Tags: atoms, luminescent ether
Categories: Alternative conceptions
An example of an historical scientific conception, now rejected:
"The theory in question was the vortex model of the atom, due in part to Lord Kelvin and prompted by his seeing some clever experiments on the properties of smoke rings, in which they vibrated and gently bounced off one another. Kelvin proposed that atoms were similar formations in the ether, the hypothetical medium that was supposed at the time to carry light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation."
Lindley, David (2020): The Dream Universe. How fundamental physics lost its way. Doubleday.
