Aether and Gravitation

by William George Hooper

Thus the philosophic mind of Herschel saw in the existence of cometary tails, the irrefutable evidence of the existence of a repulsive force, not of a hypothetical character, but as real as the existence of gravity itself. Various attempts have been made to define that repulsive force which was thus demanded, and the same force has been ascribed by scientists to the repulsion due to heat, to light, and also to electricity.

Several French scientists have suggested that the repulsive force was due to the heat of the sun. M. Roche was one of those who stated that the phenomena of cometary tails was due to the repulsive power of heat, which found its origin in the heat of the sun. M. Faye, another French scientist, states that the repulsive force had its origin in the heat of the sun. By a series of experiments he demonstrated that there was a repulsive power in all heat waves, which gave his theory that experimental support that any theory must possess to make it permanent.

Now in [Art. 63] it was shown that heat does possess a repulsive power, but that that power is rather due to the electro-magnetic Aether whose vibrations produce the heat waves, than to the repulsion of heat; so that, indirectly, the assumption of both these French scientists, that the repulsive power of heat gave rise to the tails of comets, is correct. Then again it has been suggested that the repulsive power is produced by the pressure of the light waves. Professor Lebedew suggested this after he had experimentally proved that light waves did possess a repulsive power (Annalen der Physik, November 1901). It can easily be seen, as pointed out in [Art. 70], that, inasmuch as light is due to the vibrations of the Aether, they too possess this repulsive power, and therefore Professor Lebedew's suggestion as to the nature of the repulsive power is correct, as the real centrifugal force is really due to an aetherial pressure.

Whether, therefore, we consider it from the standpoint of heat, or light or electricity, it ultimately resolves itself into the same aetherial medium which is at once the common source of all these forces. Again, it has been suggested that the repulsive power is electrical or electro-magnetic, and this view is receiving more support than either of the others from modern scientists.

Herschel suggested that the repulsive power was electrical, while Bredichin has worked out a very careful theory as to the effect of electrical repulsion upon different elements that are found in the comets' tails, with a view to explain the different shapes of the tails. But whether the force is looked at from the standpoint of heat, light or electricity, it ultimately resolves itself into the motions of the Aether, which gives rise by its different vibrations and motions to all the three forms of energy referred to.

When we also take into account the fact that Aether is gravitative, and therefore denser nearer to the sun than further away, and that it is also rotating round the central body the sun ([Art. 91]), then we have at once every condition necessary to explain all the various kinds of cometary tails, and also for the remarkable fact that the tail is always turned away from the sun, which is simply due to the effect of the rotating Aether with its outflowing electro-magnetic waves upon the gaseous matter of the comet. Thus from the phenomena of comets' tails, we have again arrived at the conclusion of the existence of that centrifugal force, whose origin and continuity are to be found in the electro-magnetic Aether which surrounds the sun, and which by its electro-magnetic waves gives rise to pressure on all bodies upon which they fall.

Art. 116. Formation of Tails.--With the conception of the formation of the comet advanced in [Art. 111], viz. that it is nothing more or less than Aether in a state of condensation, and remembering the explanation given of the parts of the comet, as the nucleus, and head or coma, we are now in a position to give a philosophical account of the formation of the tails of comets, which will satisfactorily fulfil all the Rules of Philosophy. In addition to the facts already referred to in the previous articles of this chapter, we must also recall our conception of the Aether as given in Chapter [IV]., remembering that it gets denser nearer the sun, and that it is not frictionless; therefore, when a body is urged through it, friction is produced, and heat is generated.

We must also remember that the Aether is rotating round the sun as that body proceeds through space. We have, therefore, to picture the condensed mass of Aether situated out in the cold interstellar space, gradually coming under the influence of the sun, as that body rushes on its journey through space with a velocity of 500,000 miles per hour.

Slowly, but surely, the mass of condensed Aether begins to respond to the attractive power of the sun, and to move through space towards the sun. So long as it is moving towards the sun, it is encountering and having to overcome the resistance of the Aether.

At first this resistance is very feeble, owing to the decreased density of the Aether, but as it proceeds on its journey it is constantly passing into denser parts of the aetherial electro-magnetic field around the sun. The result is, that as the resistance is increased, so there is greater friction between the matter of the comet and the atomic Aether in space, and, in consequence, heat is generated.