Gravitation has always been considered the most mysterious of all
forces. It seems to act instantaneously and continually across millions
of miles of space, and at the same time holds the atoms of matter
together, which are so infinitely small that billions of them could be
crowded upon a needle point!
No substance has yet been found which is “opaque” to gravity. One can
interpose a screen of some kind, which will shut off light or heat or
any of the other energies; but no screen has ever been discovered which
is opaque to gravity! For example, glass transmits light, but insulates
electricity. A sheet of steel is opaque to light, but is transparent
to electricity. But no substance will act as a screen to the pull of
gravitation!
The exact nature of gravitation has long been the subject of scientific
debate. Various theories have been advanced, but objections exist to
them all. Only lately, however, Professor T. J. J. See, government
astronomer of Mare Island, California, has advanced the claim that he
has discovered the real cause of gravity, and that his theory accounts
fully for all known phenomena,--there being no objections against it.
If true, this is indeed a revolutionary discovery of great importance,
and Professor See’s name will go down in history as one of the greatest
scientists of all times!
Briefly stated, his theory is that the pull of gravity consists in
a peculiar series of electromagnetic waves, longer than those of
light and heat, but closely connected with magnetism. These waves are
propagated through space with the speed of light,--that is, 186,000
miles a second, which is the greatest speed ever attainable. These
waves are radiated in all directions, from any given mass of matter,
and their strength is proportional to the size of any given body.
His theory is that these waves interlace and exert, as it were, a
pulling action on each other, in much the same way that two corkscrews,
interlaced and twisted in opposite directions, would pull the handles
nearer and nearer together. In this way the celestial bodies are really
pulled or drawn together, by the action of these interlacing waves.
Professor See also demonstrated before the California Academy of
Science, by a series of experiments, that the north and south magnetic
poles on our earth are not of the same power. At the Equator, the two
poles of the earth’s magnetism are equal; but the magnetic poles are of
unequal depth in the earth,--the north pole being 0.76 of the radius
downward from Hudson Bay, and the South Pole only 0.66 of the radius
downward from King George’s Land, near the South Pole. The result
is that, throughout the southern hemisphere, the magnetic force is
considerably stronger than the northern hemisphere of our globe.
It remains to be seen whether this theory of gravitation is justified
by further experiments.