Now whatever we may think about the ether it would seem that if there is any such thing filling all “empty” space we might use it for measuring the motion of the earth through it as we did the air current in the car. If the earth is really revolving around the sun the ether must be whizzing through its pores at the rate of about nineteen miles a second. But wait--there is the possibility that the earth carries along with it in its flight through space a sort of atmosphere of ether as it does of air. We must first get rid of this possibility by a preliminary experiment to see if a swiftly moving mass of matter does catch up and carry along with it a little of the ether. This would cause a sort of an eddy or disturbance in the ether in the neighborhood of the moving mass as a boat disturbs the water. For instance, a ray of light passing close to a rapidly revolving wheel would be a little deflected and show a distorted image. Sir Oliver Lodge tried this experiment and got negative results. That is, moving matter does not disturb or carry with it the ether. Consequently, it would seem, we are left to the only other logical alternative, that the ether drifts through matter and we should expect to detect this drift by measuring the speed of light in the direction of the earth’s motion. It ought to take longer for light to travel from one point to another if the earth meantime is moving away from the first point and it ought to take less time if the earth is moving toward it. Well, Michelson and Morley tried this experiment--and also got negative results! It did not make any difference whether the ray of light was sent in the direction of the earth’s movement or the reverse or across the line, it traveled invariably at the same speed, 186,000 miles a second. Here then were two unquestionable experiments apparently contradicting each other. One proved that the ether did not travel with the earth. The other proved that the ether did not stand still while the earth traveled through it. Now when we get contradictory answers to the questions we put to Nature we must assume--unless Nature is nonsensical--that we are asking nonsensical questions. If in the trial of a pickpocket one witness swears that the thief did not run up the street and another witness that he did not run down the street the lawyer does not necessarily say that one of them must be a liar. He meditates a moment and then it occurs to him that possibly the pickpocket did not move or that perhaps he disappeared into the third dimension by climbing up a fire-escape or dropping into a coalhole.