Re: Influence machine

[Leigh Palmer <palmer@sfu.ca>]

> "...the parts of this medium must be so connected that the
> motion of one part depends in some way on the motion of the rest; and
> at the same time these connections must be capable of a certain kind of
> elastic yielding, since the communication of motion is not instantaneous,
> but occupies time..."
>
> In this respect, Franklin & Nutt seem to have over elaborated Maxwell's
> metaphor.

By that time Maxwell had been dead for a long time. He had elaborated
his model himself after the quote you cite. As I said, the pedagogy of
the time embellished it even more, with interpenetrating gears.

By the way, that name is MacNutt, and I suspect that he considered it
to be a Big Mac!

> However, to give your 'rubber gear wheels' their due, I note that
> Maxwell's last words on the topic, in the Treatise (1873) include these:
> "...I think we have good evidence for the opinion that some phenomenon of
> rotation is going on in the magnetic field, that this rotation is performed
> by a great number of very small portions of matter, each rotating on its own
> axis..."

It appears superficially that Maxwell may have been guilty of the
cognitive sin of reification, treating a concept as a thing. That
is an error often made by physics students; we should be ever
vigilant in pointing it out when it arises.

Leigh