A Recent History Of Æther Research.
I have been looking into the post Michaelson and Morley research and experimental data, and I was surprised at what I ended up finding. It started while looking up Dayton Miller who was an American physicist, he conducted a series of experiments from 1902 to 1933 in an attempt to detect the motion of the Earth through the luminiferous aether.
Miller's experiments were based on the Michelson-Morley experiment, which had failed to detect any motion of the Earth through the aether. However, Miller claimed to have found a small but significant effect, which he interpreted as evidence of the Earth's motion through the aether. As I found his results were controversial, and many physicists believed that they were due to experimental errors. However, Miller's results were also supported by some other experiments that I will cover.
Miller conducted his experiment at Mount Wilson Observatory in California. He used a long interferometer with two arms that were 22 meters long. The interferometer was located in a basement room that was shielded from vibrations and temperature changes. He made his measurements over a period of 21 years, from 1902 to 1933.
He took measurements at different times of day, different seasons, and different years. He also took measurements during solar eclipses, when the Earth's atmosphere was blocked out. Miller's results showed a small but significant difference in the speed of light in the two directions. This difference was consistent with the Earth's motion through the aether. Miller published his results in a series of papers in the 1920s and 1930s.
And as I said there were a couple other experiments that supported Miller's results.
One was the Sagnac experiment, which was conducted by French physicist Georges Sagnac in 1913. The Sagnac experiment used a rotating interferometer to measure the speed of light in two directions, one parallel to the Earth's rotation and one perpendicular to the Earth's rotation. Sagnac found a difference in the speed of light in the two directions, which he interpreted as evidence of the Earth's motion through the aether.
Another experiment that supported Miller's results was the Illingworth experiment, which was conducted by British physicist Arthur Illingworth in 1921. The Illingworth experiment used a rotating mirror to measure the speed of light in two directions, one parallel to the Earth's rotation and one perpendicular to the Earth's rotation. Illingworth found a difference in the speed of light in the two directions, which he interpreted as evidence of the Earth's motion through the aether. [anon]