Aether and Gravitation

by William George Hooper

So that when we affirm that Aether is gravitative, we do but affirm it is subject to the laws of electricity, which govern all electrical phenomena, and therefore we might just as truly affirm that electricity is gravitative, because such an affirmation is simply another way of saying that electricity gives rise to the attractions and repulsions incidental to, and associated with, all electrical phenomena. Here, again, we have further evidence of the identity that exists between Aether and electricity.

Then we learned that Aether possessed density, and also different degrees of density, and the question arises as to whether there is anything corresponding to this property in electricity. As a matter of fact, this very property of density is itself recognized and known to all scientists by the term Electric Density, the electric density being always proportionate to the charge of electricity on a given area.

We learned also in [Art. 79] that aetherial density and electrical density were identical in relation to solar and planetary space; so that, wherever there was the denser Aether, there was also the denser electricity, the density of the one increasing or decreasing exactly in the same ratio as the other increased or decreased. From aetherial and electrical density, therefore, we have another proof of the close identity that exists between Aether and electricity.

Again, we learned ([Art. 48]) that Aether possessed inertia. Here at least, it may be thought, we shall find the first point of difference between the two entities. Surely such an intangible, aetherial manifestation as electricity cannot possess inertia. Let us see what Professor Lodge has to say on the subject. In the chapter on electrical inertia he writes (p. 89, par. 365 of Modern Views of Electricity): “A current does not start instantaneously: it takes a certain time, often very short, to rise to its full strength; and when started it tends to persist, so that if its circuit be suddenly broken, it refuses to stop quite suddenly, and bursts through the introduced insulating partition with violence and heat. It is this ram or impetus of the electric current which causes the spark seen on breaking a circuit; and the more sudden the breakage, the more violent is the spark apt to be. We shall understand them better directly; meanwhile they appear to be direct consequences of the inertia of electricity; and certainly if electricity were a fluid possessing inertia it would behave to a superficial observer just in this way.”

From these statements we learn then that electricity does possess inertia, although there are other phenomena of electricity that would destroy the hypothesis. But undoubtedly an electric current possesses momentum, and it is philosophically impossible to associate momentum with any body that does not possess inertia, as one of the factors of momentum implies mass, even though it be a mass of an infinitesimal form, and mass is the very essence of the property of inertia ([Art. 40]).

Dr. Larmor, in the work already referred to, dealing with the subject of electric inertia, explains that it is concentrated at the nucleus of the electron (p. 230), while on p. 202 he states: “Each electron as it is moved by the aetherial displacement belonging to the radiation, resists with its own definite inertia.”

Apart from this evidence, the philosophical evidence already adduced in Chapter [X]. is altogether in favour of the fact that electricity possesses inertia. So that we may say that, though the evidence as to the identity of electrical and aetherial inertia is not fully complete, the balance of opinion lies in favour of the identity rather than otherwise. See Appendix A.

It can further be demonstrated that electricity possesses elasticity the same as the Aether does. The charge and discharge of a Leyden jar are conclusive evidence of the elasticity associated with electrical phenomena, while further proof is to be found in the fact that Dr. Larmor attributes elasticity to his electrons, such elasticity being of a rotational type.

The identity, therefore, that exists between Aether is now almost complete. We have now only to prove that both are compressible, and the identity is fully established. This will be done by reference to certain of Faraday's experiments before the conclusion of this article. As we have established, logically, the identity that exists between Aether and electricity, the question arises now as to whether they are not one and the same medium. If they are not one and the same medium, then we are in the distinctly unphilosophical position of having to admit that all interplanetary and interstellar space are filled at one and the same time by two different media, and such an assumption is directly opposed to all observation and experience.

Therefore, to be strictly philosophical, one of these media must be done away with, and we may either assert that interplanetary and interstellar space is filled with electricity, or else it is filled with Aether, as it is much simpler to conceive of space being filled with one medium, than it is to suppose it to be filled with two media, which are absolutely identical in all their characteristic properties and functions. Both can give rise to exactly the same kind of phenomena, whether they are the phenomena of heat, light, electricity, or magnetism, and even gravitation itself. So that, if Science wishes to be distinctly philosophical in her statements in future, it will be necessary, it seems to me, to do away either with the Aether, or with the electricity, and as the latter is the better known entity, I am of the opinion that Science will retain the electric conception of space and matter, and do away with the aetherial, as being altogether unnecessary. See Appendix B.