Aether and Gravitation

by William George Hooper

3rd. A Centrifugal Force.

To these must be added the three Laws of Motion; although they are not directly part of the Law of Gravitation, yet they are essential to its effectiveness and completion. Without any one of these, the Law of Gravitation would fail to account for all the phenomena that it does account for.

If there were no Primitive Impulse, then the planets and meteors, sun and stars would for ever remain at rest, and the Laws of Motion would remain inoperative. If there were no Centripetal Force, then the Centrifugal Force would hurl the planets and comets, asteroids or minor planets away into the depths of space, never to return to their central sun.

If there were no Centrifugal Force, then the Centripetal Force would draw all bodies, i. e. all planets, etc., to their central sun, and, instead of the planets continually revolving round the sun, there would be but one immense solitary mass in the centre of the solar system.

If there were no Laws of Motion, with their necessary corollary the Parallelogram of Forces, the Primitive Impulse would cease to act, and the Law of Gravitation would again fail in its attempt to account for those phenomena it does account for.

Thus, as it may easily be seen, Gravitation is a compound Law, depending upon at least four hypotheses, and therefore is not essentially a simple Force, or Law.

If, therefore, in giving a physical explanation of the cause of Gravitation, we can reduce all these four elements of the Law into one single physical cause, i. e. the Universal Aether, and show how they may all be explained and accounted for by the properties, qualities and motions of that physical medium, then such a result will be strictly in harmony with the first Rule of Philosophy, as laid down by Newton and others.

We will, therefore, proceed to consider some of these parts of the Law of Gravitation in detail.

Art. 9. Primitive Impulse.--This may be explained as follows. At the creating and launching of each world, Newton supposed that there was given to each world an impulse or tendency to fly off from the controlling centre into space. On this matter MacLaurin writes as follows: “If we had engines of sufficient force, bodies might be projected from them, so as not only to be carried a vast distance away without falling to the earth, but so as to move round the whole earth without touching it; and, after returning to the first place, commence a new revolution with the same force they first received from the engine; and after the second revolution, a third, and thus revolve as a moon or satellite round the earth for ever. If this can be effected near the earth's surface, it may be done higher in the air, or even as high as the moon. By increasing the force or power, a body proportionately larger may be thus projected, and by a power sufficiently great, a heavy body, not inferior to the moon, might be put in motion, which might revolve for ever round the earth. Thus Sir Isaac Newton saw that the curvilineal motion of the moon in her orbit, and of a projectile at the surface of the earth, were phenomena of the same kind, and might be explained from the same principle extended from the earth so as to reach the moon, and that the moon was only a greater projectile that received its motion in the beginning of things from the Almighty Author of the Universe.”

Now what I desire to know is, “What is the nature, the mode of operation, and, above all, the physical cause of this Primitive Impulse?” Is it in its nature and mode of operation a simple Force, or Cause? Does it fulfil the condition of Newton's First Rule of Philosophy? Permit me to suggest several lines of thought which may be made the basis of its analysis.