THE EARLIEST EXPERIMENT WITH THE INTERFEROMETER - THE "ETHER-DRAG" EXPERIMENT

MICHELSON, ALBERT (ABRAHAM).

The relative Motion of Earth and the Luminiferous ether;

New Haven, Conn., J.D. & E.S. Dana, 1881. 8vo. Extracted from "The American Journal of Science", Third series vol. XXII, Numb. CXXVIII, pp. (87-) 166. With title-page to the entire volume. Title-page with a faint rubberstamp. The Michelson-paper: pp. 120-129. Two leaves with small tear to the margin.

The seminal first edition of the first description of the first version of a series of experiments with the Interferometer, which was built by Michelson and with which he planned to measure the relative speeds of light-waves moving at right angles to each other - an experiment that would ultimately lead to the special theory of relativity. The series of experiments ended with the so-called "Michelson-Morley experiment", the results of which were published 6 years after Michelson's first experiment (the item offered here).

The 1887 paper, written together with Morley, constituted an improved attempt of the 1881- version of the experiment. The experiments were designed to calculate the effect of the earth's motion on the passage of light rays through the "luminous ether", which was believed to surround the earth. The experiments were negative and as such led to the introduction of relativity.

"Michelson tried to determinate the relation of ether drift and the velocity of light, effect of extremely minute values...no drift could be found and the "negative result held revolutionary implications which led directly through Lorentz and Einstein to the acceptance of new standards of reference of time and space from geometry an cosmometry."(Dibner).

In 1919 Einstein met Michelson in California. At a dinner given in honor of them both, Einstein said in a speech "You (Michelson) uncovered an insidious defect in the ether theory of light, as it existed, and stimulated the ideas of H.A. Lorentz and Fitzgerald, out of which the Special Theory of Relativity developed. Without your work this theory would today be scarcely more than an interesting speculation..." In an interview in 1842 Einstein said: "It is no doubt that Michelson's experiment was of considerably influence upon my work insofar as it strengthened my conviction concerning the validity of the Principle of relativity...On the other side I was pretty much convinced of the validity of the principle before I did know this experiment and its result. In any case, Michelson's experiment removed practically any doubt about the validity of the principle in optics and showed that a profound change of the basic concepts of physics was inevitable."

Michelson was awarded the 1907 Nobel Prize "for his optical precision instrument (the inteferometer) and the spectroscopic and metrological investigations he has carried on."
Dibner: Heralds of Science: 161 (the 1887-experiment) - Vide PMM: 378,410,408.

Order-nr.: 39061