What Ether Is

Prof. John S. McKay on Its Properties and Functions.

ONE OF THE MYSTERIES OF THE PHYSICAL UNIVERSE — THE THEORY OF ITS EXISTENCE A DEDUCTION FROM NATURAL PHENOMENA.

An entertaining and carefully prepared lecture on the subject of “The Ether, Its Properties and Functions” was delivered before the Institute Department of Physics by Prof. John S. McKay, president of the department, at the Art Building last evening. There were a number of stereopticon illustrations.

The theory of ether, said Prof. McKay, was formulated about a hundred years ago, principally in order to account for the transmission of light through space. The Newtonian theory that light consisted of luminous particles shot out in straight lines at incredible speed was superseded by the modern wave or undulatory conception. Sound and heat are supposed to travel in a like method. A large number of phenomena are now explained, and cannot otherwise be explained, by the deduced existence of the etherial medium. Within comparatively recent years its importance in the universe of which we are cognizant has been much recognized by men of science, until to-day it is considered as one of the ultimate mysteries.

Ether is that which pervades all space, meaning also what we know as material substances. It is, of course, invisible. It is thought to be a fluid and incompressible, yet highly elastic, so as to permit the passage of light through it. It is probably continuous, not having the molecular composition of matter. It needs, indeed, to be a substance exceedingly rare to allow us to receive rays of light which have been traveling fifty years through it from some of the distant stars. Its density has been computed to be 936 sextillionths of that of water.

To the unscientific mind it is difficult to believe in the existence of something which cannot be seen, weighed, measured or felt. But, in fact, we only know of the revolution of the earth upon its axis, and practically all the commonly admitted facts of physics through the reasoning which declares ether to be. If we get down to the bottom we must admit with the idealists that the only thing we are positively certain of is our individual consciousness. Ether is found to be absolutely necessary in the universal economy, and its validity will not be affected though man should never, as is likely, obtain direct evidence of it. Newton himself wrote that he did not maintain the absurdity that gravitation acted through an absolute void in space.

Electricity is now thought to be ether itself in a state of very rapid movement or a fluid which dwells in pure ether. Nikola Tesla and other practical modern electricians are working to discover the secret of this wonderfully swift vibration, called light, so as to be able to produce it by artificial means. The wave lengths of the fluid will require to be shortened several hundred thousand times before the human eye can perceive light.

Ether is regarded by some physicians of to-day as in a sense the parent of matter; matter is its outward manifestation. These three constitute the triune essence: Ether, energy, matter.