From "Modern Electrics", August 1911 comes this article
entitled "The Mystery of the Ether", by Owen Ely.
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The first important theory of the ether was developed by
Green and others, in the early part of the nineteenth century.
The ether was regarded as a kind of incompressible jelly, easily
set a-quiver by the motions of the molecules and able to transmit
this motion, through its vast bulk, to the ends of space.
And yet, for any motions of matter other than the molecular, the
ether was thought to act as a perfect fluid. This provision was
necessary to limit the ether to transverse vibrations.
Owing to the increasing demands which new discoveries in optics
made upon the theory, it was abandoned and now retains only
historic interest.
"One of the most prominent theories which has been brought
forward was that connected with Maxwell's electro-magnetic theory
of light. The ether was assumed to be a turbulent fluid, the
particles of which oscillate, revolve, or in some way change their
condition, causing the rapidly alternating 'polarizations' which
Maxwell used to explain his conception of the electromagnetic
wave.... But 'polarization' is still a little more than a name,
and there is yet some discussion as to whether it involves any
bodily displacement of the ether.
"The ether having been regarded as a solid and a fluid,
it remained to treat it as a gas. This was attempted by several,
among them Mendeleef, the chemist. But the results did not seem
very satisfactory. Evidently, the ether needed properties of
each state of matter, solid, fluid and gaseous. Rigidity and
elasticity of some sort were required, that light should travel
in a straight path; the freedom of movement of a perfect fluid
was necessary, since apparently there was no friction between
matter and ether; and finally its inertness, its failure to
affect matter of itself, pointed to a lack of cohesion or activity
among its particles. For these reasons, apparently, modern
physicists have generally ceased trying to picture either in
terms of matter, but rather are inclined to explain matter in terms
of ether. Thus, Prof. Osborne Reynolds, who has worked upon his
theory for many years, regards the ether as a system of finely
packed grains ... piled up like billiard-balls through the universe;
but here and there is a crack or separation, and this vacuum is
matter! The encounters of the cracks make up the phenomena of
the cosmos.
"Larmor's concept seems somewhat similar, for he regards
electrons as 'nuclei of permanent ethereal strains in rapid motion.'
Kelvin and his school lay emphasis upon an explanation of the
ether's perfect elasticity. Kelvin's famous theory of the ether
makes its elasticity 'due to rotational motion - intimate, fine-
grained motion throughout the whole ethereal region -- motion,
not of the nature of locomotion, but circulation in closed curves,
returning upon itself -- vortex motion, of a kind far more finely
grained than any waves of light or any atomic or even electronic
structure."
-----the balance of this article will be found in E.D.O.W. #13.