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Line 2: − + − + − + − + − + − − " The [[hypothesis]] of an aether has been maintained by [[different]] speculators for very different [[reasons]]. To those who [[maintained]] the [[existence]] of a plenum as a philosophical principle, [[nature]]'s abhorrence of a [[vacuum]] was a sufficient [[reason]] for ''imagining'' an all-surrounding aether, even though every other [[argument]] should be against it. To [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descartes Descartes], who made extension the sole [[essential]] property of [[matter]], and matter a [[necessary]] condition of extension, the bare existence of bodies [[apparently]] at a distance was a [[proof]] of the existence of a [[continuous]] [[medium]] between them. But besides these high [[metaphysical]] necessities for a medium, there were more mundane uses to be fulfilled by aethers. Aethers were [[invented]] for the [[planets]] to swim in, to [[constitute]] [[electric]] [[atmosphere]]s and [[magnetic]] effluvia, to convey sensations from one part of our bodies to another, and so on, till all [[space]] had been filled three or four times over with aethers. It is only when we remember the extensive and mischievous [[influence]] on [[science]] which [[hypotheses]] about aethers used formerly to [[exercise]], that we can appreciate the horror of aethers which sober-minded men had during the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18th_Century 18th century], and which, probably as a sort of hereditary [[prejudice]], descended even to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stuart_Mill John Stuart Mill]. The [[disciples]] of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton Newton] [[maintained]] that in the [[fact]] of the [[mutual]] [[gravitation]] of the heavenly bodies, according to Newton's law, they had a complete [[quantitative]] account of their [[motions]]; and they endeavoured to follow out the path which Newton had opened up by [[investigating]] and [[measuring]] the [[attractions]] and repulsions of [[electrified]] and [[magnetic]] bodies, and the cohesive [[forces]] in the interior of bodies, without attempting to account for these [[forces]]. Newton himself, however, endeavoured to account for [[gravitation]] by [[differences]] of [[pressure]] in an aether; but he did not publish his [[theory]], ` because he was not able from [[experiment]] and [[observation]] to give a satisfactory account of this [[medium]], and the [[manner]] of its operation in producing the chief [[phenomena]] of [[nature]].' On the other hand, those who imagined aethers in order to explain [[phenomena]] could not specify the [[nature]] of the motion of these media, and could not ''prove'' that the media, as imagined by them, would produce the [[effects]] they were meant to explain. The only aether which has [[survived]] is that which was [[invented]] by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christiaan_Huygens Huygens] to explain the propagation of [[light]]. The [[evidence]] for the [[existence]] of the luminiferous aether has accumulated as additional [[phenomena]] of [[light]] and other [[radiation]]s have been [[discovered]]; and the properties of this medium, as deduced from the phenomena of light, have been found to be precisely those required to explain [[electromagnetic]] [[phenomena]]." This description, quoted from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Clark_Maxwell James Clerk Maxwell]'s article in the 9th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, [[represents]] the historical position of the subject up till about 1860, when Maxwell began those constructive speculations in [[electrical]] [[theory]], based on the [[influence]] of the physical views of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Faraday Faraday] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Kelvin Lord Kelvin], which have in their subsequent [[development]] largely transformed theoretical [[physics]] into the [[science]] of the ''aether''.[http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Aether] + + +
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==Origin==
==Origin==
[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._1100-1500_.09THE_MIDDLE_ENGLISH_PERIOD Middle English], from [[Latin]] ''aether'', from [[Greek]] ''aithēr'', from ''aithein'' to [[ignite]], blaze; akin to [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._600-1100.09THE_OLD_ENGLISH.2C_OR_ANGLO-SAXON_PERIOD Old English] ''ād pyre''
[https://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._1100-1500_.09THE_MIDDLE_ENGLISH_PERIOD Middle English], from [[Latin]] ''aether'', from [[Greek]] ''aithēr'', from ''aithein'' to [[ignite]], blaze; akin to [https://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._600-1100.09THE_OLD_ENGLISH.2C_OR_ANGLO-SAXON_PERIOD Old English] ''ād pyre''
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14th_century 14th Century]
*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14th_century 14th Century]
'''Aether''' (also Æthere, Greek: Αἰθήρ), in [[Greek]] [[mythology]], is one of the Protogenoi, the first-born elemental [[gods]]. He is the [[personification]] of the upper sky, [[space]], and [[heaven]], and is the elemental god of the "Bright, Glowing, Upper Air." He is the pure upper air that the gods [[breathe]], as [[opposed]] to the [[normal]] air (Ἀήρ, aer) [[mortals]] [[breathe]].
'''Aether''' (also Æthere, Greek: Αἰθήρ), in [[Greek]] [[mythology]], is one of the Protogenoi, the first-born elemental [[gods]]. He is the [[personification]] of the upper sky, [[space]], and [[heaven]], and is the elemental god of the "Bright, Glowing, Upper Air." He is the pure upper air that the gods [[breathe]], as [[opposed]] to the [[normal]] air (Ἀήρ, aer) [[mortals]] [[breathe]].
In [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesiod Hesiod]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theogony Theogony], he was the son of Erebus and Nyx and brother of Hemera. Both were noted in passing in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicero Cicero]'s ''De Natura deorum'', but Hyginus mentioned Chaos as his parent. The aether was also known as Zeus' defensive wall, the bound that locked Tartarus from the rest of the [[cosmos]].
In [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesiod Hesiod]'s [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theogony Theogony], he was the son of Erebus and Nyx and brother of Hemera. Both were noted in passing in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicero Cicero]'s ''De Natura deorum'', but Hyginus mentioned Chaos as his parent. The aether was also known as Zeus' defensive wall, the bound that locked Tartarus from the rest of the [[cosmos]].
Aether had several offspring, but Hyginus seems to confuse him with Uranus when saying that Aether had Uranus by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_(mythology) Gaia], his daughter. Aergia, a goddess of sloth and laziness, is the daughter of Aether and Gaia. Hyginus is also our [[source]] for telling us that Aether is the [[father]] of Uranus and Gaia. But another source tells us that it is just Uranus who is his [[child]]. And like Tartaros and Erebos, in Hellas he might have had [[shrines]] but no temples and probably no [[cult]] either. In the Orphic hymns, he is mentioned as the [[soul]] of the world from which all life [[emanates]]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callimachus Callimachus], in calling Uranus Akmonides, claims him as the son of Akmon, and Eustathius in Alcman tells us that the sons of Uranus were called Akmonidai.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aether_%28mythology%29]
Aether had several offspring, but Hyginus seems to confuse him with Uranus when saying that Aether had Uranus by [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_(mythology) Gaia], his daughter. Aergia, a goddess of sloth and laziness, is the daughter of Aether and Gaia. Hyginus is also our [[source]] for telling us that Aether is the [[father]] of Uranus and Gaia. But another source tells us that it is just Uranus who is his [[child]]. And like Tartaros and Erebos, in Hellas he might have had [[shrines]] but no temples and probably no [[cult]] either. In the Orphic hymns, he is mentioned as the [[soul]] of the world from which all life [[emanates]]. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callimachus Callimachus], in calling Uranus Akmonides, claims him as the son of Akmon, and Eustathius in Alcman tells us that the sons of Uranus were called Akmonidai.[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aether_%28mythology%29]
==1911 Brittanica==
==1911 Brittanica==
AETHER, or '''Ether''' (Gr. aither, probably from aitho, I burn, though [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato Plato] in his Cratylus (410 B) derives the name from its perpetual [[motion]]-6n del aei thei peri ton aera reon, / aeitheer) dikaios an kaloito), a [[material]] substance of a more subtle kind than [[visible]] bodies, supposed to exist in those parts of [[space]] which are apparently empty.
AETHER, or '''Ether''' (Gr. aither, probably from aitho, I burn, though [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato Plato] in his Cratylus (410 B) derives the name from its perpetual [[motion]]-6n del aei thei peri ton aera reon, / aeitheer) dikaios an kaloito), a [[material]] substance of a more subtle kind than [[visible]] bodies, supposed to exist in those parts of [[space]] which are apparently empty.
" The [[hypothesis]] of an aether has been maintained by [[different]] speculators for very different [[reasons]]. To those who [[maintained]] the [[existence]] of a plenum as a philosophical principle, [[nature]]'s abhorrence of a [[vacuum]] was a sufficient [[reason]] for ''imagining'' an all-surrounding aether, even though every other [[argument]] should be against it. To [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descartes Descartes], who made extension the sole [[essential]] property of [[matter]], and matter a [[necessary]] condition of extension, the bare existence of bodies [[apparently]] at a distance was a [[proof]] of the existence of a [[continuous]] [[medium]] between them. But besides these high [[metaphysical]] necessities for a medium, there were more mundane uses to be fulfilled by aethers. Aethers were [[invented]] for the [[planets]] to swim in, to [[constitute]] [[electric]] [[atmosphere]]s and [[magnetic]] effluvia, to convey sensations from one part of our bodies to another, and so on, till all [[space]] had been filled three or four times over with aethers. It is only when we remember the extensive and mischievous [[influence]] on [[science]] which [[hypotheses]] about aethers used formerly to [[exercise]], that we can appreciate the horror of aethers which sober-minded men had during the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18th_Century 18th century], and which, probably as a sort of hereditary [[prejudice]], descended even to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stuart_Mill John Stuart Mill]. The [[disciples]] of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton Newton] [[maintained]] that in the [[fact]] of the [[mutual]] [[gravitation]] of the heavenly bodies, according to Newton's law, they had a complete [[quantitative]] account of their [[motions]]; and they endeavoured to follow out the path which Newton had opened up by [[investigating]] and [[measuring]] the [[attractions]] and repulsions of [[electrified]] and [[magnetic]] bodies, and the cohesive [[forces]] in the interior of bodies, without attempting to account for these [[forces]]. Newton himself, however, endeavoured to account for [[gravitation]] by [[differences]] of [[pressure]] in an aether; but he did not publish his [[theory]], ` because he was not able from [[experiment]] and [[observation]] to give a satisfactory account of this [[medium]], and the [[manner]] of its operation in producing the chief [[phenomena]] of [[nature]].' On the other hand, those who imagined aethers in order to explain [[phenomena]] could not specify the [[nature]] of the motion of these media, and could not ''prove'' that the media, as imagined by them, would produce the [[effects]] they were meant to explain. The only aether which has [[survived]] is that which was [[invented]] by [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christiaan_Huygens Huygens] to explain the propagation of [[light]]. The [[evidence]] for the [[existence]] of the luminiferous aether has accumulated as additional [[phenomena]] of [[light]] and other [[radiation]]s have been [[discovered]]; and the properties of this medium, as deduced from the phenomena of light, have been found to be precisely those required to explain [[electromagnetic]] [[phenomena]]." This description, quoted from [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Clark_Maxwell James Clerk Maxwell]'s article in the 9th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, [[represents]] the historical position of the subject up till about 1860, when Maxwell began those constructive speculations in [[electrical]] [[theory]], based on the [[influence]] of the physical views of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Faraday Faraday] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Kelvin Lord Kelvin], which have in their subsequent [[development]] largely transformed theoretical [[physics]] into the [[science]] of the ''aether''.[https://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Aether]
==See also==
*'''''[[Heaven]]'''''
[[Category: History]]
[[Category: History]]
[[Category: Physics]]
[[Category: Physics]]