Aether and Gravitation

by William George Hooper

Here, then, we have definite statements as to the hypothesis of all matter having a definite aetherial origin. If, therefore, it can be proved experimentally that matter does possess this aetherial basis, then the hypothesis will pass out of the region of speculation into the region of fact and science.

The question, therefore, suggests itself to our mind, as to whether among all the experiments that have ever been performed by any scientist, there are any which will conclusively confirm and establish the hypothesis as to the aetherial origin of all matter. In my opinion there are such experiments, which have been given to the world by such eminent scientists as Faraday and Sir Humphry Davy. Before, however, the value of their experiments can be rightly understood and valued, we shall have to ask ourselves another question, and that is, “What is the relation of Aether to electricity?” Upon the correct answer to this question depends the application of Faraday's experiments to the hypothesis of the aetherial constitution of all matter, and therefore of the great underlying principle of the unity of the Universe.

Is there any relation therefore between Aether and electricity? If so, what is that relation, and to what extent does it hold good? Professor Lodge, in his preface to Modern Views of Electricity, asks a similar question. “Electricity,” he states, “has been thought to be a form of energy, it has been shown to be a form of Aether. There remains the question, What is Aether?”

While again he writes: “A rough and crude statement adopted for popular use is that electricity and Aether are identical. But that is not all that has to be said, for there are two opposite kinds of electricities, and there are not two Aethers. But there may be two aspects of one Aether, just as there are two sides to a sheet of paper.”

That there is a definite relation between Aether and electricity is as certain as there is a definite relation between electricity and light. In order to find out how far the relationship and identity between Aether and electricity extend we will review our conception of the Aether as given in Chapter [IV]. According to the conception advanced in that chapter, on the hypothesis that Aether was matter, we philosophically came to the conclusion that Aether was atomic, and therefore gravitative. Because it was gravitative, it possessed density, and varying degrees of density; and having mass, it possesses the property of inertia the same as any other matter; and was also elastic.

We have now to add to these properties that of compressibility, which property we have ascribed to it from philosophical considerations when dealing with comets, and nebulae, and the origin of planets and satellites. Now, if there is any identity between Aether and electricity, then it follows that that identity will be more or less manifested, as we find electricity possessing more or less of the properties which have been ascribed to the electro-magnetic Aether. For, if we find two apparently different substances, or entities, possessing exactly the same properties, and occupying the same space at one and the same time, then the only logical conclusion that we can come to is, that these two apparently different substances are not two substances, but one.

We have already proved that they both occupy exactly the same space, that is, they occupy the planetary and interstellar regions of space, and fill indeed the entire Universe. The electro-magnetic theory of Light ([Art. 78]) indisputably proves this. We will therefore find out if electricity possesses the properties which have already been ascribed to the Aether. The first property, and indeed the fundamental property, of Aether is that it is atomic, and upon the atomicity of the medium depends the whole of the theory as worked out in relation to heat, light, electricity and so-called gravitational phenomena. Is there anything about electricity that can suggest the hypothesis that electricity is atomic? The answer is unquestionably in the affirmative. Many of the greatest scientists of the past and present century have believed and worked at the hypothesis of the atomic character of electricity, and none more so than Dr. Larmor in his Aether and Matter and Professor J. J. Thomson.

Now what is Dr. Larmor's opinion as to the atomicity of electricity? These are some of his statements quoted in the work. In the very first words of his preface he writes:[44] “The following essay was originally undertaken mainly as a contribution towards the development of the standpoint which considers electricity, as well as the matter, to be constituted on an atomic basis.” He continues: “Since Faraday's work on Electrolysis, the notion of the atomic constitution of electrification in its electro-chemical aspect has never been entirely absent.” While later on he adds: “Thus, for example, the present view of the atomic character of electricity, which is at length coming within the scope of direct experiment, has been in evidence with gradually increasing precision ever since theoretical formulations were attempted on the subject.”

We are, however, possibly indebted to Professor J. J. Thomson for the most direct experimental evidence as to the atomic nature of electricity, for, as is well known to scientists, he has discovered what he termed corpuscles, in association with electricity, which he makes the carriers of the charges involved in electrical phenomena.

Here, then, we have one proof of the identity that exists between Aether and electricity, in that while they both fill the same space, they are both equally atomic; Dr. Larmor's ultimate atom, as we have already seen, being known as positive and negative electrons. Aether, we also learned, was gravitative ([Art. 45]), but we have since learned that gravitation is itself an electrical phenomenon, in that both the centripetal and centrifugal forces are due to the repulsions and attractions or pressure and tension of this electro-magnetic Aether.