KESTEL, R.W.O. - Radiant Energy, a Working Power in the Mechanism of the Universe.

Port Adelaide [printed by F. Cockington] 1898. Slender octavo, excellent in publisher's cloth, front lettered in gilt; iv,99pp & errata slip, six plates. ¶ The frontispiece of experimental apparatus must be one of the best examples in the history of Australian scientific illustration: a new theory explaining the workings of the universe can be tested with a decapitated corrugated iron water tank, two rules and a ball on a string. It also, just in graphic terms, has a radiant energy of its own. This is a stylish little book and has a stylish and reasoned generosity not always present in such works: "the difference in the two theories does not at all effect the accepted laws of the force of gravity, as given us by Newton". As to considerations of a Newtonian universe he points out that "of two theories, if one can be demonstrated by .. experiment and the other cannot, I prefer the former." An humane execution. Kestel was an Adelaide builder, sometime mayor of Port Adelaide, and determined autodidact astrophysicist. I don't think he published any more but he did lecture, with demonstration, a belligerent South Australian Astronomical Society (apparently he had to elicit a promise that his audience would not interrupt again) in 1901. This book was belatedly reviewed in Nature, in 1903 where our condescending reviewer, after pulling the rug out from under Kestel's credentials -"none but a discerning reader will profit by its perusal" - allows that a couple of his intriguing notions that may be useful to real scientists. Kestel didn't live long enough to see the review. (Thanks to Pioneer Books for their diligent note on Kestel).

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