THE ETHER IS CONDITIONALLY POSSESSED OF INERTIA.
A moving mass of matter is brought to rest by friction, because it imparts its motion at some rate to the body it is in contact with. Generally the energy is transformed into heat, but sometimes it appears as electrification. Friction is only possible because one or both of the bodies possess inertia. That a body may move in the ether for an indefinite time without losing its velocity has been
stated as a reason for believing the ether to be frictionless. If it be frictionless, then it is without inertia, else the energy of the earth and of a ray of light would be frittered away. A ray of light can only be transformed when it falls upon molecules which may be heated by it. As the ether cannot be heated and cannot transform translational energy, it is without inertia for such a form of motion and its embodied energy.
It is not thus with other forms of energy than the translational. Atomic and molecular vibrations are so related to the ether that they are transformed into waves, which are conducted away at a definite rate. This shows that such property of inertia as is possessed by the ether is selective and not like that of matter, which is equally “inertiative” under all conditions. Similarly with electric and magnetic phenomena, it is capable of transforming the energy which may reside as stress in the ether, and other bodies moving in the space so affected meet with frictional resistance, for they become heated if the motion be maintained. On the other hand, there is no evidence that the body which produced the electric or magnetic stress suffers any degree of friction on moving in precisely the same space. A bar magnet rotating on its longitudinal axis does not disturb its own field, but a piece
of iron revolving near the magnet will not only become heated, but will heat the stationary magnet. Much experimental work has been done to discover, if possible, the relation of a magnet to its ether field. As the latter is not disturbed by the rotation of the magnet, it has been concluded that the field does not rotate; but as every molecule in the magnet has its own field independent of all the rest, it is mechanically probable that each such field does vary in the rotation, but among the thousands of millions of such fields the average strength of the field does not vary within measurable limits. Another consideration is that the magnetic field itself, when moved in space, suffers no frictional resistance. There is no magnetic energy wasted through ether inertia. These phenomena show that whether the ether exhibits the quality called inertia depends upon the kind of motion it has.