THE LATEST DISCOVERIES ON LIGHT, HEAT AND FIRE FOR PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY LOVERS

ECKHARTSHAUSEN
Munich, 1798


We observe, in nature, forces acting on substances in renewal. All forms, in ascending order, are modifications of a primitive form; all forces, in descending order, modifications of a primitive force. The forces are the active stimuli or stimuli; bodies are determine orders of the principles of matter, or Elements, and appear as the result of the action of stimuli on passive excitability.
Primitive force would therefore be the first Agent or physical mover, and the first form, the first excitable element of things.

Physical nature forms all appearances, in ascending and descending order, by extension and concentration, from these two extremes. Corporeal products, being appearances, constitute a middle term between activity and passivity, force and matter. The Substrate of each manifestation of the three kingdoms is the Elemental Heat or Substance of Fire which reveals itself in the form of Carbon , extreme lower, passive subject of nature. The other extreme is Nitrogen , the active principle of nature. Having carried out all possible tests with these two principles, active and passive, I deduced the following system:
The primitive physical Element of nature is Androgynous ; Force and Matter, Activity and Passivity balance each other there. This primitive body splits in two through Movement : the Active separates from the Passive. After this separation, the active force acts on the passive body, engendering a Manifestation which constitutes a Medium between the force and the body. This triple process by means of Movement forms the Three Principles of Nature:

Lichtstoff: the luminous substance or elemental Light;
Warmesfoff: the caloric substance or. Elemental Heat;
Feuerstoff: Igneous Substance or Elemental Fire.

These three principles manifest themselves in three properties:
Expansion, Contraction and new Expansion, by which nature is divided into Upper, Middle and Lower. Where expansion dominates, the gaseous state appears; where attraction dominates, the solid state; where these two balance each other, the liquid state.

By this division, nature establishes two progressions: one in decreasing series, from force to body, or from Light to Fire; the other, in ascending order, from body to force, from Fire to Light. This double hierarchy entails action and reaction, from which proceed the life and movement of beings. The tendency of 'Force to pass into 'Form is called Attraction ; that of the Form to pass; in the state of Force, Expansion, Assimilation.

Thus, the Movement determines three Essences (in ascending order, Fire, Heat, Light) which form three passive Subjects or Bodies.



Elemental Fire is latent or potential Fire; Elemental Heat, latent Heat; elemental Light, latent Light. Potential Fire is sensitive in the form of Carbon ; the potential Heat under that of a fatty, acidic Liquid; the potential Light in the form of a soapy, viscous, tasteless Essence.

When these three bodies again enter into expansion by the Movement, the gaseous phase appears: for the Carbon, as Vital Air or oxygen; for Fatty Acid as Flammable Air or Hydrogen; for Soapy Gasoline as Nitrogen.

These three gases, in ascending order, are three stimulating forces which again, acting on the three primitive bodies, produce five manifestations, through the medium of the body to which they give rise:

Igneous Substance, absorbing Vital Air or Oxygen, produces Liberated Fire by means of Hydrogen; Caloric Substance, absorbing oxygen, produces Liberated Heat; the Luminous substance produces, through Nitrogen, Liberated Light. Thus appear, in descending order, Light, Heat and Fire in nature.

The environment or medium which allows the action of the primitive Agents on their passive Subject, consists of three Fluids, resulting from the action of the three Forces on their Subject; they are divided into three Regions (upper, middle, lower), but interpenetrating. They are the link between the force of expansion and that of contraction. Where liquefaction is established, this bond generates the cohesive force and, where cohesion begins, this bond associates again to liquefy. Thus maintain the Movement and the Life. In the gaseous state, this medium is oxygen or Air Vital, which maintains the balance between the rarefied Air and the fixed Air. In: him, Light and Heat are intimately united in gaseous form.

The Second Fluid comes from the Calorific in expansion, by intervention of the Vital Air, and forms an elastic body uniting the most subtle Forces with the most fixed bodies in which Luminous Matter and Caloric Matter are closely associated. It proceeds from the union of oxygen with the caloric matter rendered volatile and forms the body which generates Acidity, the true Vital Air or Oxygen of Nature.
When Acid appears, the action of Vital Air alone is insufficient; this Vital Air must, beforehand, form with the volatilized Calorific a medium or bond which will give rise to the Acid. This medium appears during the formation of the Acids, but is not manifest to the senses. This true Semi-Acid is not simply oxygen, as has been claimed, but an oxygen or Vital Air united with the volatile Caloric, forming then an Elastic Fluid, bubbling like water, without moisture.It is subject to various modifications; it is the cause of the elasticity of bodies; it generates sonority in its expansive mode; elastic and volatile, it allows itself to be concentrated by the cold, expands again, heats up on contact with water, generates Causticity with Carbon; has an attractive property; combines with most bodies, modifying their properties; is found in the Three Kingdoms, under various modifications;appears as a suffocating body in reddened coals and fermenting bodies; it is moved by heat. It is the medium between Light and Heat, between Acid and Alkali. It is fixed in fire with the fixed alkalis and has the greatest affinity for carbon; it is the cause of all expansion. In combination with the alkali, it makes it soluble in Water. Whenever Acid is united to this Medium with Absorbent Earth, Alkali appears...



In ascending order, if the Elemental Fire is fluidized in the form of Elemental Heat, then a median Fluid is born between Carbon and Elemental Heat, which is an Inflammable Acid, which I call Igneous Acid. If the Elemental Heat is volatilized in the form of Elemental Light, a new Fluid or Liquid appears, middle term between the Light and Heat terminals, which can be recognized as Phosphoric Acid . If the Elemental Light is still volatilized, a new medium-term Fluid is formed, which is a Vital Air united with the very rarefied Caloric of which I spoke. This Caloric separated from the elemental Light, there remains Nitrogen.

Considered as an elastic being, the Elemental Light, in its liquid phase, penetrates all bodies; this elastic being, imponderable in itself, makes a body heavy when it is concentrated, light when it is rarefied. These two modalities also appear in the production of heat or cold: as soon as sensible heat is born, the elastic being is concentrated inside the body; as soon as the cold appears, it expands and concentrates outside.

The capacity of a body to absorb Fire, Heat, Light in a free state is independent of its density or its volume, but depends on its affinity with Light, Heat and Fire Elements, which is a function of its degree of cohesion. The more a body tends to expansion, the more it is apt to release Heat, Light, Fire in a free state; the more it contracts, the more apt it is to unite with Heat, Fire, Light. The sensible Fire, in its greatest expansion, becomes sensible Heat, which, in its greatest expansion, becomes sensible Light... The elastic entity already named is the cause of the attraction of bodies: wherever it is in expansion, it tends to recontract, hence the Attraction.This elastic luminous essence has the greatest affinity with the matter of iron and forms with it, in its diluted state, the Magnet. The attraction of the magnet is observed whenever this expanding elastic essence tends to resume its concentrated state of equilibrium; the repulsion takes place in consequence of the repulsion of this elastic fluid, by periods, under the action of calorific matter.

Fire, Heat, Elemental Light have determined spheres of influence: the most restricted is that of Fire, then comes that of Heat, finally that of Light.
The coexistence of the Motor and the Mobile in a being produces its manifested existence: in a physical body, movement; in a plant, the vegetation; in an animal, animal life; in a metal, electricity. In the Three Kingdoms, the Motors in action appear in the form of the elastic substance, which is a liquid, soapy, dilated essence. Motile Subjects appear in the form of more or less dilated Carbon.

A metallic lime from which the Carbon is removed to replace it with Elemental Light gives a vitrified body, which has become insulating, without. electrical conductivity. If you add carbon to glass, it becomes a conductor like metals.

The flower lives on carbon, just as man inhales vital air and exhales carbon which, in contact with oxygen, changes into carbon dioxide. The plant sucks in the air, fixes carbon, transforms it and gives, in sunlight, renewed oxygen. In animal bodies the excitatory principle is in the nervous Ether while the excitable principle of Carbon is in the blood. The factors of all destruction are the excess of the excitable principle or "carbon" and the exhaustion of the excitatory factor. Carbon tends to densification, matter of Light to volatilization. By volatilization, there is exhaustion of the stimulant; by overcrowding, excess excitability.



In plants, where the carbon is dissolved, there is putrefaction; where it accumulates and where the Engine disappears, desiccation.

A body remains in its perfection as long as its principles interpenetrate. At the slightest modification, imperfection is born, the starting point of all separation and dissolution. What penetrates is, everywhere, the Elemental Light or, better, the Light produced by the luminous Engine on the luminous Subject. Nature is a whole made up of acting forces and moving bodies. Everything is alive, nothing is dead.

Death is only a pause to harmonize new chords. Putrefaction is a process of renewal, with a view to freeing life from apparent death and freeing the imprisoned living particles in order to make them fit for new organic combinations. Caloric Substance and Luminous Substance are the Passive and Active Principles of Nature.
The atmosphere of this globe is a fluid whose particles are formed of dissociated luminous and caloric matter; it is liable to condense and become noticeable under various vitreous formations. Bodies are composed of luminous and caloric matter made visible and are only modifications of the Elemental Heat and Light, in definite proportions.

The matter of Heat and Light exists in a dispersive state in the atmosphere and constitutes the fluid in which floats the diversity of life. Diluted or concentrated in visible forms, it can form multiple appearances. In the rarefied state, it is imperceptible and becomes sensitive, formal, ponderable by concentrating.

By means of the Sun and of convex and concave lenses are produced the Archetypal Forms of luminous and caloric matter. One can obtain the Carbon of Nature in a vase full of water, by means of lenses. By expansion, it resolves into caloric matter and forms, with animal or vegetable earth, true coal. The colored phenomena of the lenses show the modifications of the luminous and caloric matter by the appearance of distinct Acids: the Red hearth generates on the Carbon of the Carbonic Acid; the Blue focus generates on the Caloric of Phosphoric Acid; the white hearthgenerates very volatile hydrochloric acid on luminous matter. The Acids therefore seem to manifest themselves through the intermediary of the colours. By the knowledge of the laws of the colors one can arrive at that of the Acids. Where the particles of light are disjoint, there is darkness, this disjunction giving black to an object. Where they are joined, visible light reigns, giving white to an object. Darkness should be called: "A certain state of disunity of luminous matter."

The Sun acts on our globe as a luminous stimulant, transforming the nascent Carbon into luminous matter and returning it to us under the species of stimulating forces. So the world feeds the Sun and the Sun feeds the world.

Process of Nature: There is a Formative Principle; this Agent is the dispersed Luminous Matter, manifested in a gaseous state as Nitrogen . And a Passive Principle, which is Carbon. This Nitrogen acting on the Carbon divides it into three basic bodies: Elemental Fire, Elemental Heat, Elemental Light, each of them having three possibilities: keeping its passive specificity or changing to a liquid or gaseous state under the action of an Agent. The liquid manifestation of Carbon is an flammable acid (Phosphorsaurus) which differs from the chemical phosphoric acid (Phosphorige Saure) by its greater causticity. In the gaseous state, it is transformed intoAir Vitality.

The caloric matter in the liquid state becomes Phosphorische-saure and, in the gaseous state, Flammable Air (Hydrogen, if one wishes to consider it chemically).
Luminous matter gives carbonic acid to the liquid state of mephitic acid, to follow the analogy used by the author, to the very volatile state of hydrochloric acid, and to the gaseous state of nitrogen. These three gases act as stimulants on the passive bodies and give rise to manifest fire, heat and light . In the liquid state, these three manifestations give the Fluidum Universale in which bathes our Earth, seat of all modifications. The first bodies formed are therefore Oxygen, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Carbon, which then effectively produce acids, waters and earths: four Type-Forms from which all the others come.

If the Elemental Heat and Light are collected by means of lenses in porcelain vessels in pure water, ablack color is produced in the expansion phase. The water heats up until it boils; Gradually cooled, the Carbon concentrates in a white residue which, on analysis, turns out to be a Magnesia Carbonate, a porous, tasteless substance, hardly soluble in water: this alkaline earth could be the primitive earth. According to the dosage of the carbonic and luminous elements, it is offered: with an excess of luminous matter as siliceous; of carbonic matter, like clay, which after new addition of carbonic matter is transformed into limestone. In the multiplicity of acting Forces and moved Subjects, neither the Primitive Agent nor theFirst Subject can be recognized. But, with the help of higher Chemistry, the bodies allow themselves to be divided up to Carbon, the ultimate limit. Starting from this base and breaking down in ascending order, we come to gas and, finally, to the First Agent,Nitrogen [ ie Azoth or Azoq of the Sages].

As soon as the Nitrogen acts on the Carbon, it extracts a soapy essence which is the Substance of Light in a bound state. It arises from the expansion of Carbon. By condensation of this body, a second is born, a fatty acid. Substance of Heat. The luminous substance is Principle of Expansion, cause of all diaphaneity. Caloric substance is principle of Attraction, cause of all condensation. These are the two First Principles of Creation, the Azoth of Heaven and the Azoth of Earth, the Yin and the Yang of the Chinese. Carbon _is the true matter of all things, the Androgyne of Nature, uniting Male and Female, Passive and Active. By expansion, it forms its active Principle which it again attracts as a passive being to form, from it alone, the multiplicity of bodies. It is the Center of Nature , from which arises the visible creation. This primitive body has a triple faculty: expansion, contraction, new expansion.

In Nature, the Force is always immutable, offering itself. The body captures it and is modified by it. The participation, of the Force seems a diving, freely consented, in the form, to manifest itself. This penetration generates a median being which balances the two and which is called Spirit. Thus, in physical Nature, the luminous exciter acting on the elemental heat produces a Spirit in physics, gas. The Ancients called it Spiritus, Vapor which bathes the universe; it is called Air Vital, Spiritus Universalis . Through him, Light is linked to Heat and spawns all Manifestations.

The entire natural process forms the following cycle:
Everywhere, the Light, acting in descending order, tends to congeal into elemental Heat, while the Heat, in ascending order, tends to volatilize into Light. Whenever, in descending order, Heat is linked, Light appears, in ascending order and vice versa, this parte medium of the Vital Spirit of Nature. The Three Principles of the latter are therefore, Luminous Force, Elemental Heat, Spirit of Life , their product. Three distinct essences, but united in a Matter which is the Primitive Matter, of the Physical World; these Three Elements can be called SALT, MERCURY and SULFUR of the Philosophers, Matter, Bond, Force of all things.
This Spirit of Nature, issued from Light and Heat , is like a Breath or Breath. Vitality of the Universe, which, by condensation is transformed into Water and it is then the Humid Radical of Nature .

The World inhales and exhales.

From the movement applied to Carbon as Universal First Matter (elemental fire, Hyle) are born Calorific Matter and Luminous Matter:

AGENT: Luminous Matter
PATIENT: Carbon
PRODUCT: Calorific material.

In ascending order, these three Expansions are graduated as follows:
Luminous Matter: Elemental Light.
Caloric Matter: Elemental Heat.
Matter of Fire: Elemental Fire.

These three bodies, possessing a real existence, must have the force to produce Light, Heat and Fire. In the most expansive state, these Three Agents are three gases, named by the Ancient Spiritus, physical Spirits: Nitrogen: Luminous exciter. Hydrogen: Combustible air, heat agent; Oxygen: Vital air, agent of fire.



Where the light appears, there is an action of the Nitrogen on the elemental Light or the soapy substance. Where heat appears, action of Hydrogen on Elemental Heat or Fatty Acid. Where fire is born, action of Oxygen on elemental Fire or Carbon. In fire are contained elemental Heat and Light. Elemental Heat is the expansion of fire to a higher degree. Elemental Light is that of elemental Heat at a higher level. When, in increasing order, these three gases take birth, they form, by attracting Vital Air, a medium substance to recombine with Carbon, and this medium is the first liquid body of Nature.

Oxygen and Hydrogen give water; Hydrogen and Nitrogen, from nitrous acid, by means of Oxygen: The Acid appears each time luminous matter and caloric matter are liberated.

If Nitrogen is balanced with Hydrogen through the mediation of Oxygen, an acid liquid is born, formed of Light and Heat, which can be called Universal Acid. If Hydrogen balances with Oxygen, it is born from water. The three solid, liquid and gaseous phases contain a medium being which units in each the Fixed to the Volatile: in the gaseous phase the Oxygen; in the liquid phase a pure Liquid; in the solid phase, the elemental Fire acting within the water.

Oxygen, considered as an igneous exciter, governs any phenomenon where a body is volatilized. Pure Liquid, like Elemental Heat, governs any phenomenon where bodies are present in a soluble state. Elemental Fire governs all phenomena where bodies are in a molten and mixed state.

These last three laws are of the utmost importance, because with the simplest means the most admirable actions can be brought about.