity..... > > Now, you are saying there is something that actually cancels heat instead of > just removing it - an anti-heat? Can we find this concept in Quantum > Mechanics? > > Can you elaborate? > > > Jojo > > > PS: This reminds me of a Bible passage which talks of "a darkness that can > be felt..." Hey, maybe you're not too way off on this. > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Harry Veeder" <hveeder...@gmail.com> > To: <vortex-l@eskimo.com> > Sent: Monday, July 16, 2012 1:18 AM > Subject: [Vo]:Got mass? Princeton scientists observe electrons become both > heavy and speedy > > >> Got mass? Princeton scientists observe electrons become both heavy and >> speedy >> http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S33/94/41S36/ >> >> "It is remarkable to watch electrons moving in a crystal evolve into >> more massive particles as we cool them down," said Ali Yazdani, a >> professor of physics at Princeton and head of the team that conducted >> the study." >> >> This is consistent with my belief that inertia is form of coldness and >> that coldness is something substantively real rather than merely being >> the mere absence of heat. >> >> Harry >> >> >
