Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-10-08
EtheriOn.
cleveland Plain Dealer)

About six weeks ago, in calling atten-
ton TO the prominent part the scientists
Of Cleveland were taking In the proceed-
ings at the Boston meeting OF the Amerl-
can Association for the Advancement OF
Science, mention was editorially mace OF
an important paper by Mr.. Charles +:
Brush, in which he gave description OF
a new constituent of the atmosphere to
which he gave the name 'etherlon'
meaning high in the heavens
In that editorial Mr.. Brush was repre-
scented as holding that gas having az
tributes anything like those he found his
new discovery to possess couiq NOT pos
phere and hence the new gas, being
found here, probably extends indefinitely
into space and constitutes an lnter-stellar
Brush cited evidence tending TO show
that etherion is a mixture OF at least two
different gases and that he haZarded
the conjecture that on further invesuga-
ton three or more gases Will be FOUND,
forming one or more periodic groups Oh
new elements, all very much lighter than
hydrogen.
Mr.. Brushs paper attracted much at
tention at the meeting OF the American
association, and the local interest occa-
stoned by the statement of his theory
led to requests that he read the paper
to q home audience. The request was
complied with by its presentation on Mon
day evening before the Cleveland Chemi-
cal Society, at the laboratory Of the case
School of Applied Science. While the
detailed statement of the experiments
which led to his discovery were OF eSpe-
cial interest TO chemists and physicists,
the whole paper was In such clear ana
comprehensive language that the reader
of average intelligence, although not a
physicist, can understand its descriptions
and grasp the importance OF the dis
covery if further tests should completely
confirm 1t.
Those who are familiar with the scien-
tihc work of Mr.. Brush know that he Is
a persistent investigator of the mysteri-
Gus forces of nature, and that, having
obtained q clew in any direction, he fol-
lows il up with unfiagging energy. The
transmission of radiant energy through
space has, he says, always been 10 him
a fascinating phenomenon, and the theory
of ether as the medium of transmission
was not quite satisfactory TO his mind.
1t is to him less strain or the magma =
ton to assume, instead OF continuous
medium, the existence OF gaseous mole
cules of some kind, endowed perhaps with
a mode or modes Of motion at present
unknown to US, which are the agent OF
transmission; gas so subtle ana exist
ing everywhere in such small quantity
that IL has hitherto escaped detection.
This. he is inclined to think. he has dis
covered in his new gas, etherion.
IL the molecular hypothesis Of the ether
should be substantiated, Mr.. Brush thinks
IL will tend TO support the nope tndt we
may at some time compass the perfect
vacuum-a portion of space devoid Of
everything. Such a vacuum would be
OPAQUE to light, and he believes that
gravitation could not act through it. This
might afford a new point Of view, an
outside point, from which 10 study the
profound mystery of gravitation. Mr..
Brush suggests the possibility that ethe-
rion, being present 10 some extent in all
vacuum tubes, as at present made, may
be the medium of propagation Of the
Roentgen rays In the vacuum tubes and
in the air.
The speculations OF Mr.. Brush, based
on his discovery OF the new constituent
OF the atmosphere, while exciting deep in
terest on the part of physicists are nat
uraly received with reserve. His expla-
nation Of the processes by which he
reached the discovery Of the new gas
will enable others TO investigate along
the same lines, and If independent inves-
tigators arrive at the same results there
will be a new starting point for hypothe-
ses explanatory OF natural phenomena
that are now inexplicable. In the mean
time the attitude OF the scientific world
is that of suspended judgment"