Aether and Gravitation

by William George Hooper

So that by the conception that Aether is matter, in its primordial state, we have more than fulfilled all that was premised should be done.

Thus the long-sought-for and long-expected cause of Gravitation, together with the cause of the two complementary forces, is found in the simple statement that Aether is matter, with all that is logically included therein. Kepler's Laws and Newton's Laws of Motion also receive a physical explanation in the same universal electro-magnetic Aether.

In addition to the solution of these problems, the transverse vibrations of light has received for the first time a physical conception, and a physical explanation, even admitting that that explanation may not be perfect in detail.

The origin of the permanent magnetism of the earth has also received a physical explanation through the motions of this same electro-magnetic Aether, while certain theories in relation to electricity given to the world by Ampère, Weber, Faraday, and Clerk Maxwell have found their consummation in this atomic electro-magnetic medium.

Further, astronomical hypotheses in relation to comets and nebulae are not untouched by the theory of a compressible and condensing atomic Aether. Indeed, there is not a phase of natural phenomena which is not affected in some way or other by the philosophical result arrived at that Aether is matter in its original state. Therefore, we claim, however imperfectly it may have been done, that not only have the Rules of Philosophy been fulfilled, but that the theory so advanced has accomplished more than even we in our wildest imagination hoped and dreamed for it.

Look at the problem of the Aether how we may, the advantages of the theory of an atomic electro-magnetic Aether far surpass and outweigh the advantages of a frictionless medium, which in some unknown way possesses mass and inertia, although the conception of such properties themselves disproves the existence of such a frictionless medium.

After all, how much of this theory is there which is entirely new or absolutely original? Age after age, men have had exactly similar dreams, and seen similar visions. In the old Grecian days similar views were expressed by their philosophers; and, even in the philosophy of less civilized countries, many of the suggested hypotheses found their place in a more or less perfect form.

Analyze the whole theory from its initial stages to the last chapter, and we shall find, with the exception of one or two features, that every hypothesis first had its origin in the mind of some of the greatest thinkers and philosophers that the world has ever known.

Take several hypotheses as examples. The hypothesis that Aether is atomic was suggested by such men as Newton, Huyghens, Descartes, Challis, Clerk Maxwell, and others.

That Aether is gravitative has been suggested by Young, Grove, Faraday, and Lord Kelvin. Huyghens, Fresnel, and Young postulated different degrees of density for the Aether, while Stokes and McCullagh have affirmed and proved different degrees of elasticity of the medium.