The
constant of time derived by this phenomenon remains the same whatever
the nature and dimensions of the walls of the tube or the temperature
may be, and time might thus be denned independently of all the other
units.
We might also, as M. Lippmann has suggested in an extremely ingenious
way, decide to obtain measures of time which can be considered as
absolute because they are determined by parameters of another nature
than that of the magnitude to be measured. Such experiments are made
possible by the phenomena of gravitation. We could employ, for
instance, the pendulum by adopting, as the unit of force, the force
which renders the constant of gravitation equal to unity. The unit of
time thus defined would be independent of the unit of length, and
would depend only on the substance which would give us the unit of
mass under the unit of volume.
It would be equally possible to utilize electrical phenomena, and one
might devise experiments perfectly easy of execution. Thus, by
charging a condenser by means of a battery, and discharging it a given
number of times in a given interval of time, so that the effect of the
current of discharge should be the same as the effect of the output of
the battery through a given resistance, we could estimate, by the
measurement of the electrical magnitudes, the duration of the interval
noted.
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