Annalen der Physik between 1890 and 1900, in the course of a memoir by Larmor, Phil. Trans., 1897, A, in Voigt’s Compendium der Physik and his more recent Thermodynamik, in Planck’s Vorlesungen über Thermodynamik, in Duhem’s elaborate Traité de mécanique chimique and Le Potential thermodynamique, in Whetham’s Theory of Solution and in Bryan’s Thermodynamics. Numerous applications to special problems are expounded in van’t Hoff’s Lectures on Theoretical and Physical Chemistry.
The theory of energetics, which puts a diminishing limit on the amount of energy available for mechanical purposes, is closely implicated in the discovery of natural radioactive substances by H. Becquerel, and their isolation in the very potent form of radium salts by M. and Mme Curie. The slow degradation of radium has been found by the latter to be concomitant with an evolution of heat, in amount enormous compared with other chemical changes. This heat has been shown by E. Rutherford to be about what must be due to the stoppage of the α and β particles, which are emitted from the substance with velocities almost of the same scale as that of light. If they struck an ideal rigid target, their lost kinetic energy must all be sent away as radiation; but when they become entangled among the molecules of actual matter, it will, to a large extent, be shared among them as heat, with availability reduced accordingly. In any case the particles that escape into the surrounding space are so few and their velocity so uniform that we can, to some extent, treat their energy as directly available mechanically, in contradistinction to the energy of individual molecules of a gas (cf. Maxwell’s “demons”), e.g. for driving a vane, as in Crookes’s experiment with the cathode rays. Indeed, on account of the high velocity of projection of the particles from a radium salt, the actions concerned would find their equilibrium at such enormously high temperatures that any influence of actually available differences of temperature is not sensibly a feature of the phenomena. Such actions, however, like explosive actions in general, are beyond our powers of actual direct measurement as regards the degradation of availability of the energy. It has been pointed out by Rutherford, R. J. Strutt and others, that the energy of degradation of even a very minute admixture of active radium would entirely dominate and mask all other cosmical modes of transformation of energy; for example, it far outweighs that arising from the exhaustion of gravitational energy, which has been shown by Helmholtz and Kelvin to be an ample source for all the activities of our cosmical system, and to be itself far greater than the energy of any ordinary chemical rearrangements consequent on a fall of temperature: a circumstance that makes the existence and properties of this substance under settled cosmic conditions still more anomalous (see Radioactivity). Theoretically it is possible to obtain unlimited concentration of availability of energy at the expense of an equivalent amount of degradation spread over a wider field; the potency of electric furnaces, which have recently opened up a new department of chemistry, and are limited only by the refractoriness of the materials of which they are constituted, forms a case in point. In radium we have the very remarkable phenomenon of far higher concentration occurring naturally in very minute permanent amounts, so that merely chemical sifting is needed to produce its aggregation. Even in pitchblende only one molecule in 109 seems to be of radium, renewable, however, when lost, by internal transformation.
The energetics of Radiation is treated under that heading. See also Thermodynamics. (J. L.*)
ENERGICI, or Energumens (Gr. “possessed by a spirit”),
the name given in the early Church to those suffering from
different forms of insanity, who were popularly supposed to be
under the control of some indwelling spirit other than their own.
Among primitive races everywhere disease is explained in this
way, and its removal supposed to be effected by priestly prayers
and incantations. They were sometimes called χειμαζόμενοι,
as being “tossed by the waves” of uncontrollable impulse.
Persons afflicted in this way were restricted from entering the
church, but might share the shelter of the porch with lepers and
persons of offensive life (Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, vol. i. § 16).
After the prayers, if quiet, they might come in to receive the
bishop’s blessing (Apost. Const. viii. 6, 7, 32) and listen to the
sermon. They were daily fed and prayed over by the exorcists,
and, in case of recovery, after a fast of from 20 to 40 days, were
admitted to the eucharist, and their names and cures entered in
the church records.
A note on the New Testament use of the word ἐνεργεῖν and its cognates will be found in J. A. Robinson’s edition of The Epistle to the Ephesians, pp. 241-247; an excursus on “The Conflict with Demons” in A. Harnack, The Expansion of Christianity, i. 152-180. Cf. Exorcism.
ENERGY (from the Gr. ἐνέργεια; ἐν, in, ἔργον, work), in
physical science, a term which may be defined as accumulated
mechanical work, which, however, may be only partially available
for use. A bent spring possesses energy, for it is capable of doing
work in returning to its natural form; a charge of gunpowder possesses
energy, for it is capable of doing work in exploding; a Leyden
jar charged with electricity possesses energy, for it is capable of
doing work in being discharged. The motions of bodies, or of the
ultimate parts of bodies, also involve energy, for stopping them
would be a source of work.
All kinds of energy are ultimately measured in terms of work. If we raise 1 ℔ of matter through a foot we do a certain amount of work against the earth’s attraction; if we raise 2 ℔ through the same height we do twice this amount of work, and so on. Also, the work done in raising 1 ℔ through 2 ft. will be double of that done in raising it 1 ft. Thus we recognize that the work done varies as the resistance overcome and the distance through which it is overcome conjointly.
Now, we may select any definite quantity of work we please as our unit, as, for example, the work done in lifting a pound a foot high from the sea-level in the latitude of London, which is the unit of work generally adopted by British engineers, and is called the “foot-pound.” The most appropriate unit for scientific purposes is one which depends only on the fundamental units of length, mass and time, and is hence called an absolute unit. Such a unit is independent of gravity or of any other quantity which varies with the locality. Taking the centimetre, gramme and second as our fundamental units, the most convenient unit of force is that which, acting on a gramme for a second, produces in it a velocity of a centimetre per second; this is called a Dyne. The unit of work is that which is required to overcome a resistance of a dyne over a centimetre, and is called an Erg. In the latitude of Paris the dyne is equal to the weight of about 1981 of a gramme, and the erg is the amount of work required to raise 1981 of a gramme vertically through one centimetre.
Energy is the capacity for doing work. The unit of energy should therefore be the same as that of work, and the centimetre-gramme-second (C.G.S.) unit of energy is the erg.
The forms of energy which are most readily recognized are of course those in which the energy can be most directly employed in doing mechanical work; and it is manifest that masses of matter which are large enough to be seen and handled are more readily dealt with mechanically than are smaller masses. Hence when useful work can be obtained from a system by simply connecting visible portions of it by a train of mechanism, such energy is more readily recognized than is that which would compel us to control the behaviour of molecules before we could transform it into useful work. This leads up to the fundamental distinction, introduced by Lord Kelvin, between “available energy,” which we can turn to mechanical effect, and “diffuse energy,” which is useless for that purpose.
The conception of work and of energy was originally derived from observation of purely mechanical phenomena, that is to say, phenomena in which the relative positions and motions of visible portions of matter were all that were taken into consideration. Hence it is not surprising that, in those more subtle forms in which energy cannot be readily or completely converted into work, the universality of the principle of energy, its conservation, as regards amount, should for a long while have escaped recognition after it had become familiar in pure dynamics.
If a pound weight be suspended by a string passing over
