Aether and Gravitation

by William George Hooper

For an outline and explanation of such experiments I must refer the reader to the Phil. Mag. of December 1887.

Now what is the result of these experiments?

I believe it is almost unanimously conceded by all scientists, that their experiments prove that the Aether is carried along by the earth. Let us carefully look at this conclusion and see what it implies in relation to the question at issue.

If the Aether is carried along by the earth, it necessarily follows that there is some governing law or principle which holds it to the earth, while the earth moves through space with its velocity of 68,000 miles per hour.

Now what is that governing principle or law, which is capable of holding such an aetherial atmosphere to its central body? If we wish to be strictly philosophical, it is necessary, according to our second Rule of Philosophy, that we should not go outside experience and the analogy of Nature.

Where is there a similar analogy in Nature to that of the Aether being carried along through space by the earth? I know of only one analogy which can be used, and that is the analogy of the atmosphere, which is also carried along by the earth through space, as it rushes on in its orbit round the sun.

That being so, the question arises, what principle or law holds the atmosphere to the earth? for, whatever be the law which governs the atmosphere, to be consistent with the second Rule of Philosophy, we must infer that the same law also holds the Aether in its place. There is only one answer to the latter question, and that is the Law of Gravitation. If it were not for that law, and the fact that the atmosphere is subject to that law, the atmosphere would simply be swept off from its central body, the earth, as the latter rushed through space with its comparatively enormous velocity.

The only legitimate and philosophical conclusion that we can arrive at, therefore, is that the Aether must be carried along with its central body, the earth, through being acted upon by the self-same Law of Gravitation, and for it to be so acted upon it must obviously be gravitative. It would be unphilosophical to suggest that it was held in its place by any other force, as that would be introducing a new force or law into Nature, contrary to our experience in relation to an exactly similar phenomenon of Nature.

We have therefore, it seems to me, direct proof by actual experiment that Young's fourth hypothesis was correct, and that not only in relation to the atomic world, but also in relation to the planetary world, and the stellar world, all bodies exert an attractive influence upon the surrounding Aether, by means of which the Aether is accumulated near the surfaces of all bodies in a state of greater density, and therefore of greater elasticity.

Let us apply this truth to the solar system, and see what we get. If it is true that the earth exerts an attractive influence upon the surrounding Aether by means of which it is held in its place relatively to the earth, then it is equally true that Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune also exert gravitating or attractive influences upon the surrounding Aether, in the same way that they do upon their own atmospheres. So that in their cases also, the surrounding Aether is carried along by them through space. Professor Stokes has suggested that this is so, in order to account for the aberration of light, as we shall see later on.