SIDELIGHTS ON RELATIVITY

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This theory--also called the theory of the stationary luminiferous
ether--moreover found a strong support in an experiment which is
also of fundamental importance in the special theory of relativity,
the experiment of Fizeau, from which one was obliged to infer
that the luminiferous ether does not take part in the movements of
bodies. The phenomenon of aberration also favoured the theory of
the quasi-rigid ether.

The development of the theory of electricity along the path opened
up by Maxwell and Lorentz gave the development of our ideas concerning
the ether quite a peculiar and unexpected turn. For Maxwell himself
the ether indeed still had properties which were purely mechanical,
although of a much more complicated kind than the mechanical
properties of tangible solid bodies. But neither Maxwell nor his
followers succeeded in elaborating a mechanical model for the ether
which might furnish a satisfactory mechanical interpretation of
Maxwell's laws of the electro-magnetic field. The laws were clear