Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1897-09-24
TANGIBLE ETHER.
SOME SURPRISES IN SCIENTIFIC
DISCOVERY.
Prof. Nicholson aud 3Iann Have
Proven by Experiments That
Ether manffests a NIeasureablc
Remittance as One of Its Charnc.
National Recorder.

The discovery of argon, Il third ele-
ment in the composition of the earth's
atmosphere, was no greater surprise to
the scientific world than the alleged
discovery, recently announced, that
the element known as ether, occupy
ing the broad expanse of space in the
universe, is matter-that is, tangible
substance. This is the deduction
made by Prof. Nicholson, who is at
the head of the Ryerson Physical
Laboratory of the University of Chi
cago, and of Prof. Mann, his chief as
sistant, as the result of series of deli
cate mechanical experiments and
calculations which they have been
making. The presumption that space
is occupied by some element is based
on the law of nature which abhors a
vacuum, for if it were not so occupied
matter would have no cohesive power
and the innumerable worlds sailing
through it would be disrupted into
infinitesimal atoms in the effort of ma
ture to abolish the vacuum.
The previously accepted theory re-
garding ether was that of intangibility
an element offering no resistance to
the movements of the celestial bodies
of the universe while traversing their
respective orbits. This theory has
been based, in large degree, on the
fact that it offers no perceptible resist
ence to the rays of light. If it were
matter-that is, the tangible sub
stance which matter has been so far
regarded to be, it would obstruct the
solar rays, and the whole expanse of
the heavens would, in consequence, be
filled with reflected light. AS a mat
ter of fact, we have no visual mani
festation of the presence of the solar
rays in.space except such as is made
known to us through the resistance Of
fered to them by matter. The phe-
nomenon of day is merely the result
of the resistance offered to these rays
by the earth and its atmosphere. The
only evidence we have that the solar
rays penetrate space during the night
season is furnished us in the resist
ance offered to them by other celes-
tial bodies and manifested in their
reflected light. Thus, the moon, for
example, arrests and reflects such
rays of solar light as it encounters in
its passage through the heavens, but
when it is out of the field of vision dur.
ing the night space is in utter dark
ness save the reflected light given to
us by those planets that may be above
the horizon and the self-luminosity of
the so-called fixed stars. The theory
has, therefore, been hitherto that if
ether were a tangible substance it
would perform the same function in
its relations to solar light as the lunar
disk would do if it were stretched over
the entire expanse of the vault of
heaven. Then there would be no such
thing as night; we would be living in
a condition of eternal light.
1.-THE deduction of Professors Michel
son and Mann are correct, the COM
monty accepted notions regarding the
composition and character OF the ether
of space must be set aside, for their
experiments prove not only tangi-
bility to its substance, but an actual
measurable resistance as one of its
characteristics. The only point re-
manning to be determined is the de-
gree of this resistance as demonstrated
in its wave motion.
Scarcely less surprising, in scientific
sense, is the confirmation (Which comes
contemporaneously) of the theory ad-
vance in 1870 by Professor c. A. Young,
professor of astronomy in the
College of New Jersey, that the true
atmosphere of the sun is comparative
ly thin. Professor Young's theory was
based upon discoveries while making
original studies of the solar protuber-
onces corona with the spectroscope, and
and which earned for him the Jansen
gold medal of the French Academy
of Science. The phenomena which
Professor Young then observed in the
solar spectrum, and to which were
lgiven the distinctive name of the
reversing layer" in the solar en-
velope, have ever since been the sub
Iject of scientific controversy. No one
more strenuously opposed the view
adopted by Professor Young regarding
the depth of the solar atmosphere
than Professor Lockyer of the British
Astronomical Society. Lockyer was
at the head of the British astronomical
expedition which visited Nova Zembla
to observe the total solar eclipse of last
year, and it was about the only ex.
pedition fitted out by any country
that had the good luck of clear sky
during the passage of the moon over
the sun. One of the best results ol
that expedition is series of photo
graphic views of the eclipse, and 9
study of the plates thus obtained has