The author has therefore attacked the problem of the cause of gravitation, by trying to solve the problem of the cause of the repulsive force which has been experimentally demonstrated to exist by Professor Lebedew and others.
In his efforts to ascertain the physical cause of the Centrifugal Force, he has been assisted by an unknown and original essay written by an unknown writer over twenty years ago. That unknown writer was the author's father, who wrote an essay on the Complementary Law of Gravitation, and if it had not been for that essay, the present work would never have been attempted.
The main object of the author in Chapters [VI]., [VII]., and [VIII]., is to prove beyond the possibility of contradiction, from the phenomena of heat, light, and electricity, the existence of two forces in the solar system; and by so doing, to bring our philosophy of the aether medium, and all gravitational phenomena, into harmony with all observation and experiments, which at present is not the case. In seeking to do this he found that the new theory of the aether harmonized with views given, by Faraday and Clerk Maxwell in relation to electric and magnetic phenomena, and by the new theory Maxwell's hypothesis of “Physical Lines of Force” receives a definite and physical basis. In Chapter [X]. the author endeavours to show what the Electro-Kinetic energy is, which term is used by Clerk Maxwell, the term being brought for the first time into harmony with our experience. The Electro-Magnetic Theory of Light also receives fresh light from the new theory of an atomic and gravitating aether.
In the succeeding chapters the theory is applied to Newton's Laws of Motion and Kepler's Laws, and is found to harmonize with all the results given by these laws. Such a result is a distinct advance on the application of a frictionless aether to solar and stellar phenomena, as it is impossible for Kepler's Laws to be reconciled in any way with our present theory of the aether.
In the concluding chapter on the unity of the universe, certain views are suggested as to the ultimate constitution of all matter, upon an aetherial basis, which hypothesis practically resolves itself into an electric basis for all matter. It is suggested that aether and electricity are one and the same medium, both being a form of matter, and both possessing exactly the same properties, viz. atomicity, weight, density, elasticity, inertia, and compressibility. This view of matter harmonizes with the most “Modern Views of Matter” as suggested by Sir Oliver Lodge in his Romanes Lecture 1903.
The author has accepted Newton's way of spelling “aether” as given in his work on Optics, and has given “aetherial” the same suffix as “material,” in order to differentiate the word from “ethereal,” which is too metaphysical a term for a material medium.
Nottingham,
Sept. 1903.