MATTER, ETHER, AND EINSTEIN

The supreme synthesis, the crown of all this progressive conquest of nature, would be to discover that the particles of positive and negative electricity, which make up the atoms of matter, are points or centres of disturbances of some kind in a universal ether, and that all our “energies” (light, magnetism, gravitation, etc.) are waves or strains of some kind set up in the ether by these clusters of electrons.

THE ELECTRON THEORY, OR THE NEW VIEW OF MATTER

The Structure of the Atom

There is general agreement amongst all chemists, physicists, and mathematicians upon the conclusions which we have so far given. We know that the atoms of matter are constantly—either spontaneously or under stimulation—giving off electrons, or breaking up into electrons; and they therefore contain electrons. Thus we have now complete proof of the independent existence of atoms and also of electrons.