FORE:We have already seen how this fundamental division is applied to the universe as a whole. But our philosopher is not content with classifying the phenomena as he finds360 them; he attempts to demonstrate the necessity of their dual existence; and in so doing is guilty of something very like a vicious circle. For, after proving from the terrestrial movements that there must be an eternal movement to keep them going, he now assumes the revolving aether, and argues that there must be a motionless solid centre for it to revolve round, although a geometrical axis would have served the purpose equally well. By a still more palpable fallacy, he proceeds to show that a body whose tendency is towards the centre, must, in the nature of things, be opposed by another body whose tendency is towards the circumference. In order to fill up the interval created by this opposition, two intermediate bodies are required, and thus we get the four elementsearth, water, air, and fire. These, again, are resolved into the antithetical couples, dry and wet, hot and cold, the possible combinations of which, by twos, give us the four elements once more. Earth is dry and cold, water cold and wet, air wet and hot, fire hot and dry; each adjacent pair having a quality in common, and each element being characterized by the excess of a particular quality; earth is especially dry, water cold, air wet, and fire hot. The common centre of each antithesis is what Aristotle calls the First Matter, the mere abstract unformed possibility of existence. This matter always combines two qualities, and has the power of oscillating from one quality to another, but it cannot, as a rule, simultaneously exchange both for their opposites. Earth may pass into water, exchanging dry for wet, but not so readily into air, which would necessitate a double exchange at the same moment.Another principle in planing machines which deserves notice is the manner of driving carriages or platens; this is usually performed by means of spur wheels and a rack. A rack movement is smooth enough, and effective enough so far as a mechanical connection between the driving gearing and a platen, but there is a difficulty met with from the torsion and elasticity of cross-shafts and a train of reducing gearing. In all other machines for metal cutting, it has been a studied object to have the supports for both the tools and the material as rigid as possible; but in the common type of planing machines, such as have rack and pinion movement, there is a controversion of this principle, inasmuch as a train of wheels and several cross-shafts constitute a very effective spring between the driving power and the point of cutting, a matter that is easily proved by planing across the teeth of a rack, or the threads of a screw, on a machine arranged with spur wheels and the ordinary reducing gearing. It is true the inertia of a platen is interposed and in a measure overcomes this elasticity, but in no degree that amounts to a remedy.
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12 pages
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