I want to know the answer to the following question:
Why were experiments done on luminiferous aether in the 19 Century?
All the background I'm provided with is that "In 1912, astronomer Henry Pickering commented: "While the interstellar absorbing medium may be simply the ether, [it] is characteristic of a gas, and free gaseous molecules are certainly there".". Is that enough to answer the question?
Answer: yes