Thus Mercury would be carried away from the sun, far far away into the depths of space, with ever-decreasing rapidity, the rapidity of its motion through space being entirely dependent upon the intensity and energy of the Aether waves; and, as that intensity varies inversely as the square of the distance from the central body, the sun, so the impelling and repelling energy of the Aetherial waves would vary inversely as the square of the distance from the central body.
Thus the motion of Mercury or any other planet through space would not be uniform, but would gradually decrease, and such a result is perfectly in harmony with all experience and experiment in relation to moving bodies on this earth.
This effect of the Aetherial electro-magnetic light waves upon a planet is in harmony with Newton's nineteenth query inOptics,and is indeed the physical illustration of that query in its corrected form which we have already referred to inArt. 46, where Newton says: “Doth it (Aether) not grow denser and denser, etc.; every body endeavouring to go from the denser parts of the medium towards the rarer?”
That the Aether does grow denser and denser nearer to a body we have already seen inArt. 46, and now we learn that a body, when under the influence of the centrifugal force only, would pass from the denser parts of a medium to the rarer parts, as suggested by Newton. We will now suppose that Mercury has been repelled, by the pressure due to the aetherial waves generated by the sun, to the distance of Neptune, a distance of 2,780,000,000 miles; and that at this point the centrifugal force is cancelled, and in its place is put the centripetal force of Gravitation. What will be the effect upon Mercury then? At first sight the effect will be exceedingly slight, but slowly, yet surely, the attractive power of the sun would begin to make itself manifest, and we should find Mercury retracing its path along exactly the same straight line that it had taken in its outward journey.
Not only so, but its motion would be accelerated just in the same proportion that it had decreased on its outward journey. On and on through the intervening space the planet would rush, and if there were no centrifugal force in existence, the planet would ultimately rush into the central body, the sun, and being swallowed up by it, would maintain for a time the heat thereof.
Let us now view the case from the conjoint working of these forces, or motions, the centripetal and centrifugal, and we shall see, that under certain conditions it is possible to conceive physically of a planet being in a state of rest as stated in Newton's First Law of Motion, andalso remaining in that state of rest, until it is compelled by other forces or motions to change that state. Mercury is now situated at its mean distance of about 36,000,000 miles. At the same instant let both the centrifugal and the centripetal forces or motions be applied to it, and to the sun. What is the result of such application? Will the planet move nearer the sun, which we are supposing to be perfectly at rest, or will it be urged further away? The effect is nil! for the simple reason, that when we set in motion the centripetal force of Gravitation, at exactly the same time we set in motion an exactly opposite force which is the exact complement and counterpart of the other, so that they exactly counterbalance each other, and Mercury under the influence of both forces still retains its mean position of 36,000,000 miles; and, until we either set the sun rotating, or give it a motion of its own through space, Mercury would remain at its distance of 36,000,000 miles comparatively at rest. The same reasoning may be applied to all the other planets, in relation to their mean distances, with the result that they too would remain in a comparative state of rest, so long as they were only under the influence of the two forces or motions, viz. the centrifugal and centripetal.
Each of these, being the exact complement and counterpart of the other, when applied together to any planet of any size or mass or density, at any distance, fails to affect the distance of that planet in its relation to the sun, but simply establishes it in that distance, subject to certain regulations dependent upon other motions of the sun, and the aetherial medium in which they exist. Thus we learn, that if, in the beginning, Mercury were formed at a distance of 36,000,000 miles, it would for ever remain at that distance; and the same is true of the other planets at their mean distances, no matter what their mass or density may be; and that, according to the first law of motion, the planet would remain in a state of rest until compelled by other forces or motions to change that state, when it would continue moving with uniform motion so long as the motive power applied was uniform.
If, however, the motive power applied was not uniform, then the result would be an increase or decrease of the planet's motion, just in proportion to the increase or decrease of the motive power. This result is in perfect harmony with our statement inArt. 15, and is in accordance with observation and experience.
Art. 99.Second Law of Motion.--According to Newton's Second Law of Motion, “Change of motion is proportional to the impressed force, and takes place in the direction in which the force is impressed.”
From a consideration of this Law (Art. 15) we saw that the impressedforce was a compound quantity, being regulated by the mass of the moving body which exerted the impressed force, and that it was also proportionate to the velocity of the moving body; so that if either of these quantities are changed, the total impressed force would be changed also.
We have now to show that our aetherial medium agrees with this second law of motion in so far as the second law of motion agrees with experience and experiments. To do this, we must review our conception of the universal Aether, and remember that Aether is matter, and being matter, it is atomic and gravitative, possessing density, elasticity, inertia, and kinetic energy, the same as any other moving matter.
In this Aether medium we have, according to this conception, something that can both push and pull, or exert force upon any body with which it comes into contact. Further, the inertia and kinetic energy of the Aether at any part of space will be regulated by its mass in that particular part, and if its mass is denser in some parts than others, that part of the aetherial medium possessing the greatest mass will also possess the greatest capacity for impressing force upon any body that exists in the medium. Now we have learned fromArt. 45that Aether being gravitative, it is denser nearer to the sun, getting gradually less and less dense, the further it recedes from the central body, except where it is bound or associated to some other planet or satellite, and there it gradually gets denser, for the same reason that it is denser nearer to the sun. As, therefore, the Aether gets gradually less dense as it recedes from the sun, the density of the Aether at the mean distance of Mercury, 35,900,000 miles, would not be so great as near the sun's surface; while the density of the aetherial medium at the distance of Venus, 67,000,000 miles, would be less than the density of the aetherial medium at the distance of Mercury. This principle may be applied right through the sun's aetherial electro-magnetic field, until we come to the mean distance of Neptune, which is 2,780,000,000 miles, and there the density of the Aether would be less than at any other part of the aetherial electro-magnetic field around the sun.
So that the mass of the Aether at Mercury, which is equal to the number of aetherial atoms per unit volume, is greater than the mass at Venus. Thus the impressed force which the aetherial medium at the mean distance of Mercury can exert upon any body in its neighbourhood, is greater than the impressed force which the Aether can exert upon any body at the distance of Venus, because of its decreased mass at that distance. In the same way it can be proved that the impressed force which the electro-magnetic Aether exerts on any body at the distance of Venus, isgreater than the impressed force which the Aether exerts upon a body at the mean distance of the Earth. So that at the respective mean distances of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, the electro-magnetic Aether, if in motion, would exert less force at each of the mean distances of these planets exactly proportionate to the decreased mass and decreased velocity of the Aether.
Now what is the motion which the Aether possesses, so far as the sun is concerned? because, upon the particular kind of motion which it possesses will depend the direction in which the impressed force will be exerted according to the second law of motion.
InArt. 98we supposed the sun and planets to be stationary in the solar system, each planet being at its respective mean distance, from which it cannot move owing to the equality of the two forces. Now give to the central sun from whence the electro-magnetic Aether waves flow, a rotatory motion on its own axis, which it really possesses, as it rotates on its axis once in every twenty-six days nearly, and this will give to the Aether medium a circular or rotatory motion. This circular or rotatory motion the Aether has already been proved to possess (Art. 91, where we learned that all solar magnets were caused by electro-magnetic aetherial currents constantly circulating round them). So that the Aether will actually possess two motions: 1st, a radial motion due to the Aether waves generated by the sun, which are radiated out into space with the velocity of light; and 2nd, a circular or rotatory motion. This result is in perfect harmony with our hypothesis as to the cause of the electro-magnetism of the sun (Art. 91, where we saw that solar magnetism was due to electric currents circulating round the various planets), and we have proved that the Aether has an electro-magnetic basis; thus the rotatory Aether currents and the rotatory electro-magnetic currents are due to one and the same medium.
Now what will be the effect of these circular or rotatory Aether currents on the bodies situated within their field? It must be remembered that we are no longer dealing with a frictionless medium, but with a medium which possesses inertia and kinetic energy the same as any other moving matter. Therefore, as soon as it is set in motion, it will impress its motions upon all planets that come under its control and influence, with the result that as the impressed force is ever directed in a circular form, the planet will be pushed along through space by the moving Aether, and the path it describes will be circular also.
Thus the actual result of the rotatory electro-magnetic Aether currents will be, that all dependent and associated planets under theirinfluence will be carried by them around the central body which generates the Aether currents. So that they will literally and truly have an orbit, and the circle they describe will be, in its size and circumference, regulated by the mean distance of each planet, which mean distance will form the radius of the circular orbit.
Further, as we shall see later, if the sun were always stationary, and had no orbital motion of its own, then the orbit of each planet would always be circular, each planet always occupying its mean distance from the sun, because at that mean distance the centripetal and centrifugal forces are equal.
That the actual path of any planet is a circle has been proved by Sir W. R. Hamilton. Tait, in hisNatural Philosophy, on this point writes (Art. 38): “The Hodograph for the motion of a planet or comet is always a circle, whatever be the form and dimensions of the orbit.” This path has been termed the Hodograph. So that we have in the circling electro-magnetic Aether currents a physical explanation for the Hodograph of any planet.
In applying the rotatory Aether currents to the various planets, and in endeavouring to find out the quantity of the force impressed upon the various planets at their mean distances, by those currents, we have to take into consideration, as we have already seen, two facts, viz. the mass of the Aether at any point in space, and the velocity of the Aether at the same point. We will first take the effect of the difference in mass. We have seen that at the distance of Mercury from the sun the density of the Aether is greater than at the distance of Venus, and that the density at Mars is greater than the aetherial density at the Earth, the aetherial density decreasing the further the Aether recedes from the sun.
What, therefore, is the effect of the decreased density of the Aether on each planet? Even supposing the velocity of the moving Aether is the same at the respective mean planetary distances, which it is not, the total impressed force at the respective mean planetary distances will gradually be decreased upon the various planets, proportionate to the decrease in the mass and density of the Aether.
So that on Mercury, which is pushed along by a denser electro-magnetic Aether than Venus, the impressed force, according to Newton's Second Law of Motion, will be greater than the impressed force exerted by the moving electro-magnetic Aether on Venus; and, consequently, Mercury should have a greater velocity through space than Venus, due partly to the difference of the aetherial mass and density, by which the impressed force or motive power that acts upon Mercury is produced.
In the same way, Venus should have a greater velocity through space than Mars, and Mars a greater velocity than the Earth. The same principle, when applied to the outer planets, equally holds good; with the result, that the greater the mean distance, the less the orbital velocity of each planet, due partly to the decreased aetherial density at the increased distance from the sun. But this is only part of the cause. Not only is there a decrease in density of the Aether, as the distance from the sun is increased, but there is also a decrease in the velocity of the moving Aether, with the result that the Aether at the distance of Mercury, possesses a greater angular velocity than at the distance of Venus.
It may be at once asked, How do we know that? Well, Philosophy alone can give us the key, and Philosophy tells us to base our theories and hypotheses on experience and experiment. Now what does experiment and experience teach us as to the effect of a body revolving in any medium upon that medium? If experience teaches us anything at all, it teaches us that the further away any medium is from the revolving body, the less is the angular velocity of that medium at that distance, while the nearer the medium is to the revolving body, the greater is the angular velocity.
This applies in each and every case, whether the medium is either fluid or gaseous, and I will challenge the reader to perform any experiment on any solid body rotating in a fluid or gaseous medium, and prove by that experiment that the angular velocity of the outermost part of the fluid or gaseous medium is equal to the angular velocity of the medium directly associated with the body, or even at a short distance from it.
But we have most conclusive evidence of the fact that a solid body does not communicate all its rotational surface motion to the medium directly in contact with that body in the case of the earth revolving on its axis, surrounded by an atmosphere. If the principle held good anywhere in relation to a revolving body, viz. that the whole of the rotational velocity is communicated to the medium surrounding the body, it should certainly hold good at the surface of the body where the two media, the solid and gaseous media, meet.
If a solid body fails to impart all its rotational velocity to the medium there, then it will certainly fail to impart its full rotational velocity to the enveloping medium 100 miles away, and fail still more at a distance of 1000, and still more at a distance of 100,000,000, and so on proportionate to the distance.
What, then, is the effect of the rotational velocity of the surface of the earth on the atmosphere near to it? We know that the velocity of the surface of the earth is greatest at the equator, as at that place thecircumference of the earth is about 25,000 miles, but the further we get away from the equator, and the nearer we get to the North and South poles, the velocity of the surface decreases, simply because the circumference of the earth decreases.
Or, to reverse the statement, the velocity of the surface of the earth is least at the poles, but increases the nearer we get to the equator. It is also familiar knowledge that there are currents of cold air ever moving from the North and South poles to the equatorial regions near the surface of the earth. Thus the cold air currents, in passing from the North and South poles, are ever passing over surfaces which are increasing in velocity as they journey on their way to the equator. This of course occurs all round the earth, so that the earth is continually revolving in these currents, and if the rotational velocity of the surface of the earth were wholly imparted to the air directly over its surface, then the currents would be always flowing due North and South.
If, however, the earth fails to impart all its rotational velocity to the atmosphere, or the atmosphere fails to pick up the whole of the rotational velocity at once, then the result will be that the atmosphere as it passes over the surfaces of greatest velocity will lag behind, because its rotational velocity will be less than the velocity of the earth's surface.
Now this is exactly what does happen in regard to the atmosphere, with the result, that instead of getting winds blowing due north and south, we get what are known as Trade Winds, which blow north-east in the northern hemisphere and south-east in the southern hemisphere. Here then we have direct experimental proof on a large scale of the very principle I have stated, viz, that a medium surrounding any rotating body does not move through the whole of its extent with the same velocity as its does at the surface. Thus it can be seen that the velocity of the rotating Aether will be greatest at the surface of the sun, but its angular velocity will decrease the further the medium recedes from the sun.
The same principle can easily be proved from an electrical standpoint; for if we consider the Aether currents as electric currents, no one would think of suggesting that the intensity of the currents was the same at a distance of several million miles away, as it is near the source of the currents, which in this case may be looked upon as the sun, because at its surface we have the greatest electric potential (Art. 80).
So that we see from this reasoning, that not only is there a decreased mass of the Aether at the distance of Venus, compared with Mercury, but there is also a decreased velocity in the rotatory electro-magnetic Aether currents, with the result that the impressed force exerted uponVenus is less than the impressed force exerted upon Mercury, and therefore Venus should move slower through space than Mercury, which is exactly what happens, as Mercury has an orbital velocity of 29 miles per second, while Venus has an orbital velocity of 22 miles per second.
As the angular velocity decreases in proportion as the distance increases, it follows that at the respective mean distances not only of Venus, but also of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, the capacity of the Aether to exert its impressed force upon the various planets will decrease as the distance increases, with the result that the farther a planet is from the sun, the less force will the Aether currents exert upon that planet, with the result that its orbital velocity should decrease as the distance increases, and this is perfectly in accordance with planetary phenomena.
Here, then, we have at once a physical basis for Newton's Second Law of Motion, the results of which are entirely in harmony with observation and experiment, and whose conception fully satisfies all the Rules of Philosophy; as it is simple in conception, fully agrees with observation and experiment, and satisfactorily explains the Second Law of Motion sought to be explained.
Thus we find that from the physical standpoint, as well as from the mathematical standpoint, “Change of motion is proportional to the impressed force, and takes place in the direction in which the force is impressed,” that is, in a circular direction.
We have therefore arrived at exactly the same result that Newton arrived at, except that he had to introduce a third factor, viz. the Parallelogram of Forces, while we have produced the result by a simpler method, which, according to his own rules, is more philosophical, as all effects are produced by the simplest causes, as Newton himself stated in Rule 1. Thus it is the rotatory electro-magnetic Aether currents that urge the planets round the sun; and, as will be shown later, it is the same Aether currents in combination with the other motions that give rise to the physical cause of Kepler's Laws. It is the electro-magnetic Aether currents that produce the regular decrease in the velocity of the planets in their orbits, because of the regular decrease of the mass and velocity of the Aether currents themselves.
We have now a physical cause as well as a mathematical explanation of the decrease of the velocity of a planet in its orbit, which physical cause is in perfect harmony with all philosophical rules. The following table shows the gradual decrease in the velocity of each planet as thevarious planets recede from the sun--
Art. 100.Aether and Third Law of Motion.--We have seen (Art. 16) that action and reaction are equal and opposite, and that it is true of the centripetal force in its application to all matter throughout the universe. If, therefore, the centrifugal force is the exact opposite of the centripetal force, then the Third Law of Motion should equally hold good in relation to that force also.
We have, therefore, to form a physical conception of the application of the third law of motion, as it relates to the centrifugal force. As we have already learned, this force is due to the universal electro-magnetic Aether, which being gravitative, surrounds all atoms and molecules that may exist throughout the whole universe. It can readily be seen, therefore, that if the Aether surrounds every atom and molecule, then each atom repels another atom or molecule when the two forces are in equilibrium with exactly the same intensity with which the atom and molecule attract each other.
But the centrifugal force in each case is due to the pressure of the Aether, which presses always proportionately to the density of the Aether surrounding the atom or molecules, as suggested by Professor Challis.
The mean density, however, of each atomic or molecular atmosphere is regulated solely by the mass of the atom or planet, therefore the pressure exerted by one atom on another is proportionate to the mass of each atom, and to that extent is strictly in accordance with the law which governs the proportion of the forces between the two atoms or molecules. If, therefore, we have two atoms, A and B, of different masses, then it is true that while A exerts a pressure on B, which pressure takes the form of a repulsion, at the same time B exerts a pressure on A which is equal and opposite in its character and intensity, and in each case the pressure is due to the aetherial medium which surrounds each atom or molecule.
When the atoms are equal in mass, then the resultant motion produced oneach atom would be exactly equal, but when the masses vary, the resultant motion produced on each atom would vary also, though the momentum in each case would be exactly equal and opposite, as momentum is a compound term dependent partly upon the mass of the body concerned.
InArt. 16we saw that when this third law was applied to planetary phenomena, not only did the sun attract all the planets, but all the planets attracted the sun with equal and opposite forces, and the planets also attracted each other with equal and opposite forces. In the same way it can be proved, that as the sun repels all the planets by the pressure exerted by the aetherial centrifugal force on those planets, the planets repel the sun with an exactly equal and opposite force at their mean distances. In Newton's conception, however, of the third law of motion, there was simply mathematical data to deal with, by which the law was shown to apply to the planetary and stellar world. In the case, however, of the centrifugal motion, we have a definite physical medium, which by its motions produces the pressure on the planets or suns that exist in space, which pressure forms the physical centrifugal force that forms the counterpart of Gravitation Attraction.
Let us look at this phase of the case in detail, and by so doing help to establish and confirm the physical existence of the force or motion referred to. We have learned from ChapterIV. that as Aether is gravitative, it surrounds all satellites and planets, suns and stars that exist in the universe.
We have also learned fromArt. 86that Aether has an electro-magnetic basis, as mathematically proved by Maxwell and experimentally proved by Hertz. Thus we came to the conclusion that each satellite and planet, sun and star, was an electrified body (Art. 81), or an electro-magnet (Art. 88), possessing its own electric or electro-magnetic field.
We also learned that in every electro-magnetic field there was a pressure which was ever directed away from the body that generated the electro-magnetic waves. Now, as every satellite and planet, sun and star, is a generator of these waves according to our theory, it follows that every satellite and planet, sun and star, is the centre of a centrifugal force, which centrifugal force is regulated by the mass of the satellite, planet, sun or star which gives rise to the centrifugal force or motion.
Now, in relation to all electro-magnetic action, it can be experimentally demonstrated, that action and reaction are equal and opposite, so that if we have two electrified or magnetized bodies, then the joint forces of attraction or repulsion between them are equal and opposite. This being so, when we apply the same law of action andreaction to the planets' influence on each other, it follows that the same law must hold good in relation to them.
So that if we compare the repulsive powers of two planets on each other in the solar system, say the Earth and Jupiter, then, according to the third law of motion, the repulsive action of Jupiter on the Earth is exactly equal and opposite to the repulsive action of the Earth on Jupiter. If we compare the Earth and the sun, the repulsive action of the sun on the Earth is exactly equal and opposite to the repulsive action of the Earth on the sun, that action or force being caused directly by the electro-magnetic Aether waves, which are generated by each electric, or electro-magnetic body.
Thus, as the third law of motion is true of the centripetal force, whether in relation to the atomic world, or in relation to the solar system, or even to the universe at large, seeing that the centrifugal force is the exact counterpart in every way of the centripetal force, exactly fulfilling all the laws which govern it, it follows as a matter of absolute necessity that the third law is also applicable to its complement or counterpart also, or else it would cease to be the complement and counterpart of the centripetal force.
Art. 101.Why Planets revolve from West to East.--InArt. 99we have seen that the revolution of the planets around the sun is produced and maintained by the electro-magnetic Aether currents, which are generated by the axial motion of that electro-magnetic body. There is, however, another effect produced, and another scientific fact which can be accounted for by the circulating motions of the Aether medium, viz. that the orbital direction of each and all the planets would not only be in the same direction, but they would also be in the same direction as the sun's rotation on its axis.
So that, whichever way the sun turns upon its axis, that way, and that alone, should be the orbital direction of all the planets in which they are circled round the sun by the circulating electro-magnetic Aether currents. It is the sun's axial motion that partly gives to the Aether currents their circling motion, and it is the circling motion of the Aether currents that gives rise to the orbital motion of the planets, literally carrying them round the sun by their kinetic energy and power.
Therefore, if this be true, whichever way the sun turns upon its axis, that will be the direction in which the Aether currents must circle round the sun, and in that direction the planets should travel in their orbits. As must readily be seen, it is the inevitable result of the established working of the electro-magnetic Aether currents. If the sun rotated on its axis from east to west, then the electro-magnetic Aethercurrents would also travel in the same direction, from east to west, and the planets would then revolve round the sun from east to west.
If the sun, however, rotates on its axis from west to east, then, if there are such electro-magnetic Aether currents in existence, as those we have already proved to exist, they, too, would travel from west to east, and as a natural result the planets, which are carried round the sun by the currents, would also possess the same orbital motion, that is from west to east.
As is well known, the sun rotates on its axis from west to east, therefore the Aether currents also rotate from west to east, with the result that the orbital directions of all the planets should also be in the same direction, from west to east. Now, as is well known, all the planets without exception, Mercury, Venus, the Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, all travel round the sun from west to east.
Here, then, we have indisputable evidence of the existence and mode of working of the electro-magnetic aetherial currents, whose action alone can produce the phenomena with which we are so familiar, and for which there must be some physical cause. I am not aware that any reason or explanation either mathematical or otherwise has ever been given, or even suggested, as to the cause of the phenomena which we have just endeavoured to explain.
Indeed, there can be no other physical explanation of the fact, that all the planets revolve round the sun in the same direction that the sun rotates on its axis, than the one here given, viz. that the cause is to be found, and alone found, in the circulating electro-magnetic Aether currents which are generated in the Aether by the electro-magnetic body, the sun. Again, in order to confirm the existence of these Aether currents that exist in space, not only those generated by the sun, but also by all the other electro-magnetic bodies, as all the planets (Art. 88), we will consider the working of the same upon the satellites of those planets which possess them.
The Earth we know has one satellite, the moon, Mars has two satellites, Phobos and Deimos, Jupiter has five satellites, Saturn has eight satellites, while up to the present Uranus has been found to possess four, and Neptune one. There is, however, little doubt but that both Uranus and Neptune possess more than those already discovered, as it is inconceivable that Jupiter and Saturn, which are nearer to the sun, should possess a greater number of satellites by which the nights of the respective planets are illuminated, while the further planets, which need the increased lighting, because of the decreased intensity of theaetherial light waves at the increased distance, possess apparently a less number of satellites, and therefore less illumination for their respective nights.
But what have these satellites to teach us as to the existence of the electro-magnetic aetherial currents that circulate round the planets? We have to apply a similar course of reasoning to the planets, as we have done in the case of the sun. If the sun is an electro-magnetic body, by its axial rotation it generates rotating Aether currents, and those Aether currents partake of the same rotation as the revolving body, that is, from west to east. In a like manner each planet, being an electro-magnet, generates electro-magnetic aetherial currents which also possess the same rotation as the planetary body which gives rise to them.
So that if the planets rotate on their axes from east to west, the Aether currents will also rotate from east to west, but if the rotation of each planet is from west to east, then the rotation of the Aether currents associated with each planet will also be from west to east, with the result that each satellite will be carried round its primary planet by the circulating Aether currents in exactly the same way as the planet rotates on its axis.
Now if this is the case, then we have further evidence of the existence of the circulating electro-magnetic Aether currents, not only those associated with the sun, but those also associated with each of the planets, as explained inArt. 91. It might have been urged in the case of the planet's revolution round the sun being in the same direction as the sun's axial action, that such a fact was merely a coincidence, but such an objection loses its force if it is proved that the same principle or truth when applied to other bodies equally holds good. When we come to analyze the direction of the satellites round their primary planets, we find that each satellite has an orbital motion, or is carried round its central and controlling planet by that planet's Aether currents in exactly the same direction that the planet rotates on its axis, viz. from west to east. So that we have in the orbital direction of the satellites, as we have also in the orbital direction of the planets, conclusive evidence of the existence and mode of working of the Aether and of the electro-magnetic currents generated in that aetherial medium by the electro-magnetic bodies which rotate in it.
Art. 102.Aether and Kepler's First Law.--InArt. 26we learned that according to the First Law of Kepler, each planet revolves round the sun in an elliptic orbit, with the sun occupying one of the foci.
We also saw that that elliptic orbit was produced according to Newton by the conjoint working of the centripetal and centrifugal forces in association with the three Laws of Motion, to which laws had to be added a corollary, which is termed the Parallelogram of Forces, before the First Law of Kepler could be fulfilled.
In making any hypothesis as to the physical cause of Kepler's Laws, if it can be shown that the same aetherial medium that gives rise to the centrifugal force, also gives rise to the centripetal force, and that the same medium by its rotatory motions also fulfils the three laws of motion, and gives a satisfactory physical explanation of all Kepler's Laws; then, according to our three Rules of Philosophy, we shall have found a physical medium which, by its motions and pressures and tensions, can give rise to all the phenomena exhibited in the celestial mechanism. Such a physical explanation will be philosophically correct, in that it is simple in its conception, is entirely in harmony with observation and experiment, and satisfactorily accounts for, and that on a physical basis, all the phenomena associated with the whole of the celestial mechanism.
We have therefore to apply the motions of the Aether medium to the solar system, and by so doing reveal the physical explanation of all Kepler's Laws, in the same way that Newton revealed their correctness from the mathematical standpoint. Let us review the conception of the solar system as given inArt. 99, so that we may be able to proceed from that physical conception of a stationary solar system to a moving system.
Thus we see the sun in a stationary system occupying exactly the centre of that system. The solar energies are in full play, generating electro-magnetic Aether waves which are radiated forth into space withthe velocity of light. Then, as there is given to the sun a rotatory motion on its axis, that rotatory motion imparts to the gravitating aetherial medium a circulatory or rotatory motion which spreads out through space with ever-increasing intensity.
By their radiating motion the Aether waves would repel all planets from their central body, the sun, if they were not counterbalanced by the centripetal force; and the two forces, the centrifugal and the centripetal forces, find their equilibrium at the mean distance of each planet, thus fixing and regulating permanently the distance and orbit of each planetary world.
At the same time, the rotatory motion of the electro-magnetic Aether currents, according to the second law of motion, would act on the planets by their kinetic or moving energy, and so circle them round the sun, their controlling centre. As long as the sun was quite stationary, while still possessing a rotation on its axis, if such a thing were possible, so long would the conception of the ancients be fulfilled, and the rotation of all the planets would be strictly circular in form, and their orbits would be that of a circle only, as proved by Sir W. R. Hamilton (Art. 99).
Fig: 24.
But, as is well known, the sun itself possesses an orbital motion of its own, so that, while all the associated planetary system is revolving round it, the sun with all that system is being carried along through space in an orbit which is also elliptic in form, as we shall see later on.
According to Herschel, the sun is moving towards the constellation of Hercules with a velocity of about 18,000 miles per hour, and the problem to be faced is, what is the effect of the sun's orbital velocity upon the circular motion of the planets? By solving that problem, we shall arrive at a physical conception for the first time of Kepler's Laws, and shall see that the first of Kepler's Laws is solved simply by giving an orbital velocity to any central body, the result of which will be thatthe circular form of any planet's orbit will be changed from the circular into one of elliptic form.
Let me ask the reader to perform a very simple experiment to confirm this fact. Take a piece of string and a lead pencil, and start to draw a circle on a piece of paper (Fig. 24). When, however, one quarter of the circle has been drawn, viz.D F, move the end of the piece of string representing the centre of the circle along the paper, as represented in the diagram, fromAtoB. The result will be that the pencil will now travel parallel with the moving centre for a time fromFtoG, and then, when the centre is brought to rest again, the other part of the half ellipseG Hmay be completed. In the same way, by reversing the motion, the other half of the ellipse may be completed. So that it is possible for an ellipse to be formed simply by moving the central point of a circle, and the motion of that central point will change the form of a circle into an ellipse. It is something like this that takes place in the planetary world, with this difference, that the central point which represents the sun does not return from one focus to another, but continues to journey on through space, with the result that the orbit of any planet is not strictly an ellipse, as we shall see later on. We have, then, the sun occupying the centre of the solar system, with all the planets revolving round it. We will take the sun and the Earth as examples. LetSin the diagram represent the sun, andEthe Earth at its mean distance of 92,000,000 miles away (Fig. 25).