The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1914-05-28
DISCOVERY THAT GRAWTAT|ON IS
CAUSED BY ELECTRICITY, ANNOUNCED
Prof T. See Government Astronomer at Mare Island Upsets
Newions Law, He Claims and Shows Gravtaion Is Trans
mitted With the Velocity of Light 10000 Miles Per
Second-Has Worked on Problem for Thirty Years.

San Francisco-Prof. 7. J. ]. See'
government astronomer at Mare
island, announced his discovery that
gravitation is caused by electricity
He has upset Newton's law, he said'
and shows that gravitation Is trans
mitted with the velocity of light, 1866
600 miles per second.
For 80 years Professor See mas
worked on the problems of light ana
gravitation. Able, impartial and ex-
perienced men of science, he said, as
sure him that the way is now opened
for more important developments imam
any which have occurred in the phys
ical sciences for two centuries. Ii ne
lives the work will occupy his atten-
ton for at least ten years to come.
So epoch-making does he consider
his discoveries that he sent long cable
grams on the subject to Lord Raleigh,
head of the Royal society of London,
on April and April IA. He also tele-
graphed his discoveries to the navy
department in Washington for trans
mission to President Wilson.
The discoveries are made public
coincident with the discussion of the
nature of gravitation before the Ameri-
can Philosophical society at the an
nual general meeting in Philadelphia.
The law of universal gravitation was
established by Sir Isaac Newton in
1886, and has been the basis of our
knowledge of the heavenly motions for
over two centuries. Newton himself
repeatedly declared during his life
time that while he had formulated the
law of attraction and explained its ap-
plication to the stn and planets, the
earth and the moon, he did not know
the cause of gravitation. Hitherto l
have not been able to discover the
cause of gravitation from phenomena,
and frame no hypothesis" said New
ton; and he added, ''but for us it is
enough that gravitati6n does really
exist, and acts according to the laws
we have explained, and abundantly
serves to account for the motions of
the heavenly bodies and of our sea-"
Professor Sees announcement is
that Newton's law of attraction is not
strictly correct, except for bodies re-
volving in circular orbits, and thus
experiencing no relative change of dis
lance; but that the true law of nature
is what is known as Weber's electro
dynamic law, which will apply to
bodies revolving in orbits of any shape.
Gravitation comes to the earth from
the sun in about eight minutes.
Hitherto astronomers have not un-
derstood the nature of gravitation and
nothing has been known about its We
locity of propagation. Laplace tried
to investigate the velocity of trans
mission over century ago, and
reached the conclusion that velocity
was at least fifty million times greater
than that of light. On account of the
high authority Of Laplace in as
tronomy, it was long time before
anyone attempted to further investi-
gate the nature and velocity of gravi-
tation. But for some years it has
been known that method of calculation
employed by Laplace was faulty; and
a good many would have believed the
velocity of gravitation similar to that
of light, if they could have discov-
cred any mechanical basis for such a
theory.
Recently Professor See was able to
show that all electric currents carry
solid matter with the electricity; in
fact electricity cannot be separated
from matter. and an electric current
as it runs along a wire curls around
it in corkscrew fashion, and in this
helical motion throws off At every step
millions of particles of solid matter
moving with the velocity of light.
These solid particles are charged with
electricity, and go right through the