The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-12-20

Without expressing any opinion on
the extent TO which this imagined
phenomenon appeals to mars inn
perfect instinct or reason one may
say that for the last thirty wears every
attempt, beginning with tho classi4
ipvcstira tons of Professors Nicholson
and Morley. to demonstrate the com
crete evidence of the other has failed.
The German mathematical physi-
cist, Einstein, therefore set himself
so construct o model Of the universe
In which its many unexplained phe
nomero could be reconciled and &C.
counted for without demanding the
evidence Of an ether Mt all.
At the same time another physicist,
Plauck. described new idea of the
emission of light, whieh. roughly. is
that light Is made NJ Of pulsaticns of
energy or Tight ouanta."
UNNECESSARILY SMALL.
These parcels OF energy. expelled
IN the rotation dr the electrical e'e-
ments of the atom, are exceedingly
small. They range from three-hit-
li0Uths of an erc of energy. and 800
# them must enter the eye every sec
ord ~ produce the sensation OF light
More than million of them are con-
tanned IN every centfmetre OF "a ray of
Neht
II viii ha observed that Pianck's
estimates are sufficiently exact, but
The main thing about his idea IS that
these particles Of light energy are ma
teriai things. not mere pulsa tons IN
4 supposed ether.
Tho consequence Of accepting this
idea would be that these material
particles would he subjected Ia the
observed laws OF gravity Consa-
MA.
t7ssad By the sun. or any other at
Inactive body. ;he sun would pull
lhom put Of thotr path.
Eut r1w arises "a point very much
moro obscure from q laynnn's point
~ View. sir Oliver Lodge. who ia
tn" chief English exponent Of the con-
coption Of tl1e luminifertus ether, has
rnther reluctantly admitted mat a do
Election MIGHT take place, though he
did not think il would but that If II
were perceived it would not amount
10 more than n certain DETECTION
(thrcc quarters OF second OF an as-
Economical arc) and would only prove
that light has weight without impair
Ing the idea OF its passage through
m ether. -...
n his words II won'd mean that
the We front Of ray of light "stim.
uiated '"e properties of matter hy
HerrTIni 'nentun. and was even
subject t. ~~e ~ rvr.av,.v
FINsTYI ~ ASSERTION.
But this is NO N for Einstein
and his school Th ~rt that iicht
not only stimulated T. critics of
matter, but is matter eurther
say thHt there IN no sllciI the
ether. and that Il is irnpos. Il
10 fix a STATIONARY line or Il
sDac@; in fact. that motion of MA
through the ether is n phrase witl,.
ONT meaning. and that ,mathcraatic-
ally. space il limited but IN not A
hved, unaiterable thing but In itself
altered in character bv matter mass
ine through II.
Further In explanation Of n purely
theory II Is I'm possible
10 go in any reasonable amount Of
STARE II remains 70 add merely that
on this mathematical theory the da
fe"uon OF The lirht fror, stars whose
rays GRACE the sun should amount not
n three-auarfers OF n second, bu, to
nne and threc-quarters of a second of
That result has been shown 70 he
correct from the rerent observations,
and thus far Firrtcin's theory of reIa-
ovity has stood the supreme test.
There may he room for compro-
mise. hut an far scientists now say he
II justified in sayine that there IL no
ether no absolute dimension ~ space.
whS 20 FysoiutG dfnenaiou Of time
@iaes ana Time nfe i lattse terms, and
are bound nd with Aps &tlOther,