Samuel Tolver Preston (8 July 1844 – 1917) was an English

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

and

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

. His parents were Daniel Bloom Preston (born 1807) and Mary Susannah Tolver. Preston was educated as a Telegraph-engineer.Extract of page 61
/ref> He went to

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, where he attained his Ph.D. in 1894 with

Ludwig Boltzmann Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann ( ; ; 20 February 1844 – 5 September 1906) was an Austrian mathematician and Theoretical physics, theoretical physicist. His greatest achievements were the development of statistical mechanics and the statistical ex ...

. After that, he worked as a teacher. He is known for his works (1875–1894) on the kinetic theory of gases and his attempts to combine this theory with Le Sage's theory of gravitation. In his book ''Physics of the Ether'' (1875), he postulated that, if matter is subdivided into " ether particles", they would travel at the

speed of light The speed of light in vacuum, commonly denoted , is a universal physical constant exactly equal to ). It is exact because, by international agreement, a metre is defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time i ...

and represent an enormous amount of energy. In this way, one

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached husk, hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and ...

of matter would contain energy equal to 1000 million foot-tons..
''(Note: One foot-ton = )'' Preston also seemed to be the first (1885) to recognize the redundancy of

Michael Faraday Michael Faraday (; 22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867) was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the study of electrochemistry and electromagnetism. His main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic inducti ...

's explanation of

electromagnetic induction Electromagnetic or magnetic induction is the production of an electromotive force, electromotive force (emf) across an electrical conductor in a changing magnetic field. Michael Faraday is generally credited with the discovery of induction in 1 ...

. Einstein recognized a similar problem in his paper ''On the electrodynamics of moving bodies'' (1905, i.e.

special relativity In physics, the special theory of relativity, or special relativity for short, is a scientific theory of the relationship between Spacetime, space and time. In Albert Einstein's 1905 paper, Annus Mirabilis papers#Special relativity, "On the Ele ...

). In 1876 he corresponded with

James Clerk Maxwell James Clerk Maxwell (13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879) was a Scottish physicist and mathematician who was responsible for the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, which was the first theory to describe electricity, magnetism an ...

and alluded to the work of

John James Waterston John James Waterston (1811 – 18 June 1883) was a Scottish physicist and a neglected pioneer of the kinetic theory of gases. Early life Waterston's father, George, was an Edinburgh sealing wax manufacturer and stationer, a relative of the San ...

. In 1880 he corresponded with

Charles Robert Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fro ...

Publications

*
Physics of the ether
'; 1875 *'' On some dynamical conditions applicable to LeSage’s theory of gravitation'' (1877); Phil. Mag., fifth ser. Vol. 4 (1877), pp. 206–213, 364-375; Vol. 5 (1878), pp. 117–127, 297-311 *''Mode of the Propagation of Sound, and the Physical Condition Determining its Velocity on the Basis of the Kinetic Theory of Gases''; (1877) *''Temperature Equilibrium in the Universe in Relation to the Kinetic Theory''; Nature 20, 1879, p. 28 *''On the Possibility of Accounting for the Continuance of Recurring Changes in the Universe, consistently with the Tendency to Temperature-Equilibrium''; Philosophical Magazine 8, 1879, p. 152/163. *''On the possibility of explaining the continuance of life in the Universe Consistent with the Tendency to Temperature-equilibrium''; Nature 19, 1879, p. 460/462 *''On Method in Causal Research''; in: ''Philosophical magazine'', ix (1880), S. 356–367 *''A Question regarding one of the Physical Premises upon which the Finality of Universal Change is based''; Philosophical Magazine 10, 1880, p. 338/342. *''Science and sectarian religion''; in: ''S. T. Preston, Original essays''; London, 1884, S. 19–51. *''Ueber das gegenseitige Verhältniss einiger zur dynamischen Erklärung der Gravitation aufgestellten Hypothesen''; Inauguraldissertation von 1894, München, Phil. Fak. *'' Comparative Review of some Dynamical Theories of Gravitation''; Philosophical Magazine 1895, Vol. 35, p. 145ff. *''On Certain Questions connected with Astronomical Physics''; Philosophical Magazine 1906, Vol. 12, p. 560ff. *''On Certain Questions connected with Astronomical Physics, Part II''; Philosophical Magazine 1907, Vol. 14, p. 265ff. *''On some Physical Relations affecting Matter in Diverse Stages of Subdivision''; Philosophical Magazine 1908, Vol. 16, p. 345ff.

Notes

References

External links

* *Bettini: ''A Cosmic Archipelago: Multiverse Scenarios in the History of Modern Cosmology''. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Preston, Samuel Tolver 1844 births 1917 deaths English physicists English engineers

Publications

See also

Notes

References

External links