Evening star., 1928-11-03

observation, Lne celeDrated M1chelSon-
Morley experiment of 1887 again brings
the same challenging results.
This was announced yesterday after
noon before the American Optical So
ciety, meeting at the Bureau OF Stand
ards, by Prof Albert A. Nicholson of
the University of Chicago, whose orig
inal effort to determine ether drift be-
came one of the outstanding events in
the history of science.
Nevertheless. Prof Dayton G. Miller
of the Case School of Applied Science
at Cleveland, whose experiments show
an apparent discrepancy with the
Nicholson results told the society that
he was not satisfied that the end has
been reached and will continue his own
work
Physicists Honor Nicholson,
One of the great romances of mod
ern science reached its elimination in
the darkened lecture room of the Bu-
reau of Standards yesterday afternoon
where the Nations foremost physicists
gathered to do honor to the man whose
name had been by-word to many of
them as college boys. The room was
jammed to the doors with persons from
all walks of life whose imaginations
have been stirred at the results of Prof.
MichelSonS work Far removed as 1t
was from the field of ordinary human
interest, the announcement that the
veteran physicist was about to make
held tremendous consequences. If repe-
tition of the experiment had brought
different results 1t meant new and
extremely serious challenge to the pres
ent generally accepted scientific con-
cepts of the fundamental nature of
time, space and matter, the only things
the human mind knows anything about.
Back in 1881 Albert A. Nicholson, a
former Annapolis cadet, was a student
in Berlin. There was brewing in his
mind an idea replete with scientific i'm
agination-the concept Of method OF
measuring the movement of the world
and of the solar system through space
The world whirled around on it's axis
once every "a hours and it moved In
its orbit around the sun once every 365
days. These two rates OF movement
could be measured with a great deal OF
precision. But there was third move
ment which nobody could measure
There were no landmarks to measure II
by. The earth, sun and all the planets
were moving together somewhere to-
ward some unknown destiny.
Ether Only Stationary Thing.
Now in order to measure this move
ment it was necessary to find something
outside the world that wasn't moving
Everything visible presumably was NOV
ing, even the remotest stars. The only
conceivable stationary thing was the
substance which, it was assumed, flllec
all space and through which the stars
and the planets moved. Nobody knew
what this thing was. 1t was a neces'
sary invention of the human mind tc
account for the forces acting through
interplanetary Space-light, gravity
magnetism. These forces required
something to move through. Science
assumed for them an infinitely tenuous
elastic jelly and called it either" II
pervaded all things and all things ex-
listed inside of it.
Both light and the world moved
through ether. They moved independ-
entity of each other, the former fal
faster than the latter. So Nicholson
proposed to measure the forward speed
of the world in relation to the speed
of light. If the experiment succeeded
he would have solved the secret of the
movement of the universe. 1t involved
extremely delicate arrangements ano
measurements. The Berlin experiments
were inconclusive. Nicholson returned
to the United States, his brain full oi
the idea. He needed more delicate ap-
paratus and his mind conceived the
idea of the interferometer. which woulC
detect the interference of light waves
Interferometer Invented.
This was the first great outcome oi
the experiment. If 1t had brought nc
further consequences 1t still would have
been one of the outstanding event;
of modern science, since it brought
about the invention Of the interferom-
eter, which not only has opned up
new worlds of knowledge in the distant
heavens to astronomers. but which has
made possible measurements down to
the millionth of an inch.
With this implement Nicholson re-
peated the experiment in collaboration
with Prof. Morley, since dead. This
time extreme precautions were taken.
The results were as accurate as was
scientifically possible at the time. They
were negative. The experiment 1ndl-
Gated that the world was not moving
in relation to the ether. 1t was chal-
lenge to common sense. Nicholson HIM
self was baff1ed He did not see the
possibility of any further accuracy.
Some weird explanations were offered.
Reputable scientists advanced the
theory that the experiment showed
that 1t was impossible ever to obtain an
accurate measurement OF anything,
since it was obvious that the length Oh
any measuring rod, whether YARD
stick or light, varied according 10 ltS
position in respect to the movement
of the earth Prof. Nicholson smiled
yesterday as he recalled this weird ex-
planation, yet at the time it seemed the
most sensible way to account Tor the
observed phenomenon.
Einstein Advances Theory.
The eventual explanation was stranger
still II came from a German profeS-
sor named Einstein, who had achieved
some reputation in the scientific world
as a mathematical physicist. AT the
time he advanced this explanation Elm
stein is credited with saying-althougn
he probably didn't-that there were
only 10 men in the world VINO coulo
understand it. 1t remains today COM
prehensible only to the few trained In
higher mathematics
Briefly he laid down the assumption
that the Nicholson Morley experiment
was fundamentally impossible; that
there was no such thing as ether and
no such thing as gravity; that space
was curved in the neighborhood OF mat
ter, and that time and space. were
weirdly mixed up In a 1ourtn olmen1
conception beyond the range of human
senses attuned to only three dimen-
sions. Mathematics pays no heed to
common sense. The Einstein theory
was a tremendous challenge to common
The theory carried the implication
that an effect could precede cause
that is, that one might see tne 1ame OF