A Living Dynamic Focus
"Every living being is a dynamic focus. A dynamic focus tends ever to
propagate the motion that is proper to it. Propagated motion becomes
transformed according to the medium it traverses. Motion always tends to
propagate itself. Therefore, when we see work of any kind--mechanical,
electrical, nervic, or psychic--disappear without visible effort, then
of two things, one happens, namely, either a transmission or a
trans
ormation. Where does the first end, and where does the second
begin? In an identical medium there is only TRANSMISSION; in a different
medium there is TRANSFORMATION.
"You send an electric current through a thick wire. You have the
current, but you do not perceive any other force. But cut that thick
wire, and connect the ends by means of a fine wire, and this fine wire
will grow hot--there will be a TRANSFORMATION of a part of the current
into HEAT. Take a pretty strong current, and interpose a wire still more
resistant, or a very thin carbon rod, and the carbon will emit LIGHT. A
part of the current, then, is transformed into heat and light. The light
acts in every direction around about, first visibly as light, then
invisibly as heat and electric current. Hold a magnet near it. If the
magnet is weak and movable, in the form of a magnetic needle, the beam
of light will cause it to deviate; if it is strong and immovable, it
will in turn cause the beam of light to deviate. AND ALL THIS FROM A
DISTANCE, WITHOUT CONTACT, WITHOUT SPECIAL CONDUCTORS.