Quote#Time
The waves of light are not anything mechanical or material, but are…
Quote byOliver Lodge · 1851–1940
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Ether of Space (1909), The Ether of Space, p. 13.
English (original)
The waves of light are not anything mechanical or material, but are something electrical and magnetic—they are, in fact, electrical disturbances periodic in space and time, and travelling with a known and tremendous speed through the ether of space. Their very existence depends upon the ether, and their speed of propagation is its best known and most certain quantitative property.
— Oliver Lodge
More from Oliver Lodge
Motion and force are our primary objects of experience and consciousness; and in terms of them all other less familiar occurrences may conceivably be studied and grasped.
All potential energy exists in the ether. It may vibrate, and it may rotate, but as regards locomotion it is stationary—the most stationary body we know: absolutely stationary, so to speak; our standard of rest.
What properties are essential to a medium capable of transmitting wave motion? Roughly, we may say two: elasticity and inertia.
The oldest and best known function for an ether is the conveyance of light, and hence the name "luminiferous" was applied to it, though at the present day many functions are known, and more will almost certainly be discovered.
A body can only act immediately on what it is in contact with; it must be by the action of contiguous particles—that is, practically, through a continuous medium, that force can be transmitted across space.
Life must be considered sui generis; it is not a form of energy, nor can it be expressed in terms of something else.