132,376,310,975,609,7566
cubic miles. Then dividing the first of these two volumes by the second, we find that its density must have been increased 4·3514 fold. But we found that the density of the Mercurian nebula was 1,194,666 times less than that of water, dividing which by 4·3514 makes the Solar nebula to have been 274,546 times less dense than water. Dividing this in turn by 773·395 shows it to have been 355 times less dense than air, and, still further, dividing 274° by this air density makes its absolute temperature to have been 0·7718585° equal to -273·2281415°.
We might conclude our analysis here, but it will be more convenient to carry our calculations a few steps further, to save the additional trouble that might be occasioned by having to return to them later on.
First we shall condense the Solar nebula to 211,911 times less dense than water, and therefore 274 times less dense than air, which we may note will increase its density 1·2956 times. This supposed to be done, its diameter would be 58,002,920 miles, its volume 102,176,129,41212 cubic miles, and its density 1/274th of an atmosphere—about one-ninth inch of mercury—which would, in consequence, make its absolute mean heat equal to one degree of the ordinary Centigrade scale, or, in another way of expressing it, equal to -273°.
Second. Let us condense this same nebula to 773·395 times less dense than water, and consequently to the density of air at atmospheric pressure, then its diameter will be 8,930,309 miles, volume 372,905,560,3459 cubic miles, and the mean heat 0°, or the heat of freezing water—which by some unexplained process of thought has hitherto been considered to be 274° of absolute temperature.
Third. By again condensing the Solar nebula to the density of water, corresponding to a pressure of more than 773 atmospheres, its diameter becomes 972,285 miles, its volume 482,16712 cubic miles, and mean heat 775°, including the 2° acquired in condensing it to the pressure of 1 atmosphere, as is plainly shown in [Table III].
Before going any further we must enter into a digression to examine into the process of thought by which the absolute zero of heat has come to be called the absolute zero of temperature, and absolute temperature to be so many degrees of negative—less than 0° or nothing—heat counted from the lower or wrong end, to be called positive absolute temperature; thus making heat and temperature appear to be two very different things, without giving any explanation of what is the difference between them.
Science has, as it were, gone down a stair of 274 steps carrying along with it the laws of gases, and has found, most legitimately, with their assistance the total absence of even negative heat at the bottom of it; and, leaving these laws there, has jumped up to the top of the stair, thinking that it carried along with it 274° of absolute heat, which it now calls temperature; instead of bringing the said laws up with it and verifying, if not at every step at least at intervals, how much it brought up with it of what it had taken down. Had it done so it would have found that at the top of the stair it had got what was equal to only 2° of positive heat as measured by the Centigrade scale, as has been shown above, which might be called temperature, but that would not mend matters. Science seems to have forgotten, for the time being at least, all about the laws of gases; it had got something which it thought would enable it to mount much higher, and was satisfied. It will not be difficult to do away with the confusion of thought that is thus shown to have occurred.
The laws of gases are founded upon the fact that in gases there is a necessary interdependence between heat and pressure, and the starting points adopted by science for calculating this interdependence in them are 0° of heat and 1 atmosphere of pressure at 0° of heat. Obeying these laws, we have argued, from the beginning of our operations, that heat requires something to hold it in, and that the nebula from which the Solar system was formed—if it was so formed—could only contain heat in proportion to its density; that is being a gas, or vapour in the form of a gas, it could not contain, i.e. hold in it, more than 2° of positive heat when its density was equal to the pressure belonging to 1 atmosphere of a gas; all as shown in the most irrefragable manner in this chapter and in the accompanying [Table III].