Table of Contents

• Preface
• Foreword by Gerald Holton
• 1. Perspectives on the Aether
• 2. Dramatis Personae of Aether Drift
• 3. Michelson and Interferometry, 1880–1883
• 4. The Classic Experiments, 1884–1890
• 5. Contradictions and Contractions, 1890–1900
• 6. Transformations of the Aether, circa 1900
• 7. Morley-Miller Experiments, 1900–1905
• 8. The Rise of Relativity, 1905–1910
• 9. The Fall of the Aether, 1910–1920
• 10. Miller Challenges Michelson, 1920–1925
• 11. Michelson Reaffirms the Null, 1925–1930
• 12. Aether Experiments and Physical Theory
• Appendix A: “The Relative Motion of the Earth and the Luminiferous Ether,” by Albert A. Michelson, Master, U.S. Navy (1881)
• Appendix B: “Influence of Motion of the Medium on the Velocity of Light,” by Albert A. Michelson and Edward W. Morley (1886)
• Appendix C: “On the Relative Motion of the Earth and the Luminiferous Ether,” by Albert A. Michelson and Edward W. Morley (1887)
• Note on Sources
• Bibliography
• Index

About the Author

Loyd S. Swenson, Jr., is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Houston.