Page:Amazing Stories Volume 21 Number 06.djvu/154

154 REFLECTION of the other AND the scratch in the mirror.

In this crude setup accurate results can't be obtained, but POSITIVE results can, and HAVE been obtained. I rented two surveyor's transits and set them up in the editor's basement and spent an afternoon getting them lined up so that one instrument was lined exactly with the scratch on a small mirror on the floor AND a white thread carefully centered over the end of the other transit, which had been set in line with the scratch on the mirror. Then I went back to the first instrument and saw that it was about a twentieth of an inch off.

Time after time I undid the setup and did it over again. Each time I got the same results. Then Mr. Palmer himself tried it and got almost exactly the same results I did.

From this roughly set up experiment I determined that there IS AN ETHER DRIFT TOWARD THE CENTER OF THE EARTH AND THAT IT IS SOMEWHERE AROUND EIGHTY MILES PER SECOND. I think it may be less, and Mr. Palmer thinks it is probably between eight-five and a hundred miles a second.

Any reader can perform the same experiment and get the same results. THEY ARE DEFINITELY POSITIVE.

N ORDER to get very accurate measurement of the ether velocity the path of the light ray should be at least a hundred feet.

The transits should have fifty power instead of twenty-five power lenses, and the external and internal cross hairs on each telescope should be accurately lined up.

The mirror should be polished metal instead of silvered glass, and should be mounted on a base that can be leveled accurately, with the mirror in a mounting that can be shifted by a micrometer that will give accurate readings in thousandths of an inch.

One of the transits should be mounted on a base that can be moved forward or backward in thousandths of an inch. The other, which will be lined up with the mirror scratch only, can have a stationary base.

For a distance of a hundred feet the path of light should be in a pipe each way from the mirror, and the pipe exhausted of air so that there will be no heat effect on the path of light.

With that setup the downward velocity of the ether could be measured to within a quarter of a mile per second.

The reader should bear in mind that although Einstein denies the existence of an ether, at least half the most reputable scientists do believe that an ether of some kind exists. Sir Oliver Lodge, who has been the staunchest supporter of the objective existence of an ether in recent years, writes:

"The ether in its various forms of energy dominates modern physics, though many prefer to avoid the term 'ether' because of its nineteenth-century associations, and use the term 'space.' The term used does not much matter." (p. 124, Jeans, Mysterious Universe.)

The purpose of this article has been to present the METHOD by which it may be definitely proven by anyone that there IS an ether drift, and that it is TOWARD THE CENTER OF THE EARTH. The velocity of this drift must be greater than sixteen miles per second, since free-falling objects from space sometimes attain to that velocity when they strike the atmosphere. Our first experiments show that this velocity is under a hundred miles per second—probably around eighty miles per second.

This experiment must be repeated under more accurate conditions and done by many different people before its conclusions can be accepted as final.

For the mathematical record, the mathematics used by myself in this experiment follows :

Let

$$\text{h} = \text{PD}$$

$$\text{d} = \text{AD} = \text{DC}$$

$$\text{y} = \text{BE}$$

$$\text{x} = \text{BC}$$

Light from A reflected from the point P would pass through E if there were no ether drift, since $$< \text{APD}\ =\ < \text{EPD}$$.

The downward drift of ether causes the light to pass through B instead.

Let

v = velocity of ether drift

c = velocity of light.

Then

(1) $$\frac{\text{v}}{\text{c}} = \frac{\text{EB}}{\text{EP}} = \frac{\text{y}}{\sqrt{\text{h}^2 + \text{d}^2} + \sqrt{\text{x}^2 + \text{y}^2}}$$

Now

(2) $$\frac{\text{y}}{\text{x}} - \frac{\text{h}}{\text{d}}$$

Whence

(3) $$\text{y} = \frac{\text{xh}}{\text{d}}$$

and

(4) $$\sqrt{\text{x}^2 + \text{y}^2} = \frac{\text{x}}{\text{d}} \sqrt{\text{h}^2 + \text{d}^2}$$ Substituting (3) and (4) in (1) we have

(5) $$\frac{\text{v}}{\text{c}} = \frac{\text{xh}}{\sqrt{\text{h}^2 + \text{d}^2} (\text{d} + \text{x})}$$

Whence

(6) $$\text{v} = \frac{\text{ch}}{\sqrt{\text{h}^2 + \text{d}^2}} \frac{\text{x}}{\text{d} + \text{x}}$$

In the experiment performed on Feb. 25, 1947, we had

and the value of x was found from several trials to be about 1/20th of an inch. Hence

The latest value for the velocity of light is