"Qu. 18. If in two large tall cylindrical Vessels of Glass
inverted, two little Thermometers be suspended so as not to
touch the Vessels, and the Air be drawn out of one of these
Vessels, and these Vessels thus prepared be carried out of a
cold place into a warm one; the Thermometer _in vacuo_ will
grow warm as much and almost as soon as the Thermometer which
is not _in vacuo_. And when the vessels are carried back into
the cold place, the Thermometer _in vacuo_ will grow cold
almost as soon as the other Thermometer. Is not the Heat of the
warm Room conveyed through the Vacuum by the Vibrations of a
much subtiler Medium than Air, which after the Air was drawn
out remained in the Vacuum? And is not this Medium the same
with that Medium by which Light is [transmitted], and by whose
Vibrations Light communicates Heat to Bodies?... And do not
the Vibrations of this Medium in hot Bodies contribute to the
intenseness and duration of their Heat? And do not hot Bodies
communicate their Heat to contiguous cold ones by the
Vibrations of this Medium propagated from them into the cold
ones? And is not this Medium exceedingly more rare and subtile
than the Air, and exceedingly more elastic and active? And doth
it not readily pervade all bodies? And is it not (by its
elastic force) expanded through all the Heavens?"
"Qu. 22. May not Planets and Comets, and all gross Bodies,
perform their motions more freely, and with less resistance in
this Æthereal Medium than in any Fluid, which fills all Space
adequately without leaving any Pores, and by consequence is much
denser than Quick-silver and Gold? And may not its resistance be
so small, as to be inconsiderable? For instance; if this _Æther_
(for so I will call it) should be supposed 700000 times more
elastic than our Air, and above 700000 times more rare; its
resistance would be above 600000000 times less than that of
Water. And so small a resistance would scarce make any sensible
alteration in the Motions of the Planets in ten thousand Years."
That the ether, if there be such a thing in space, can pass readily
into or through matter is often held proven by tilting a mercury
barometer; when the mercury rises to fill the transparent vacuum.
Everything points to its universal permeance, if it exist at all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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