Aether and Gravitation Part 1

Aether and Gravitation.

by William George Hooper.

INTRODUCTORY NOTES

The author in this work endeavours to solve the greatest scientific problem that has puzzled scientists for the past two hundred years. The question has arisen over and over again, since the discovery of universal gravitation by Sir Isaac Newton, as to what is the physical cause of the attraction of gravitation.

"Action at a distance" has long ceased to be recognized as a possible phenomenon, although up to the present, the medium and method of gravitational attraction have not yet been discovered.

It is, however, generally accepted by scientists, that the only possible medium which can give rise to the phenomena incidental to, and a.s.sociated with the Law of Gravitation, must be the universal aether, which forms the common medium of all phenomena a.s.sociated with light, heat, electricity and magnetism.

It is impossible, however, to reconcile gravitational phenomena with the present conception of the universal aether medium, and a new theory is therefore demanded, before the long-sought-for explanation will be forthcoming.

Professor Glazebrook definitely states the necessity for a new theory in his work on J. C. Maxwell, page 221, where he writes: "We are waiting for some one to give us a theory of the aether, which shall include the facts of electricity and magnetism, luminous radiation, and it may be gravitation."

A new theory of the aether is also demanded in view of the recent experimental results of Professor Lebedew, and Nichols and Hull of America. It is logically impossible to reconcile a frictionless aether, with their results relative to the pressure of light waves.

In the following pages of this work the author has endeavoured to perfect a theory, which will bring aetherial physics more into harmony with modern observation and experiments; and by so doing, believes that he has found the key that will unlock the problem not only of the cause of universal gravitation, but also other problems of physical science.

The author has taken Newton's Rules of Philosophy as his guide in the making of the new theory, as he believes that if any man knew anything of the rules of Philosophy, that man was Sir Isaac Newton. The first chapter therefore deals with the generally recognized rules which govern philosophical reasoning, the same being three in number; the fundamental rule being, that in making any hypothesis, the results of experience as obtained by observation and experiments must not be violated.

In applying the rules to the present theory of the aether, he found that the theory as at present recognized violated two of the most important rules of Philosophy, because, while aether is supposed to be matter, yet it failed to fulfil the primary property of all matter, that is, it is not subject to the Law of Gravitation. If aether is matter, then, to be strictly logical and philosophical, it must possess the properties of matter as revealed by observation and experiment.

Those properties are given in Chapter III., where it is shown that they are atomicity, heaviness or weight, elasticity, density, inertia, and compressibility. To be strictly logical and philosophical, the author was compelled to postulate similar properties for the aether, or else his hypotheses would contravert the results of all experience.

The application of these properties to the aether will be found in Chapter IV., where the author has postulated atomicity, heaviness or weight, density, elasticity, inertia, and compressibility for the aether, and so brought the theory of the aether into perfect harmony with all observation and experiments relative to ordinary matter. It will be shown that Clerk Maxwell also definitely affirms the atomicity of the aether, while Tyndall and Huyghens also use the term "_particles of aether_" over and over again.

Moreover, in view of the most recent researches in electricity made by Sir William Crookes and Professor J. J. Thomson, we are compelled to accept an atomic basis for electricity, and as Dr. Lodge, in his _Modern Views of Electricity_, states that "Aether is made up of positive and negative electricity," then, unless we postulate atomicity for the aether, we have to suppose that it is possible for a non-atomic body (aether) to be made up of atoms or corpuscles, which conclusion is absurd, and therefore must be rejected as illogical and unphilosophical.

After postulating atomicity for the aether, we are then able to apply the Newtonian Law of Gravitation to it, which distinctly affirms that "every particle of matter attracts every other particle," and so we arrive at Thomas Young's fourth hypothesis given in the Philosophical Transactions of 1802, where he a.s.serts that "All material bodies have an attraction for the aetherial medium, by means of which it is acc.u.mulated within their substance, and for a small distance around them in a state of greater density." He adds the significant remark that this hypothesis is opposed to that of Newton's. With an atomic and gravitative aether it is shown in Chapter IV. how the elasticity, density, and inertia of the medium are brought into harmony with all observation and experiments.

In the succeeding chapters the new theory is applied to the phenomena of heat, light, electricity, and magnetism, and the principles enunciated therein are then applied to solar and stellar phenomena.

One of the greatest stumbling-blocks to the discovery of the physical cause of gravitation, apart from the unphilosophical theory of the aether medium, lies in the fact that apparently the Law of Gravitation only recognizes a force of one kind. Dr. Lodge refers to this phase of the subject on page 39 of his _Modern Views of Matter_ just published.

It is here where scientists have failed to solve the problem of universal gravitation, as there are _two_ forces at work in the solar system and not one; that is, if we are to accept the results of up-to-date experiments in relation to radiant light and heat as performed by Professor Lebedew, and Nichols and Hull of America. Their experiments conclusively prove that light waves exert a pressure upon all bodies on which they fall, and by no reasoning can this pressure be resolved into an attractive force.

Herschel in his _Lectures on Scientific Subjects_ definitely refers to the existence of a repulsive force in the solar system, and a.s.serts that it offers the most interesting prospect of any future discovery.

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 a.s.sisted 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 const.i.tution 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.

AETHER AND GRAVITATION

CHAPTER I

PHILOSOPHY OF GRAVITATION

ART. 1. _Gravitation._--In the realm of Science, there exists a Force or Law that pervades and influences all Nature, and from the power of which, nothing, not even an atom, is free.

It holds together the component parts of each and every individual world, and in the world's revolving prevents both its inhabitants and its vegetation from being whirled off its surface into s.p.a.ce. It exists in each and every central sun, and circles round each sun its a.s.sociated system of planets. It rolls each satellite around its primary planet, and regulates the comet's mysterious flight into the depths of s.p.a.ce, while the pendulation of even the remotest star is accomplished by this same force. Our own rocking world obeys the same mysterious power, that seems to grasp the entire material creation as with the grasp of the Infinite.

It exists in, and influences every atom, whose combinations compose and const.i.tute the entire material creation, or each and every orb that bespangle the blue infinity.

As is readily seen, it weaves as it were around each and all, a mysterious network or chain, that binds star to star, and world to world, blending all into one entire, vast and complete unity. It decides all their orbits and distances, regulates and controls all their motions, from the most simple even to the more complex and intricate, ultimately producing that wondrous and beauteous order, unity and harmony that everywhere pervade and blend all the universe into one grand and harmonious whole.

That Law I need hardly say is the Law of Gravitation.

ART. 2. _Cause of Gravitation._--Now the question arises, and indeed has arisen a thousand times since the discovery of this law by Sir Isaac Newton over two hundred years ago, as to what is the physical cause, the true explanation of this universal attraction.

MacLaurin in his work on the philosophical discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton says: "In all cases when bodies seem to act upon each other at a distance, and tend towards one another without any apparent cause impelling them, this force has been commonly called Attraction, and this term is frequently used by Sir Isaac Newton. But he gives repeated caution that he pretends not by the use of this term to define the nature of the power, or the manner in which it acts. Nor does he ever affirm or insinuate that a body can act upon another body at a distance, but by the intervention of other bodies."

The results of modern discovery show that action at a distance, without the intervention of any medium, as for example the sun attracting the earth, is not the universal condition which governs all so-called forces.

It is now recognized that light and heat are both forms of energy, and therefore forces, using the term in the same sense that it is applied to Gravitation.

Both light and heat are transmitted through s.p.a.ce with finite velocity through the intervention of a medium, the universal Aether. It is therefore only reasonable to suppose, that if one or more particular kinds of energy, or forces, require a medium for their transmission, why not another force, as for example Gravitation?

Gravitation is an universal force which operates throughout the length and breadth of the entire universe, and if there be a medium which is to Gravitation, what the Aether is to light and heat, the question at once confronts us, as to what are the characteristics, properties, and qualities of that universal medium, which is to form the physical basis of this universal attraction?

Newton himself suggested that Gravitation was due to an aetherial subtle medium, which filled all s.p.a.ce.

In his well-known letter to Bentley, Newton writes as follows: "That Gravity should be innate, inherent, and essential to matter, so that one body can act upon another body at a distance through a vacuum, without the mediation of anything else, by and through which their action and force may be conveyed from one to another, is to me so great an absurdity, that I believe no man who has any philosophical nature or competent faculty of thinking can ever fall into it."

We also know from his Queries in his book on _Optics_, that he sought for the explanation of Gravitation in the properties of a subtle, aetherial medium diffused over the universe.

MacLaurin on this point says: "It appears from his letters to Boyle, that this was his opinion early, and if he did not publish his opinion sooner, it proceeded from hence only, that he found he was not able from experiment and observation to give a satisfactory account of this medium, and the manner of its operations in producing the chief phenomena of Nature."

Therefore, if we accept Newton's suggestion, and endeavour to trace the physical cause of Gravitation in the qualities, properties, and motions of this subtle aetherial medium to which he refers, we shall be simply working on the lines laid down by Sir Isaac Newton himself.

I wish therefore to premise, that the future pages of this work will deal with the hypothesis of this aetherial medium, by which will be accounted for, and that on a satisfactory and physical basis, the universal Law of Gravitation.