Aether and Gravitation

by William George Hooper

We are, however, only dealing at this point with the electro-static energy in the electric field, as we shall deal with the electro-kinetic energy in the following chapter.

We have, therefore, to conceive of an electrified body generating electric or electro-magnetic waves, which speed away from the generating source on every side with the velocity of light. Now we have already seen that the aetherial waves which give rise to heat and light possess a repulsive power, that is, they exert a pressure on the body with which they come into contact.

If, therefore, in the electric field there is this energy manifested as proved by Maxwell, and that energy takes partly the form of a pressure as stated by Maxwell, then we have in the electro-static energy of the electric field, another indication of that centrifugal force for which we are looking, and whose existence was so satisfactorily demonstrated to Herschel by the phenomena of comets' tails.

That there is this pressure in an electric field was conclusively proved by Maxwell, and experimentally demonstrated by Professor Lebedew ([Art. 77]. Maxwell distinctly states on this point, “that the combined effect of the electro-static and electro-kinetic stresses is a pressure equal to 2 P. in the direction of the propagation of the waves,” that is, away from the electrified or charged body.

He continues: “Thus, if in strong sunlight the energy of light which falls on one square foot is 83.4 foot-pounds per second, the mean energy in one cubic foot of sunlight is about .0,000,000,882 of a foot-pound, and the mean pressure on a square foot is .0,000,000,882 of a pound weight. A flat body exposed to sunlight would experience this pressure on its illuminated side only, and would therefore be repelled from the side on which the light falls.”[30]

This pressure only gives the result due to the pressure of one cubic foot of sunlight. What must be the pressure, therefore, due to the whole of the sunlight received by the flat body from the sun? The total pressure, whatever it may be, would be equal to 2 P. according to Maxwell, and half of that is due to electricity, and half due to magnetism. Now such a result is entirely in harmony with the conception of the Aether as given in this work. For, if Aether possess an electric basis as suggested by Maxwell, and it is also gravitative as suggested in [Art. 45], then it must follow, as pointed out in a previous Art., that throughout the field there is a varying difference in the potential of the field; the potential being regulated by the electric density, that density being equivalent to the aetherial density. Further, as the elasticity of the medium which regulates the pressure is proportional to the density, so the pressure must decrease, as the elasticity decreases--that is, as the electric potential decreases, or the electric density is diminished. Therefore, if the sun be an electrified body, ever generating electro-magnetic waves which speed away from it on every side, then, whenever any of these waves come into contact with a planet or comet, that planet or comet would be repelled from the sun by the pressure of these electro-magnetic waves to which the sun gives rise in its electric or electro-magnetic field.

Thus we again come to the conclusion that the sun is not only the centre of a centripetal force due to Gravitation, and subject to certain laws, whose physical cause is unknown, but it is equally the centre and source of a centrifugal force, in that it is an electrified body, and gives rise to electric waves which produce a pressure on any body upon which they fall, in the sun's electric or aetherial field. It has only to be demonstrated, therefore, that this centrifugal force satisfactorily fulfils all the laws required as laid down in [Art. 24], that is, that its course is along the same path as the Centripetal Force of Gravitation, that it is subject to the same law of intensity, which is inversely as the square of the distance; and further (what is the most important at this stage), that the combined effect of the pressure of two bodies is equal to the product of their masses, then we shall have discovered that which we set out to discover, viz. a complementary force to the attractive force of Gravitation.

Unlike the centripetal force, however, the centrifugal force will be purely a physical one, due to a purely physical medium, the Aether, whose properties and motions can be accounted for on a physical, and not on a hypothetical basis.

Further, as the planets are also electrified bodies ([Art. 81]), they too will possess an electric field, and will generate electric waves, which will also exert a centrifugal force upon all bodies upon which the waves fall. So that, like the sun, the planets are not only the centre of a centripetal force, which ever acts towards their centre; but they are also the centre of a centrifugal force, due to the aetherial electric waves to which they give rise in the Aether.

The application of the same principle may be extended to every satellite that exists in the solar system, and indeed to every particle and atom of matter that exist throughout the universe, for wherever we find the Aether, there we find this centrifugal force, which is due to the electric aetherial waves generated by the atom or particle of matter, or by any combination of atoms, as a meteor, satellite, planet, sun or star.