The Ether of Space

th any approach to accuracy the actual density or massiveness of the ether of spac

ks,-among others in my book on Electrons, and likewise at the end of the new edition of Modern Views of Electricity, also in my Romanes Lecture, published by the Clarendon Press in 1903. Put briefly, the assumption is that matter is composed, in some way or other, of electrons; which again must be considered to be essentially peculiarities, or singularities, or definite structures, in the ether itself. Indeed, a con

Its linear dimension, let us say its diameter, is comparable to the one-hundred-thousandth part of what i

s all dependent on what is contained within its periphery. But that last assumption is one that quite definitely cannot be

say that although the estimates may be made in various ways, differing entirely from each other, yet the resulting differences are only slight; the calculated densities come out all of the same

icity, Chapter I. And, indeed, the fundamental medium filling all space, if there be such, must, in my judgment, be ultimately incompre

e portion otherwise differentiated. It might, for instance, be something analogous to a vortex ring, differentiated kinetically, i.e. by reason of its rotational motion, from the remainder of the ether; or it might be differentiated st

same density with the rest, and yet it is differentiated from the rest; and, in order to cease to be a knot, would have to be untied-a process which as yet we have not learned how to apply to an electro

ity of the tied-up or be-knotted or otherwise modified ether constituting an electron, are one and the same. Hence the argument

es great as compared with the spaces actually occupied by the nuclei which constitute it. Our conception of matter, if it is to be composed of electrons, is necessarily rather like the conception of a solar system, or rather of a milky way; where there a

show directly; and now on the small scale, among the atoms of matter, we find the conditions to be similar. Even what we call the densest materi

ate; just as we might estimate the group or average density of a cloud or mist. Reckoned per unit, a cloud has the density of water; reckoned per aggregate, it is an impalpable filmy structure

elvin argues that ultimately it must be really infinitesimal (Philosophical Magazine, Aug., 1901, and Jan., 1902), that is to say that the volume of space is infinitely greater than the total bulk of matter which it cont

ed as it is, would have an average density of 1·6 × 10?23 grammes per c.c. It is noteworthy how exceedingly small is this average or aggregate density of matter in the visible region of sp

aintain that the aggregate density of ordinary stuff, such as water or lead, is very small compared with the continuous medium in which they exist, and of which all particles are supposed to be really compo