The daily Alaskan., 1917-01-11
A NATURAL PUZZLE.
One of the Great Mysteries That
 Confound Science.
THE FORGE OF GRAWITATION.

This Wonderful Power That KeepS | suns and PTaGsts In Then couroeG l May Be Waves In the Ether That
 Push All Bodies Toward Eaoh Other.
 The mystery of mysteries in science Is the attraction of grayitation-that very force of nature that is the most familiar to us all. It seems strange that the most familiar thing in the world should be at the same time the most inexplicable, but so 1t Is. ..-
 In order to see clearly wherein the mystery consists let us first consider what grayitation appears to be. It Is gravitation that gives the property of weight to all bodies. If there were no gravitatlon we could float in the air. It Is gravitation that brings cannon ball eventually to the earth, no matter how swiftly 1t may be projected. The faster 1t starts the farther 1t will go, but during every second of its flight 1t drops the same distance vertically toward the earth, whether the speed imparted to 1t by the powder is 500 or 5000 feet per second. Gra7itaton acts on a moving body exactly as well as on one at rest.
 It Is gravitation that curbs the mo ton of the moon and keeps 1t in an orbit of which the earth Is the active focus.
 So, too, 1t is gravitation that gov erns the earth in Its motion around the sun, preventing 1t from flying away into boundleSs space. Astronomy shows that graTitation acts between all the planets and all the stars and controls their motions with respect to one an- other. .... ." Now, this mysterious force appears to be an attraction as If there were elastic cords connecting all the bodies in space and tending to draw them to- gether. But space, as far as our senses can detect, is empty. How, then, can there be an attractonI In order that body may be attracted or drawn there must be something to draw It. Gravitation does the trick, but com pletely hides from us the mechanism through which 1t acts We can dis cover no mechanism at all
 When an unfortunate aeroplanist drops from his machine he begins at once to fall toward the earth as if 1t were pulling him. But how can 1t pull if 1t has nothing to pull w!thH You may think at first sight that 1t is the air which acts as an Intermediary, but that is not so, because the earth and the moon pull" upon one another with a force equal to the strength of steel cable 50O miles in diameter, but there Is no air and no other tangible thing in the open space, 240,000 miles across, | that gaps between the moon and the | earth.
 Then gravitation exerts the same force at every instant. No matter how fast the falling aeronaut may be descending at any moment, gravitadon will keep on adding speed as If he had just started. Disregarding the slight retardation produced by the re- sistance of the air, he will fall six teen feet In the first second, forty eight feet in the second second, eighty feet in the third second, gaining thlr- ty.two feet In bis velocity during ev- cry second after the first. From a height of 10000 feet he would fall in about twenty-five seconds and would strike with a velocity of 400 feet per second.
 The same kind of calculation can be applied to the gravitation between the earth and the moon. If the moon were not in motion across the direction of the earth's pun it would fall to the earth In about 116 hours.
 Now, to return to the mystery, how is this force exerted? Is It really a pull, as 1t seems to be7 The answer to which science Is tending Is that, in- stead of being pull, graVitation Is 8 push-in other words, that the falling aeronaut is pushed toward the ground and the moon Is pushed toward the  earth.
 On the face of 1t one might think that nothing was gained by this the ory, because 1t seems as impossible that a push should be exerted with out a tangible connection as a pull. But the clew Is found in the supposed properties of that invisible, intangible, | all peryading medium called the ether.
 This, to be sure, Is explaining one mystery by another, for we know noth- ing about the ether except that 1t con veys the waves of light and electric ity; but, at any rate, It affords a con- ceivable explanation of graYitation.- Garrett P. Serviss in New York Jour nal .-... --.-...-..
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