Page:Über die Möglichkeit einer elektromagnetischen Begründung der Mechanik.djvu/4

 which we simply have to view as convergence points of electric force lines.

However, we must attribute to such an elementary quantum a certain extension, because otherwise the energy store represented by it, would be infinitely great compared with the quantum itself. Since the entire matter shall be constituted by those quanta, they have to be assumed as so small, so that the atomic weights are whole multiples of them. The positive elementary quantum is furthermore to be viewed as distant from the negative one by a certain small distance.

That matter is composed of such dipoles, is hardly a special assumption, and surely is currently admitted by all physicists. Until now, a ponderable substance was additionally assumed, that we want to identify with these quanta.

The statement, that matter as well as electricity is formed atomistically, is equivalent according to the view held by us.

The aether itself is to be viewed as stationary according to. Spatial changes can only occur with respect to electric quanta, and to speak about a motion of the aether would make no sense by the principles followed here.

All forces are to be reduced to the known electromagnetic ones, i.e., to tensions in the aether in the sense of, although the concept taken from the theory of elasticity is hardly still meaningful here.

At small velocities of the moving quanta, the electrostatic forces are the ones that are effective between the quanta.

Whether a reduction of molecular forces to such forces is possible, must remain undecided yet. It's only clear, that by different arrangements of positive and negative quanta in different distances, one can obtain very complicated effects. By that assumption, one would decrease the difficulty to the theory of stationary aether represented by 's interference experiment.