Nineteenth-Century Aether Theories

Contents

Preface

Part 1

I. Introduction : the Functions of the Aether

II. The Historical Background of the Nineteenth-century

Aether through Young and Fresnel

III. Aberration from Bradley to Michelson and Morley

IV. The Elastic Solid Aether

V. The Electromagnetic Aether

VI. Lorentz' Aether and the Electron Theory: the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies

References

Part 2

1. Letter from Augustin Fresnel to Francois Arago, On the Influence of the Movement of the Earth on Some Phenomena of Optics

2. On the Aberration of Light

3. On the Relative Motion of the Earth and the Luminiferous Aether

4. On the Laws of the Reflexion and Refraction of Light at the Common Surface of Two Non-crystallized Media

5. An Essay Towards a Dynamical Theory of Crystalline Reflexion and Refraction (Sections I and III)

6. On a Gyrostatic Adynamic Constitution for 'Ether'

7. On the Electromagnetic Theory of the Reflection and Refraction of Light (an extract)

8. The Rotational Ether in its Application to Electromagnetism

9. Aether and Matter (sections 49-54, 102-16)

10. An Inquiry into Electrical and Optical Phenomena in Moving Bodies (Introduction)

11. Simplified Theory of Electrical and Optical Phenomena in Moving Systems

Index