CONTRASTED PROPERTIES OF MATTER AND THE ETHER.
| MATTER. | ETHER. | |
| 1. | Discontinuous | Continuous |
| 2. | Limited | Unlimited |
| 3. | Heterogeneous | Homogeneous |
| 4. | Atomic | Non-atomic |
| 5. | Definite structure | Structureless |
| 6. | Gravitative | Gravitationless |
| 7. | Frictionable | Frictionless |
| 8. | Æolotropic | Isotropic |
| 9. | Chemically selective | |
| 10. | Harmonically related | |
| 11. | Energy embodied | Energy endowed |
| 12. | Energy transformer | Non-transformer |
| 13. | Elastic | Elastic? |
| 14. | Density | Density? |
| 15. | Heatable | Unheatable |
| 16. | Indestructible? | Indestructible |
| 17. | Inertiative | Inertiative conditionally |
| 18. | Magnetic | |
| 19. | Variable states | |
| 20. | Subject to shearing stress in solid | Shearing stress maintained |
| 21. | Has Secondary qualities | |
| 22. | Sensation depends upon | Insensible to nerves |
[1] Vortex-rings for illustration may be made by having a wooden box about a foot on a side, with a round orifice in the middle of one side, and the side opposite covered with stout cloth stretched tight over a framework. A saucer containing strong ammonia water, and another containing strong hydrochloric acid, will cause dense fumes in the box, and a tap with the hand upon the cloth back will force out a ring from the orifice. These may be made to follow and strike each other, rebounding and vibrating, apparently attracting each other and being attracted by neighbouring bodies.
By filling the mouth with smoke, and pursing the lips as if to make the sound o, one may make fifteen or twenty small rings by snapping the cheek with the finger.
CHAPTER III
Antecedents of Electricity—Nature of what is transformed—Series of transformations for the production of light—Positive and negative Electricity—Positive and negative twists—Rotations about a wire—Rotation of an arc—Ether a non-conductor—Electro-magnetic waves—Induction and inductive action—Ether stress and atomic position—Nature of an electric current—Electricity a condition, not an entity.
So far as we have knowledge to-day, the only factors we have to consider in explaining physical phenomena are: (1) Ordinary matter, such as constitutes the substance of the earth, and the heavenly bodies; (2) the ether, which is omnipresent; and (3) the various forms of motion, which are mutually transformable in matter, and some of which, but not all, are transformable into ether forms. For instance, the translatory motion of a mass of matter can be imparted to another mass by simple impact, but translatory motion cannot be imparted to the ether, and, for that reason, a body moving in it is
not subject to friction, and continues to move on with velocity undiminished for an indefinite time; but the vibratory motion which constitutes heat is transformable into wave-motion in the ether, and is transmitted away with the speed of light. The kind of motion which is thus transformed is not even a to-and-fro swing of an atom, or molecule, like the swing of a pendulum bob, but that due to a change of form of the atoms within the molecule, otherwise there could be no such thing as spectrum analysis. Vibratory motion of the matter becomes undulatory motion in the ether. The vibratory motion we call heat; the wave-motion we call sometimes radiant energy, sometimes light. Neither of these terms is a good one, but we now have no others.