Samuel Tolver Preston

Samuel Tolver Preston (8 July 1844 – 1917) was an English engineer and physicist.

His parents were Daniel Bloom Preston (born 1807) and Mary Susannah Tolver.^{[citation needed]} Preston was educated as a Telegraph-engineer.^[1] He went to Munich where he attained his Ph.D in 1894 with Ludwig Boltzmann.^{[citation needed]} 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 and represent an enormous amount of energy.^[2] In this way, one grain of matter would contain energy equal to 1000 million foot-tons.^[2]

Preston also seemed to be the first (1885) to recognize the redundancy of Michael Faraday's explanation of electromagnetic induction.^[3] Einstein recognized a similar problem in his paper On the electrodynamics of moving bodies (1905, i.e. special relativity).

In 1876 he corresponded with James Clerk Maxwell and alluded to the work of John James Waterston.^{[citation needed]} In 1880 he corresponded with Charles Robert Darwin.^[1]

^ ^a ^b Frederick Burkhardt; James A. Secord (2021). The Correspondence of Charles Darwin: Volume 28, 1880. Cambridge University Press. p. 61. ISBN 978-1-108-87943-9. Extract of page 61
^ ^a ^b Tolver Paterson, Samuel (1875). Physics of the ether. London, New York: E. and S. F. Spon. p. 117. 165. To give an idea, first, of the enormous intensity of the store of energy attainable by means of that extensive state of subdivision of matter which renders a high normal speed practicable, it may be computed that a quantity of matter representing a total mass of only one grain, and possessing the normal velocity of the ether particles (that of a wave of light), encloses a store of energy represented by upwaids of one thousand millions of foot-tons, or the mass of one single grain contains an energy not less than that possessed by a mass of forty thousand tons, moving at the speed of a cannon ball (1200 feet per second); or otherwise, a quantity of matter representing a mass of one grain endued with the velocity of the ether particles, encloses an amount of energy which, if entirely utilized, would be competent to project a weight of one hundred thousand tons to a height of nearly two miles (1.9 miles).
(Note: One foot-ton = 2,240 foot-pounds (3,040 joules))
^ Miller, A.I. (1981), Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity. Emergence (1905) and early interpretation (1905–1911), Reading: Addison–Wesley, pp. 156, ISBN 0-201-04679-2

[Darwin-1] Frederick Burkhardt; James A. Secord (2021). The Correspondence of Charles Darwin: Volume 28, 1880. Cambridge University Press. p. 61. ISBN 978-1-108-87943-9. Extract of page 61

[Ether-2] Tolver Paterson, Samuel (1875). Physics of the ether. London, New York: E. and S. F. Spon. p. 117. 165. To give an idea, first, of the enormous intensity of the store of energy attainable by means of that extensive state of subdivision of matter which renders a high normal speed practicable, it may be computed that a quantity of matter representing a total mass of only one grain, and possessing the normal velocity of the ether particles (that of a wave of light), encloses a store of energy represented by upwaids of one thousand millions of foot-tons, or the mass of one single grain contains an energy not less than that possessed by a mass of forty thousand tons, moving at the speed of a cannon ball (1200 feet per second); or otherwise, a quantity of matter representing a mass of one grain endued with the velocity of the ether particles, encloses an amount of energy which, if entirely utilized, would be competent to project a weight of one hundred thousand tons to a height of nearly two miles (1.9 miles).
(Note: One foot-ton = 2,240 foot-pounds (3,040 joules))

[3] Miller, A.I. (1981), Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity. Emergence (1905) and early interpretation (1905–1911), Reading: Addison–Wesley, pp. 156, ISBN 0-201-04679-2

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