Aether and Gravitation

by William George Hooper

The reply is, by means of the particles, or atoms of air that exist between the two surfaces of the balloons, and that transmission would take the form of a wave propagated from particle to particle, so that we might put dots on the right side of A to represent the atoms of air which transmit the wave from A to B.

But the vibration which takes place in the surface of the envelope of the outer balloon is across this line of propagation, because as the wave proceeds from A to B, the elastic envelope expands and stretches always across the line of propagation--that is, it stretches up and down, left and right, as it is expanded outwards, so that the vibration or oscillation of the particles always takes place in the surface of the elastic envelope across the line of propagation. Let us therefore apply the result of this simple experiment to our solar system and the Aether, and see if it can be made to explain the transverse vibration of light. Let A represent the sun (Fig. 7) and B an aetherial elastic envelope surrounding the sun. In this case we dispense with the bulb C, as the sun possesses within itself the power to generate heat, and so to produce the required expansion of the elastic aetherial envelopes B, G, H, etc.

Instead, however, of having air particles between A and B, we will put in their place our aetherial atoms which we have conceived according to [Art. 44]. These surround the sun, represented by A, forming elastic spherical shells or envelopes. As the sun radiates its heat into space, it urges the aetherial atoms against each other, with the result that they transmit the energy from atom to atom, or particle to particle, till they come to the elastic aetherial envelopes of H, G, B.

The effect on B, or on any other aetherial envelope, is to expand it outwardly, and thus set the atoms of which it is composed into vibration. The wave, which is now an aetherial wave travelling with a velocity of 186,000 miles per second, may be represented by the line D E. But while it is travelling from D to E the same energy is being radiated out in all directions, so that a wave reaches the whole surface of the elastic envelope B at the same time, with the result that the whole of the shell or envelope is set in vibration as it expands outwardly.

Thus the vibration is always in the wave front, and the wave front is always coincident with the surface of one of these envelopes, and as these aetherial envelopes are themselves formed by aetherial atoms, the wave is spread outwardly from any central point in a spherical form as proved by experiment. Not only, therefore, is the vibration in the wave front, but it is always transverse to the line of propagation, for the simple reason that the surface of the spherical shell or envelope is always at right angles to the radius vector or straight line which joins any centre to the surface of a spherical envelope.

As soon as the aetherial atom which forms the spherical aetherial envelope has reached the limit of its expansion, it seeks to recover its former position because of its elasticity, with the result that the whole envelope contracts again, and arrives at its original position in space ready to accept motion again and transmit it onwards in the same manner as before.

Thus, by the acceptance of an atomic and gravitating Aether, we may form a physical conception of one of the greatest problems in optical phenomena, viz. the transverse vibration of light which always takes place in the wave front, and across the line of propagation. Whether this explanation is exactly correct in detail, or not, I am convinced that the true physical explanation of the problem is to be found in an atomic and gravitating Aether, as hitherto a frictionless Aether has failed even to suggest to any scientist how such a transverse vibration can take place.

Art. 72. Reflection and Refraction.--A ray or wave of light is said to be reflected when it meets with an obstacle which opposes its free passage and turns it back. We have illustrations of this law of reflection in the case of water waves striking against a breakwater, or a sound wave striking against the wall of a room. In either case the wave is turned back, and reflection is the result. A ray or a wave of light is said to be refracted when, in passing from one medium into another, it is turned from the straight path in which it was going before it entered the refracting medium. An illustration of the refraction of light is to be found in the case of the glass lens, so often used to converge the light waves into one focus. We have up to the present dealt with only two theories of light, the Corpuscular theory and the Undulatory or Wave theory. We have seen how both harmonize with Huyghens' principle, and the question arises as to whether both can be made to harmonize with the phenomena of reflection and refraction.

In the Corpuscular theory we have luminous particles emitted by luminous bodies. These particles we have learned are practically synonymous with our aetherial atoms.