Aether and Gravitation

by William George Hooper

Another way of stating this law is, that the total induced charge on any body is always equal and opposite to the inducing charge. So that if we look upon the sun as an electrified body ([Art. 80]) surrounded by the aetherial envelopes or shells, then we can conceive of the inductive action of the sun upon any planet as taking place along the tubes of force in the Aether, which tubes are sections of the spherical envelopes that surround it. But this inductive action implies the existence of the very law already enunciated, viz. that equal and opposite quantities are always generated at one and the same time, and before that law can become operative in relation to the Aether, it must be postulated that the Aether possesses a dual character, that is, it possesses a positive and negative electrical basis.

This view of the Aether has already been developed by Dr. Larmor in his Electron Basis of the Aether, as in that hypothesis he postulates both positive and negative electrons. In his Aether and Matter he writes, page 3: “It assumes that the mass of each sub-atom is proportional to the absolute number of electrons, positive and negative, that it carries, and that the effective interatomic forces are entirely or mainly electric.” Further, Professor Lodge on this point writes:[39] “We now proceed a step further and analyze the Aether into two constituents, two equal opposite constituents, each endowed with inertia and each connected to the Aether by elastic ties. The two constituents are called positive and negative electricity respectively, and of these two electricities we imagine the Aether to be composed.” Again, later on, p. 349 of the same work, he adds: “Is Aether electricity then? I do not say so, but that they are connected there can be no doubt. What I have to suggest is, that positive, and negative electricity together may make up the Aether.”

Now, accepting this as correct, and I will prove that it is correct later on, from experiments performed by Faraday, we can see how the inductive action of the sun may be transmitted through space, and how that inductive action will effect any body in its electrical field, such inductive action always taking place through the polarization of the atomic Aether, and taking the form of an attractive power which is exerted towards the centre of the attracting body.

Further, this inductive action will be subject to the same laws of electricity as the centrifugal force is, which is the repulsive power due to the pressure of the Aether. Therefore the inductive action of the sun upon any body will, according to the laws of electricity, act inversely as the square of the distance ([Art. 84]), and will be directly as the product of the charges on the two attracting bodies, which we have seen according to [Art. 85] is equal to the product of their masses. Not only will this inductive action apply to the sun, but it will equally apply to all planets, satellites and stars that exist in the heavens, each of these bodies according to [Art. 80] being an electrified body possessing its electric field and lines of force radiating out into space.

Thus we arrive at the conclusion, that each body in the solar system is not only the centre of a centrifugal force due to the pressure of the electro-magnetic Aether, but that it is also the centre of an attractive force due to the existence of the positive and negative elements of the Aether, and of their attractive power for each other.

This attractive power is also subject to exactly the same laws that the centrifugal force is subject to in regard to intensity, proportion, and the direction which it takes. So that we have now two centripetal forces existing in space, which exactly correspond with each other, viz. Gravitation Attraction and the attraction due to Electrical Induction. The cause of one, however, is known, being due to the inductive influence of the various electrified bodies that exist in space, which inductive influence can be traced through the whole of the atomic Aether that exists between the two bodies, whereas the cause of the centripetal force or Gravitation Attraction is unknown. According to the Rules of Philosophy, therefore, it will be much simpler if we replace our Gravitation Attraction, whose cause is unknown, by the inductive power of the various bodies, the physical cause of which lies in the electro-magnetic Aether, or the dielectric as Faraday called it. In other words, we are compelled to come to the conclusion that the centripetal force, or Gravitation Attraction so called, is an electrical phenomenon, which finds its physical cause in the same universal Aether that the centrifugal force does.

Unless this view of the attraction of Gravitation is accepted, we should have two forces operating between all bodies, both operating at exactly the same time, in exactly the same direction, and with exactly the same intensity, and this phenomenon according to Newton would be unphilosophical. In [Art. 4] we learn that Newton in the first rule states that “Nature is simple, and does not abound in superfluous causes of things.” And again: “In the nature of Philosophy nothing is done in vain; and by means of many things, it is done in vain when it can be done by fewer.” Here then we have apparently two forces which act in the same molecular or planetary or interstellar space, at one and the same time. Therefore if this be true, Nature does abound in a superfluous cause, because we have two forces in existence where one will suffice, and one of them therefore exists in vain. So that it will be philosophical if we do away with one of the causes, and replace the two causes by only one. Now which shall be done away with--the electrical attraction which is due to a physical medium, the electro-magnetic Aether, or the Gravitation Attraction, that is caused by some virtue of a body of which we have no knowledge, which is transmitted through space in a way that we cannot understand, and acts upon distant bodies in a manner altogether outside our usual experience and observation? There can only be one answer. If either of the two forces has to be done away with, it must be the mysterious, intangible, unphilosophical attraction of Gravitation, which must be replaced by the philosophical and known attraction of electricity, which can be traced to a physical medium, the electro-magnetic Aether that joins atom to atom, molecule to molecule, satellite to planet, planet to sun, and sun to star, and so gives unity to the universe of worlds. From philosophical considerations, therefore, we are compelled to come to the conclusion that the attraction of gravity and electrical attraction are one and the same.

Faraday arrived at this conclusion and performed certain experiments to confirm that conclusion, but he was unable to experimentally prove the truth. It does not follow, however, that because he failed to experimentally establish the connection, therefore the conclusion is wrong. In his Experimental Researches he writes, par. 2705, “On the possible relation of gravity to electricity”:--“First of all, a body which was to be allowed to fall, was surrounded by a helix, and then its effect in falling sought for.” This experiment Faraday states produced negative results (par. 2706). “A solid cylinder of copper was introduced into the helix, and carefully fastened to it, and this compound arrangement was allowed to fall.” “The result of this experiment may be classified as doubtful. It gave very minute, but remarkable indications of a current in the galvanometer, and the probability of these being related to gravity appeared the greater, when it was found, in raising the helix or core, similar indications of contrary currents appeared.” In par. 2717 Faraday thus sums up: “Here end my trials for the present. The results are negative. They do not shake my strong feeling of the existence of a relation between gravity and electricity, though they give no proof that such a relation exists.” Here then we have expressed the strong conviction of the relation that undoubtedly exists between gravity and electricity by one of the greatest scientists that has ever lived, and I believe that it is a fact that he was engaged upon experiments to prove his conviction about the time of his death.

We will now endeavour to trace the action of the Law of Gravitation in its compound working, in its application to the atomic Aether that fills all space, and by its gravitating property surrounds all bodies situated in that space. We are dealing no longer with a frictionless medium, which is incapable of accepting and transmitting motion of any kind or sort, but we are now dealing with a medium composed of atoms, which can give rise to pressures and tensions, or repulsions and attractions from any one part of space to another.

If we can prove that an atomic Aether can give rise to these pressures and tensions from one body to another, and those pressures and tensions harmonize with, and satisfactorily account for, the phenomena sought to be explained, then we shall have succeeded in making our philosophy agree with our experience, and such a result as action at a distance will for ever disappear from the mental conception of all men, as it has long disappeared from the pages of philosophical and scientific works, though that disappearance was not accompanied with a satisfactory solution of the problem.