Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 56, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 March 1911 — GRAVITY IS A PUSH [ARTICLE]

GRAVITY IS A PUSH

Ohio Physicist Gives Old Newton Theory a Jolt. Assumes Ether to Be Endowed With Vast Kinetic Energy Relative to Atoms—Dr. Brush Explains His Idea of Gravitation. St. Paul, Minn. —The Newtonian theory of gravitation that has stood for ages was upset when Dr. Charles F. Brush, Cleveland, 0., one of the leading physicists of the country, ascribed the falling propensities of matter to a “pushing” property within itself derived from the ether through which it falls, rather than to a “pulling” power from the earth on the falling body. Doctor Brush established the converse theory that the energy exhibited in the gravitation is fully restored to the ether when the body is raised against the gravitation attraction. Doctor Brush assumes the ether to be endowed with a vast Intrinsic feiflCfifl energy, which Is in wave form and is translated to the atoms or molecules. In his paper on the “Kinetic Theory of Gravitation," read before the physics section of the scientists’ convention, Doctor Brush, after discussing at length the origin of the energy acquired by a falling body, concludes that the gathered enerjgy comes from the ether through which the body falls. “Conversely,” said Doctor Brush, “equivalent energy Is restored to the ether when the body Is raised against gravitation attraction. “The ether is assumed to be endowed with vast intrinsic kinetic energy In wave form. The waves are of such low frequency, or otherwise of such character, that they paBS through the bodies without obstruction other than that concerned in gravitation. -They are propagated in straight lines in every conceivable direction, so that the wavs energy Is Isotropic, being to this respect like radiation to the Interior space of a furnace with uniformly heated walls. Distribution of the ether's intrinsic energy is uniform throughout the universe as modified by the presence of matter. Any kind ofether waves capable of exerting mo &re action on the atoms or molecules of matter will fulfill the requirement*. “Atoms are imagined to be continually buffeted to all directions by the ether waves to path 8 almost infinitesimally short, but without collision because neighboring atoms follow very nearly paralelled paths. The moving atoms are likened to particles of a precipitate Suspended to turbulent water. “Each atom or molecule is regarded aa a center of activity, due to Its kinetic energy of translation derived initially from the ether. There is continual absorption and restitution of the ether’s energy, normally equal to amount. But the other is permanently robbed of as much of Its energy as It represented by the mean kinetic energy of the atom. This energy deficiency to the ether Is not wholly local, but extends Indefinitely Into space, diminishing to strength as the square of the distance increases. “A body of matter Is pictured M casting to effect a spherical energy shadow consisting of the sum of the shadows of Its constituent units, the depth or intensity of the shadow varying with the inverse square of the distance from the center of the body. Another body at any distance will cast s similar shadow and the two shadows will Intersect, each body being partially shielded by the other from waves doming from that direction, the extent of the shielding effect

depending directly on the mass of the shielding body. “Of the several components Into which the composite motion of each atom can be resolved, that one lying in the direction of an attracting body will be the greatest because the waves from that direction being partially Intercepted by the attracting body, are weakest, and the atom will be pushed to that direction by the superior waves behind It. If free to fall, the atom will continually absorb more energy from the stronger waves behind It than' it restores to the weaker waves to front, and will thus acquire additional kinetic energy of translation to the line of fall, measured directly by the number of waves Involved, 1. e., by the distance moved. Conversely, if the atom be forced away from the attracting body restitution of energy will exceed absorption, and the energy expended to moving the atom against attraction will be transferred to the ether. “It will be seen that gravitation is a push toward the attracting body and not a pull. It is clear, also, that the velocity which a falling body can acquire tends asymptotically to a limit, which is the velocity of the ether waves which push; the velocity of light, If transverse waves are Involved."