2. On the Thermodynamic Acceleration of the Earth's Rotation

Abstract

It has long been known, having been first, I believe, pointed out by Kant, and more recently brought very near to a practical conclusion by Delaunay, that the earth's rotational velocity is diminished by tidal agency, in virtue of the imperfect fluidity of the ocean. An integral effect of all the consumption of energy by fluid friction (or more properly speaking by continued deformation of fluid matter) in the tidal motions, is to cause the time of high water on an average for the whole earth to be not exactly either transit, or 6 o'clock, as it would be were the ocean a perfect fluid, but to be some time after transit, and before 6 o'clock.