No, 208. Vor. XXXIV. NOVEMBER, 1887. ‘Established by BENJAMIN SILLIMAN in 1818. THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. EDITORS JAMES D. axp EDWARD S. DANA. Paoressous ASA GRAY, JOSIAH P, COOKE, axp JOHN TROWBRIDGE, or Cansnivsz, Paorussoxs H. A. NEWTON axo A. E. VERRILL, or Naw Havex, Paorssson GEORGE F, BARKER, or Purtapsiruna, THIRD SERIES, VOL. XXXIV.—[WHOLE NUMBER, OXXXIV.) No. 203—NOVEMBER, 1887. NEW HAVEN, CONN.: J. D. & B, 8, DANA. 1887. rurtus, wonsoveE ‘x dolare (portage prepaid) $8.40 to foreign subscribers of counsloe ‘he Focal Olina Ranintseer should be sade set by money orders, rogicuncd liters or bank checks. THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. [THIRD SERIES.] Ant. XXXVIL—On the Relative Motion of the Barth and the Luminiferous Elher; by Auwext A. MICHELSON and Eowarp W. Motry.* ‘Tae discovery of the aberration of light was soon followed by an explanation according to the emission theory. ‘The effet was attributed to a simple composition of the velocity of light wrth the velocity of the earth fn ita orbit "The difficulties in this apparently sufficient explanation were overlooked until after an explanation on the undulatory theory of light. was pro} hia new explanation was at first almost as simple former. But it failed to account for the fact proved by experiment that the aberration wad unchanged when observa: tions were made with a telescope filled with wator. For if the tangent of the angle of aberration is the ratio of the velocity of the earth to the velocity of light, then, since the latter velocity in water is three-fourths its velocity in vacuam, the aberration observed with a water telescope should be four- thirds of ite true value.t {tay be poloed Ghat most writers adn tho ullsiency of te explanation ‘otoriag’ tthe emianion theory of ight whlle ta fact the aeaty io (eater chan ecording to te undulatory theory, For on the esa theory te ‘slooty of light monte grentor in the water teleicope, and aerators the ange ‘SL ebatratcn should: Ye Gena; bono ardor to redoce Wt steve value, 6 make the absurd hrpothnta thatthe motion ‘of tho alo in te encopa ‘ivae tbe ray of light in tho oppate direction! ‘Ax. Joos. Sot—Muuap Sante, Vor. XXXIV, No, 203.—Nov, 1861.884 Michelson and Morley—Motion of the Earth, ete, On the undulatory theory, according to Fresnel, first, the ether is supposed to be at rest excep: in the interior of transparent ‘modi, in which secondly, it is supposed to move with avelociy Ten than the vl of tho medio in theraio "5, where ‘nis the index of refraction. ‘These two hypotheses give a com. jete and. satisfactory explanation of aberration, ‘The second yypothesis, notwithstanding its seeming improbability, must be considered as fally proved, rst, by the celebrated experiment of Fizeau," and secondly, by the ample confirmation of our own work.t| The experimental trial of the first: hypothesis forms the subject of the preseut paper. Tf the earth were a transparent body, it. might perbay ‘conceded, in view of the experiments just cited, that the inter- molecular ether was at rest in space, notwithstanding the mo- fon of the earth in ita orbit; but Wwe have no right to tend the conclusion from these experiments to opaque bodi But there ean hardly be question that the ether can and does through metals, Lorentz cites the illustention of a metallio srometer tube. When the tube is inclined the ether in the pace above the mercury is certainly forved ont, for it is im- compressible But again wo have no right to aseume that it makes its eseape with perfect freedom, and if there be any ance, however slight, we certainly could not assume an opaque Vody such as the whole earth to offer free passage through its entire mass, But as Lorentz. aptly remarks: “quoi quil en soit, on fera bien, & mon avis, de ne pas se laisser guider, di ‘une guestion aussi importante, par des considérations sur le dogré do probabilité on do simnplicité de Pane ou de Fautre hypothise, mais de s'addresser a Pexpérience pour apprendre & connaitre I’état, de repos oa de moavement, dans lequel #9 trouve Méther d la surface terrestre.”§ To April, 1881, a method was proposed and earried out for testing the question experimentally, In deducing the formula for the quantity the effect of the motion of the earth throug! path of the ray at right angles to this motion was overlooked. 4 Compios Rendon, xxx, 349, 1851; Pogg, Ano. Nrghnzungsband, x, 481, 458; "Aon, Chim Phys HT i 365, 1830 ee: Tatars of Aiton tthe Mao om tho Vast of Light. This Jura ey be jeri ht it ay nape by the etc betwee the merry and tnd wale” pact st be pore by naapnttog ie ae “Srbives Neariandsiny, Sx, 2 * rates op ere hire Abert A Tit maybe menne re the he error man antennae of he forber oper op Me Poker, of Por i tho itor of 108. Michelson and Morloy—Relative Motion of the 386 ‘The discusssion of this oversight aod of the entire experiment forms the subject of a very searching analysis by H. A. Lo- rents," who finds that this effect can by no means be ied. In uence, the quantity to be measured had in fact bat onetalf the value supposed, and as it was already barely be- ‘ond the limits of errors of éxperiment, the conclasion drawn From the result of the experiment might well be questioned ; since, however, the main portion of the theory remains un- questioned, it was decided to repeat the experiment with such SBodiintions a= would insure a theoreeal result mach oo to be masked by experimental errors. ‘The theory of the ekiod may be briefly staied as follows: ‘Let sa, fig. 1, bo a ray of light which is partly reflected in ab, and partly transmitted in ao, being returned by the mir- rors } and ¢, along 6a and ox, ba is parily transmitted along ad, and ca is partly refleoted along ad. If then the paths ab and ac tue equa, the two rays interforo along ad, Sappose now, the ether being at rest, that the whole apparatus moves in the di- ‘rection o, With the velocity of the oarth in ite orbit, the diree- ** Do'ntoence du Mouvement de Ia Torro sur Ios Phan. Lam, Archives Néer- anaes, T= ie 1880.396 Earth and the Luminiferous Biker. tions and distances traversed by the rays will be altered thus:— ‘The ray on is reflected long ah, fig. 2: tho angle ab, bel equal to the aberration =a, is returned along ba,, (aba, =2a), an 08 to the focus of the telescope, whose direction is unaltared. the transmitted ray goes along az is returned along ca, and is, reflected at a,, making ca equal 90—a, and therefore stil oot Slog wh te fry Teay be ered tat he rae ay land ca,,do not now meet exacily in the same point a, thought the difference is of the second order; this does not affect t validity of the reasoning. Let it now be required to find the difference in the two paths aba,, and dea, Let V=velocity of light. v=velocity of the earth in ite orbit, jtanee ab oF ac, fg. 1. ‘P=time light occupies to pass from a toe, T =time light occupies to retarn from e to a, (fg 2.) Then T=y?, Taye, The whole time of going and com- ingis T+T,=2D y¥y, and the distance traveled in this time is Dye a0(14+ 9) neglesting terms of the fourth order. ‘The length of the other path is tied aD 14H Fy OF tothe ‘same degree of accuracy, 20(1+393)- ‘The difference is there- foreD%. If now the whole apparatus be turned through 90%, the difference will be in the opposite direction, henoe the dis- placement of the interference fringes should be 2D. Con sidering only the velocity of the earth in its orbit, this would be 2D%10-*. If, as was the caso in the first experiment, D=2x10" waves of yellow light, the displacement, to bo {Epocted would be OO ofthe distance between the ineferene fringes, Tn the first experiment one of the principal difficulties en- countered was that of revolving the apparatus without produ- Ging distortion ; and another was its extreme sensitiveness to vibration, ‘This was 90 great that it was impossible to see the interference fringes except at brief intervals when workin tbe cig, even ab two oelock in the moraing, Finally, ax fore remarked, the quantity to be observed, namely, a displace- ment of something less than a twentieth’ of the distance be- tmeen the interference fringes may have been too small to be detected when masked by experimental errors. Michelson and Morley—Relative Motion of the 387 ‘The first named difficulties were entirely overeome by mount. ing the apparatas on a massive stone flosting on mercury ; and thesecond by increasing, by repeated reflection, the path of the bout tan tment formor vals "he apparatus in tive in Aig. 8, in plan in fg. 4 and in vertical section in Og, 6. ‘The stone a (ig. Sisuboat 15 thotor square and 0°3 moter thiol. It rats on an aonular ‘wooden float. 4), 1°5 meter outside diameter, 07 meter inside diameter, and 0:25 meter thick. The float’rests on mercury ‘contained in the cast-iron trough cc, 1° centimoter thick, and ‘of each dimensions as to leave a clearance of about one centi meter around the Goat, pind guided by arms ggg, Bt nto socket ¢ attached to the float. ‘The pin may be pushed into the socker or be withdrawn, by a lever pivoted at f- ‘This pin Keeps the float concentric with the trough, but. does not bear any part of the weight of the stone. ‘The anvalar iron trough reals on a bed of cement on a low brick pier bailt in the form of a hollow octagon At each corner of the stone were placed four mirrors dd ee fig. 4. Near the center of the stone was a plane-parallel glass 8, ‘These were eo disposed that light trom an argend barner a, passing through a lens, fell on 8 so as to be in. part reflected tod the two pencil followed the path indiated in the figure, ddedif and bd.ed Pf respectively, and were observed by the tele- scope f. Both /-and a revolved with the stone. ‘The mirrors were of apecalam metal carefully worked to optically plane surfaces five centimeters in diameter, and the % ande tvere plane-parallel and of the same thickness, 15 centimeter888 Earth and the Luminiferous Ether. their surfaces measured 5:0 by 7°5 centimeters. ‘The second of these was placed in the path of one of the penctis to compen- sate for the passage of the other through the same thickness of ass. ‘The whole of the optical portion of the apparatus was ept covered with & wooden cover to prevent air currents and ‘rapid changes of temperature, he adjustment was effected as follows: The mirrors hav- ing been adjusted by screws in the castings which held the mirrors, against which they wore pressed by eprings, till light From both pencils could be seen in the telesvope, the lengths of ‘the two paths wore measured by a light wooden, rod reaching, diagonally from mirror to mirror, the distance being read from ‘2 small steel seale to tenths of millimeters. ‘The difference in ‘of the two paths was then annulled by moving the hia mirror hed three adjustments; it bad an adjust- ‘mont in altitude and ono in azimath, like all the other mirrors, Michelson and Morloy—Relative Motion of the 888 bat finer ; it als: had an adjustment in the direotion of the Rledent ray, sliding forward or backward, bat Keeping very Soouraiely parallel to its former plane, ‘The three adjustmenia ofthis mittor could be made mith the wooden cover in position. ‘The pathe being now approximately equal, the twa images of the source of light or of some well-deBned abjest placed ia front of the condensing Tens, were made to coincide, the tles- ‘ope was now adjusted for distinct vision of the expected forence bands, and sodium light was substituted for whit ight, shen the interference bands appeared. These were now made Zn clear as possible by adjasting the mirror ¢, then white light tras restored, the corew altering the length of path was very lowly moved (ove tura of a screw of one hundred threads to the inch altering the path neatly 1000 wavelengths) Ui the colored intron. fence. fringes reappeare fo white ight. hove were now given a cone Yeniont. width and’ posi Too, and” the spparatas fens’ ready for obvervar ton, "The observations were conducted as follows: ‘round the castiron twoogh were sixteen equidistant marke, The apparates was evolved very slowly (one turn in six” minutes) and after « Few minutes the eross wire of the micrometer was set on the clearest of the interference fringes at the instant of passing one of the marks, ‘The motion was so slow that this could. be done readily and accurately. ‘The reading of the sorew-head ‘on the micrometer was noted, and a very sight and gradual mpalse was given to keep up the motion of the stone; on paming the second mark, the same process was repeated, and Eis was contioued tll the apparaiae bad completed ix revala- tions, Te was found that by Keoping the apparatus in. slow Uniform motion, the results were much more aniform and con- sistent than when the stone was brought to res for every ob- servation; for the effects of trains could be foted for at least half minute after the stone came to rest, and daring this time flaca of change of temperature came fat action. ‘The following tables give the means of the six readings ; the frat, for observations made near noon, the second, those near siz delock in the evening, ‘The reapings are divisions of the fcrew-heads.” The width of the fringes varied from 40 to 60 ‘visions the mean "value being ear 60, 10 that one division340 Earth and the Luminiforous Ether, means 0-02 wave-length. ‘The rotation in the observations at ‘noon was contrary to, and in the evening observations, with, that of the bands ofa watch * says uly 8 ra Solfo a Say 3 9] 199 es Mean] a 3) Mean i'w: i] soe |) rout meas. | 9 es) Sa 2] Sa) ese P.M, Onsen Arion, ay as wT wT wy ey wa Ty wre wy Ta Ts Tae, HT July 9c} 360) a) 352 203 ata] aol ara) a1 ao] asl ava a] 3 1. | 5] 4 July B82] are ors ava’) ea] ary 0a 513) Sa) ete roto Been] ara si) 2s $59 a 4 a, | Se 69) Soe al ero oe ifs a e884 ia se i ‘The results of the observations are expressed graphically in fig. 6. The upper is the curve for the observations at noon, and the lower that for the evoning observations. ‘Tho dotted éarves represent one-eighth of the theoretical displacements, It seems fair to conclude from the figure that if there is any dis- lacement due to the relative motion of the earth and the luminiferous ether, this cannot be mach greater than 0-01 of the distance between the fringes. ‘Considering the motion of the earth in ita orbit only, this Micheloon and Morley—Relative Motion of the 841. displacement should be 2D¥y=2DX10-*. ‘Tho distance D was ‘bout cloven motors, or 2X107 wavelengths of yellow light totes the dipinnnont to be expected wan Oo fringe, “The Seton! displacement was certainly lees than’ the twentieth part of this and probably Tess than the fortieth part. But since the displacement is proportional to the aquare of the velocity, the folative velocity of the earth and the ether is probably leas than One sixth the earth's orbital velocity, and certainly lew than one-fourth ‘fa what precedes, only the orbital motion of the earth is con- sidered. If this is combined with the motion of the solar sys- fom, coocerning which but little is known with corilnty, th result would have to be modified ; and itis Jost posible that the resultant veloity atthe time of the observations was small ‘toogh she chances are mach agra i The experiment wil therofore be repeated at intervals of three months, and thos all sgenainy wl arid cana ¢ fe appears from all that , reasonably oertain that i there be any relative motion between the earth and the luminif feroos ether, it must be small; quite soall enough entirely to fefuto Freenel's explanation of aberration, Stokes has given a theory of aberration wbich assumes the other at the earth's eur- face fo be at rest with rogard to. the latter, and only requires in addition that the relative velocity bave a potential; but Lorentz shows that these conditions are incompatible. Lorents tin proposes a modifeation which combines some ideas ‘of Stokes and Fresnel, and assumes the existence of a potential, together with Fresnel's coeflcient. Tf now it were legitimate tovonclude from the present work that the ether is nt rest with, regard to the earth's surface, according to Lorents there could Zot be a velovity potential aud his own theory also fails, ‘Supplement. It is obvious from what has gone before that it would be ‘hopeless to attempt to solve the question of the motion of the solar system by observations of optical phenomena at te eure of the earth. But it is not impossible that at even moderate dis- oes Ga eral of nes tha ep isolated moun tain for instance, the relative motion might be peroepti- Bie it an apparatns ike that wed in these experiments. Ber- hhaps if the experiment should ever be tried in these circum- stances, the cover should be of glass, or should be removed. Tt may be worth while to notice another method for multi- plying the azuae of the aberration suficenty to bring it within the range of observation, which has presented itself during the8 Earth and the Luminiferows Ether. tion of this paper. This is founded on the fact that re- ection from surfaces in motion varies from the ordinary laws oF Fet al (ged) be «pl falling on the t ‘a (fig. 1) be a plane wave falling on the mirror mn at. an inclienea of abe Te the mirror isa en, the wave font afer reflection will be ao. ‘Now suppose the mirror to move in a direction which males fan angle @ with its normal, with a velocity a Let V be the velocity of light in the ether supposed stationary, and let od be the increase in the distance the light has to travel to reach d. In this time the mirror will have moved a distance oo. ed _wy2eosa _ ae We have = oes which pur= 7, and SF In order to find the new wave front, draw the arc fy with das ‘8 center and ad as radius; the tangent to this are from d will be the new wave front, and the normal to the tangent from will be the new direction. Tis will differ from the direction ba by the angle @ which itis required to find. From the equal- ity Of the triangles adb and edb it follows that 0=29, ab=ac, 4 to tan adb= tan(as° — 2) = =H a1-5, (ee a)= oF neglecting terms of the onder _ viwcoa, a! dart et cose Now let the light fall on parallel mirror facing the frat, we should then have 0, —V7@°% 4 costa, and the total do- intion would te 9440,=2¢ oos'a where p i the angle of herraton, if only the ortital raotion of the carth is considered, ‘The maximum displacement obtained by revolving. the whole apparatas through 00° would be d=2'—O008". With fifty such couples the displacement would be 02". Bat astronomi- fal observations in ereumstances far less favorable than, toae fn which these may be taken have been made to hundredtbe of a'socond a0 that this new method bids fair to be at least aa tetive tthe former. 6 arangement of apparatas might be asin fig. 2; #in the focus of the lens a, is a slit; bb cc are two glass mirrors op! cally plane an so silvered a8 to allow say one twentieth of the Tight fo! pam through, and reflecting say finety per eont- ‘The intensity'of the fight falling on the obeerving telescope df Micholoon and Morley— Relative Motion of the 34848 Earth and the Luminiferous Bier. would be about one-millionth of the original intensity, so that if sunlight or the electric are were used it could still be readily seen. ‘The mirrors bb, and ec, would differ from parallel sufficiently to separate the succesive images. Final apparatus need not be mounted so as to revolve, as the earth's rotation woald be sufficient. If it were possible to measure with sufficient accuracy the velocity of light without returning the ray to its starting point, the problem of measuring the fist power of the relative velocity of the earth with respect to the ether would be solved. ‘This, may not be a8 hopeless as might appear at first sight, since the difficulties are entirely mechanical and may possibly be sur- mogatod in the coors of Sima : jor example, suppose (8g. 8) m and m, two mirrors revolving swith equal velocity in opposite directions, Itis evident that light from + will form a stationary image at s, and similarly light from 4, will form a stationary image at s. “If now the velocity of the mirrors be increased sufficiently, their phases still being exactly the came, both images will be deflected from s and 5, in inverse proportion to the velocities of ght in the two direc tions; or, If the two deflections are made oqual, and the differ- fence of phase of the mirrors be simultaneously measured, this mill evidently be proportional to the difference of velocity in the two directions, The only real difficulty lies in this measure ment. ‘The following is porhaps a possible solution : 97, (Bg. 4) are two gratings on which sunlight is concentrated. ‘These ae placed so that aftr falling onthe revolving mirrors m and 1m, the light forms images of the gratings at » and s, two very selenium cells circuit wih a bruery and s telephone. ng be symmetrical, the sound in the telephone will be 8 maximam. If now one of the slits « be displaced through nlf th distance betmeen the image of the gating arg there will be silence. Suppose now that the two deflections having been made exacily equal, the slit is adjusted for silence. ‘Thea if the experiment be repeated when the earth's rotation has turned the whole apparatus through 180°, and the deflections sre again mado equal ther will vo longer be silence, and the angular distance through which s must be moved to restore silence will measure the required difference in phase. ‘There renisin three other methods, all astronomical, for at- tacking the problem of the motion of the solar system through space. i, 1. ‘The telescopic observation of the motions of the wary This has given us a highly probably determination of the direction of this motion, bat only a guess as to its amount. 2. ‘The spectroscopio obwervation of the motion of stara in the line of sight. This could farnish data for tho relative Michelson and. Morley—Hotion of the Earth, etc. 845 motions only though it seems likely bat by the immense im- ements fa the photography of sear sptcts, the informe: Bon thus obtained will be far more accurate than any other. ’3, Hinelly there remains the determi Of the velocity of light by observations of the eclipses of Jupiter satellites.” If the improved photometric methods practiced at the Harvard observatory make it possible to observe these with suficient accuracy, ihe difference in the results found for the velocity of light when Jupiter is nearest to and farthest from the lini of mbtion will give, not merely the motion of the solar system with reference to the stars, but with reference to the Iumin- iferous ether itself.