Evening star., 1924-05-12
SAYS RADIO TRAVELS
! SLOWER THAN LIGHT
Capt. J. S. See, Astronomer at Mare
! Island Navy Yard, Reveals
Facts Discovered.
GLOBE RESISTANCE SHOWN
Wave Passes Through Solid Earth,
Expert Declares.
BY the Ass,ciated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
SAN FRANCISCO, Calf. May IL
The discovery that the radio wave
travels slower than light has been
announced by Capt. J. ]. See, profess
sor of mathematics in the United
States Navy, government astronomer
@znown authority on the theory of
ether.
According to Captain See, the radio
wave travels around the globe with
a velocity of 165, 900 miles second,
while light travels 1S6,00 miles a
second. Captain See considers that
MS discovery in the velocity of the
propagation of the radio wave about
-lhe earth may prove the most notable
step In the development of the wave
tneory since Roemer's original dis
covery of the velocity of light in 1915.
In an outline of his discovery,
capt See said since the wave is prop
asa1ed In the teher it is remarkable
tnat there should be the long recog-
nIzeo velocity for light in freen space,
ana a smaller velocity for the radio
wave as it bends around ,ne globe.
173,OOO Miles n Second.
In the year 1914 there was an of
ncial interchange of signals between
the naval observatory at Tr,,~.ng-
ton. and the aational ob.-r :ntory
at Paris. The mean veloc = of the
wireless wave was found to e about
1fS,ooO miles a second.
EARLY in March of the present year
d wireless signal was sent from the
Sending station near New York to
warnsaW' Poland and reflected back
double distance is $500 miles and the
speed of The transmission comes out
aoout $4,000 miles per second, or
ABOUT 10 per cent less than the veloc-
ity of light
The mean of the two inde pendent
oeterminations of the wireless wave
1s 10000 miles per second. or 2O.500
mnes per second less than the velocity
OF nsht. This is IL 7 er cent slower
Than light travels in. free spaces. So
great falling off in speed, in two
, Wen devised experiments, separated
IN time by ten years, could hardly
De the result of chance, and thus we
are. led to recognize the fact that
radio waves certainly travel over 10
Per cent slower than light in distances
such as those separating Europe from
America.
"AImost Infinitely Elastic,
What is the cause of this slower
velocity of the wireless wave? 1t is
OF aether is only one four-thousandth
part as large in diameter as the
hydrogen molecule. so that compared
to ordinary molecules of the size of
oranges the aetherons would be like
smoke from a cigar and moving with
velocity of 294, 600 miles per sec
ond. The wave travels through the
solid earth as well as through the
air and free space above the air, but
is much resisted in the solid globe
A G 1aS
more elastic than air in proportion
to its density-thus almost infinitely
elastic-the medium cannot suffer a
break in it's continuity, yet the
movement above the earth is held
back by the slower movement of the
wave in the earth. The resistance in
the globe thus acts as a drag on
the wave at its base, the result is
that the wave bends around the
earth.
This bending of the wave, front
in the aether, due to retardation at
the, base of it in the earth, is quite
water waves as they run ashore to
form breakers. The advance of the
water is resisted at the base, while
that of the crest is unimpeded; the
top of the wave thus gains upon the
base and it's form changes.
- Concert Heard Underground.
Recently a concert going on at
Chicago was distinctly heard near
Cleveland, Ohio. by observers at a
depth of over 500 feet in the solid
earth. In Idaho and Montana radio
waves have been received in mines
at the depth of about half mile.
This Is direct experimental proof
that the wave travels through the
solid globe itself. and, therefore.
must move more slowly in this dense
mass, the wave front thereby being
made to bend around the earth when
it advances to great distance, as from
New York to Warsaw
The view, now strikingly confirm
cd by observations of velocity in
wireless telephone, showing definite
~ that it penetrates deep into the
globe and thus retards the wave
front in the earth, with resulting
bending of the wave about the globe
gives a valid foundation for some of
the most striking phenomena in
physical science. The results are a
connection with the wave theory of
magnetism and the cause of uni
versal gravitation, because they bear
on the cause of the fluctuations of
the moons mean motion"