The Ether of Space

L NECESSITY F

FILLI

impossible; in other words, that matter cannot act where it is not, but only where it is. The question "Where is it?" is a further question that may demand attention and require more than a superficial answer. For it can be argued on the hydrodynamic or vortex theory of matter, as well as on the electrical theory, that every atom of matter has a universal though nearly infinitesimal prevalence, and exten

reach, such nuclei clearly exert no "act

e region of psychology. The links between mind and mind may be something quite other than physical proximity; and in denying action at a distance across empty space I am not denying telepathy or other activities of a non-physical kind. For although brain disturbance is certainly physical, and is an essential concomitant of ment

ous, the explanation is not complete; for when the mechanism of attraction is understood, it will be found that a body really only moves because it is pushed by something from behind. The essential force in nature is the vis a tergo. So when we have found the "traces," or discovered the connecting thread, we still run up against the word

e know them; it is doubtful if a piece of matter ever touches another piece, any more than a comet touches the sun when it appears to rebound from it; but the atoms are connected, as the comet and the sun are connected, by a continuous plenum without break or discontinuity of any kind. Matter acts on matter only through the ether. But whether matter is a thing utterly

universal and possibly infinite uniform omni

ion of the truth. I might even urge that it has been largely constructed in the Royal Institution; for, I will s

medium is less in the neighbourhood of dense bodies than at great distances from them, dense bodies will be driven towards each other; and tha

hether it be a strain centre, or what kind of singularity in the ether it may be-there is no difficulty in supposing that a slight, almost infinitesimal, strain or attempted rarefaction should be produced in the ether whenever an electron comes

t ludicrously small, and yet in the aggregate, n

nstead of by gravity, a forest of pillars would be necessary to whirl the system once a month round their common centre of gravity. Such a force necessarily implies enormous tension or pressure in the medium. Maxwell calculate

e a tendency towards etherial disruption; which would result in a disintegrating explosion, and a scattering of the particles once more as an enormous nebula and other fragments into the depths of space. For the tension would be a maximum in the interior

e existence of an ether. The oldest valid and conclusive requisition of an ethereous medium depends on the wave theory of light, one

ors that we call light. The speed at which they go, the kind of undul

address to the British Association at Oxford, criticised the ether as little more than a nominative case to the verb to undulate. It is truly that, though it is also

of this wonderful medium; so full, that no human power can remove it from the smallest portion of space, or produce the slightest flaw in its infinite continuity. It extends unbroken from star to star; and when a molecule of hydrogen vibrates i

y which the ether is enabled to appeal to us; and that the detection of tremors in this medium-the perception of the direction in wh

writings of Faraday, whose whole life may be said to have been directed towards a better understanding of these ethereous phenomena. Indeed the statue in the entra

c force, and the general character of magnetic phenomena external to the magnet, I am much more inclined to the notion that in the transmission of the force there is such an action, external to the magnet, than that the ef

amply strengthened by s

are many active workers at the present time. I will make a brief quotation from Professor Sir J.J. Thomson, where he summarises the conc

he atoms of the body. In fact, all mass is mass of the ether; all momentum, momentum of the ether; and all kinetic energy, kinetic energ

creatures is it unimportant, but it cannot be said to be massive or dense; and matter, even platinum, is not dense when compared with the ether. Not till last year, however, did I re

sibility for future discovery? I believe there is, but it is too speculative to refer to, beyond saying that it has be

to fulfil other physical functions of which, perhaps, we have as yet no conception, but also ... to constitute the material organism of beings ex

esent I leave that a

and

llustrate some relations

ll. It may be the substance or substratum or material of which matter is composed, but it would be confusing and inconvenient not to be able to discriminate between matter on the one hand, and ether on the other. If you tie a knot on a bit of stri

bombardment; while ether is strained, and has the property of exerting stress and recoil. All potential energy exists in the ether. It may vibrate, a

e motion and configuration of masses of matter; we can move matter, by our

e for a solid to be made out of fluid? A solid possesses the properties of rigidity, impenetrability

motion; a statement which we make with confidence

strated by a f

revolving, so that a ball thrown against it does not go through, but rebounds. Th

l to its own velocity, whatever that velocity may be, so that they appear to stand still. This is a genuine case of kinetic rigidity; and the fact that the wave-transmission ve

ning, can stand up on end

d can be struck with a hammer, an

act like a circular saw. Sir William White tells me that in naval cons

form, as an india-rubber ring would do; thus furnishing a beautiful example of kinetic

ning motion.[9] This arrangement utilises the processional movement of balanced gyrostats-concealed in a cas

e we to spin the ether? Matter alone seems to have no grip of it. As already described, I have spun steel disks, a yard in diameter, 4000 times a minute, have sent lig

only source of ether-waves that we know; and if an electric charge is suddenly stopped, it generates the pulses known as X-rays, as the r

charge into the neighbourhood of a magnetic pole. Round the line joining the two, the ether is spinning like a top. I do not say it is spinning fast: that is a question of its density; it is in fact spinning with excessive slowness

ill respond by moving perpendicularly to a deflecting force. So it is with the charge and the magnetic pole. Try to move the charge suddenly, and it immediately sets off at right angles. A moving charge is a current, and the pole

a current as a stream of projected charges; and no one way of regarding such a matter is likely to exhaust the truth, or to excl

tute the link between Electricity, Magnetism, and Mechanics. Where any two of these are present, the third is a necessary consequence. This principle is the basis of all dynamos, of electric motors, of light, of telegraphy,

lence, the speed of the whirling or rotational elasticity must be of the same order as the velocity of light. This follows hydrodynamically; in the same sort of way as the speed at which a pulse travels on a flexible running endless cord, whose tension is entirely due to the centrifugal force of the motion, is precisely equal to the velo

sychical significance, since it can constitute brain, which links together the physical and the psychical worlds. If any one thinks