Aether and Gravitation

by William George Hooper

Thus are we led to the conclusion that electricity is itself a form of matter, as indeed it must be if it is atomic, as suggested by Dr. Larmor and Professor Thomson.

Professor Lodge, on p. 9 of the work already referred to, states: “Electricity in this respect behaves just like a substance;” and again, p. 313, he writes: “We cannot assert that it is a form of matter, neither can we deny it; on the other hand, we certainly cannot assert that it is a form of energy, and I should be disposed to deny it. It may be that electricity is an entity per se, just as matter is an entity per se.”

Whether electricity be a form of matter or not, as I believe it undoubtedly is, we have arrived at the fact, in view of the identity between Aether and electricity, that, wherever the one is present, the other is present also. So that if it can be demonstrated by direct experiment that matter can be changed into its equivalent quantities of electricities, or that equivalent quantities of electricities could produce their equivalent forms of matter, then the electrical basis of matter, and consequently the aetherial basis of matter, are proved beyond contradiction, and we are thus led one step nearer to the ultimate unity of the Universe, which unity is to be found in the universal electro-magnetic Aether, which is identical with universal electricity. For if Aether be the basis of all modes of motion, as heat, light, and gravitation, and it is identical with electricity, it follows that electricity is equally the basis of all the varied phenomena, and if to that we add the constitution of matter itself, then we are within sight of the medium in which the ultimate unity of the Universe is to be found.

This view of the subject has already been dealt with by a German scientist, Professor Vogt, in his book on The Nature of Electricity and Magnetism, a book, however, which is not translated into English. In that work I believe he shows the possibility of all matter having its origin in electricity; and if that be so, then that theory is really identical with an aetherial basis of matter, seeing that Aether and electricity philosophically seem to be one and the same medium. Let us therefore turn to Faraday's experiments, and see what they teach us on the subject of the electrical basis of matter, and therefore the aetherial basis at the same time.

In paragraph 852 of his Experimental Researches Faraday writes: “The theory of definite electro-chemical action appears to me to touch upon the absolute quantity of electricity, or electrical power, belonging to different bodies. Although we know nothing of what an atom is, yet we cannot resist forming some idea of a small particle which represents it to our mind, and though we cannot say what electricity is, so as to be able to say whether it is a particular matter or matters, or mere motion of ordinary matter, yet there is immensity of facts which justify us in believing that the atoms of matter are in some way endowed or associated with electrical powers to which they owe their most striking qualities, and amongst them their chemical affinity. As soon as we perceive, through the teaching of Dalton, that chemical powers are (however varied the circumstances in which they are exerted) definite for each body, we learn to estimate the relative degree of Force which resides in such bodies; and when upon that knowledge comes the fact that electricity, which we appear to be capable of loosening from its habitation for a while, or conveying from place to place, whilst it retains its chemical Force, can be measured out, and being so measured, is found to be as definite in its action as any of those portions which, remaining associated with the particles of matter, give them their chemical relation, we seem to have found a link which connects the proportion of that belonging to the particles in their natural state.”

Then in paragraph 855 he writes as follows: “It seems a probable and almost a natural consequence, that the quantity which passes is the equivalent of, and therefore equal to, that of the particles separated, i. e. that if the electrical power which holds the elements of a grain of water in combination (or which makes a grain of oxygen and hydrogen, in the right proportions, unite into water when they are made to combine) could be thrown into the condition of a current, it would exactly equal the current required for the separation of that grain of water into its elements again.”

Further, in Art. 857, he states, “I can have no doubt that, assuming hydrogen as 1, and dismissing small fractions for the simplicity of expression, the equivalent number or atomic weight of oxygen is 8, of chlorine 36, of bromine 78.4, of lead 103.5, of tin 59, etc., notwithstanding that a very high authority doubles several of these numbers.” Then, writing upon the definite relationship of electro-chemical equivalents, he states, Art. 835: “Electro-chemical equivalents are always consistent; i. e. the same number which represents the equivalent of a substance A, when it is separating from a substance B, will also represent A when separating from a third substance C. Thus 8 is the electro-chemical equivalent of oxygen, whether separating from hydrogen or tin or lead; and 103.5 is the electro-chemical equivalent of lead, whether separating from oxygen or chlorine or iodine.”

So that from Faraday's experiments we learn definitely that the electro-chemical equivalents coincide with and agree with the ordinary chemical equivalents according to Dalton's theory. From these experimental results of Faraday's we therefore learn that Faraday was of the opinion that each atom had a definite and certain quantity of electricity associated with it; and if this be true, then, in view of the identity of Aether with electricity, it follows that each atom must have definite and certain quantities of Aether associated with each atom. So that through Faraday's experimental researches we are again led to the hypothesis enunciated by Lord Kelvin in his paper “On the Clustering of Gravitational Matter in any part of the Universe,” viz. that all matter has an aetherial, that is, an electrical basis, and that it is by the condensation of this electricity, and combinations of the condensational particles, that all the various elements are formed which compose the infinite variety of forms that constitute the entire Universe. Here, then, it seems to me, we have the evidence which gives to the aetherial Nebular Hypothesis ([Art. 121]) that experimental evidence which places that hypothesis upon a firm and philosophical foundation, and conclusively proves that it is possible for Aether out in the colder regions of interstellar space to be condensed into masses of gaseous matter, which form nebulae, and other masses in the cold regions of interplanetary space to condense and form comets and meteors.

[44] Aether and Matter.

Art. 125. Physical Constitution of Matter.--In [Art. 31] we learned that all matter was made up of minute parts called atoms. When these atoms enter into combination with each other, they form the smallest particles of elementary substances as well as compound bodies, these particles or bodies being termed molecules.