Miller Dayton. Significance of the ether-drift experiments of 1925 at Mount Wilson

Статья. — Science, Vol. LXIII, April 30, 1926, No. 1635, pp. 433-443.The general acceptance of the theory that light consists of wave motion in a luminiferous ether made it necessary to determine the essential properties of the ether which will enable it to transmit the waves of light And to account for optical phenomena in general. The ether was at first presumed to fill all space, even that occupied by material bodies, and yet to allow all bodies to move through it with apparent perfect freedom. The question of whether the ether is carried along by the earth's motion has been considered from the early days of the wave theory. Theories of the ether are intimately associated with theories of the structure of matter, and these are among the most fundamental in the whole domain of physical science.