Ethers,Religion and Politics in Late-Victorian Physics: Beyond the Wynne Thesis

Cantor G. Hodge M. J. S. (ed.), Conceptions of ether: Studies in the history of ether theories 1740–1900 (Cambridge, 1981).

Cantor G. , “The theological significance of ethers”, in Cantor Hodge (ed.), op. cit. (ref. 1), 135–55, pp. 151–3.

Wilson D. B. , “The thought of late Victorian physicists: Oliver Lodge's ‘ethereal body’”, Victorian studies, xv (1971), 29–45; Wilson D. B. , “A physicist's alternative to materialism: The religious thought of George Gabriel Stokes”, Victorian studies, xxviii (1984), 69–96; Wilson D. B. , Kelvin and Stokes: A comparative study in Victorian physics (Bristol, 1987), 79–84; Bowler P. , Reconciling science and religion: The debate in early twentieth-century Britain (Chicago, 2001), 89–101; and Haley C. , “Envisioning the unseen universe: Models of the ether in the nineteenth century”, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, 2002, 52–55, 171–7.

Cantor , op. cit. (ref. 2), 147–51; Barrow L. , Independent spirits: Spiritualism and English plebeians, 1850–1910 (London, 1986), 67–95; and Carroll B. , Spiritualism in antebellum America (Bloomington, 1997), 65–71. For spiritualist uses of the ether see, for example, Jones J. , “What is a spirit?”, Spiritualist, i (1871), 143; “1st M.B. (Lond.)”, “Cosmic and spiritual aethers”, Light, vii (1887), 460; Shaw A. , “Wireless telegraphy and telephonic communication with the other world”, Light, xxi (1901), 159; [Anon.], “British Association”, Light, xxix (1909), 427.

Wynne B. , “Physics and psychics: Science, symbolic action and social control in late Victorian England”, in Barnes B. Shapin S. (ed.), Natural order: Historical studies of scientific culture (Beverly Hills, 1979), 167–87. Works making particular use of Wynne's paper include Jacyna L. , “Science and social order in the thought of A. J. Balfour”, Isis, cxxi (1980), 11–30, p. 25; Bloor D. , Wittgenstein: A social theory of knowledge (London, 1983), 155; Cantor , op. cit. (ref. 2), 147; Moore J. , Chant C. Coley N. Roberts G. , Science and metaphysics in Victorian Britain (Milton Keynes, 1981), 68; and Bowler , op. cit. (ref. 3), 89.

Hunt Bruce to Barnes Barry , 15 July 1983 and 2 August 1983, copies kindly supplied to author by Bruce Hunt. I thank Bruce Hunt for permission to cite these letters. Wynne's paper reappeared as “Natural knowledge and social context: Cambridge physicists and the luminiferous ether”, in Barnes B. Edge D. (ed.), Science in context: Readings in the sociology of science (Milton Keynes, 1982), 212–31.

Wynne Brian , “Note of correction” accompanying a letter from Brian Wynne to Bruce Hunt, 27 January 1985, copy supplied to author by Bruce Hunt.

For an excellent example of how a more localized notion of the social — The programme of mathematical training in Victorian Cambridge — Transforms our understanding of the production of esoteric knowledge, see Warwick A. , Masters of theory: Cambridge and the rise of mathematical physics (Chicago, 2003).

Golinksi J. , Making natural knowledge: Constructivism and the history of science (Cambridge, 1998), p. xi.

Wynne , op. cit. (ref. 5), 168, 181.

Wynne , op. cit. (ref. 5), 169.

Wynne , op. cit. (ref. 5), 181.

Wynne , op. cit. (ref. 5), 170–3.

For ‘scientific naturalism’, see Turner F. , Between science and religion: The reaction to scientific naturalism in Victorian England (New Haven, 1974), 8–37.

Wynne , op. cit. (ref. 5), 175.

Wynne , op. cit. (ref. 5), 176, 180.

Wynne , op. cit. (ref. 5), 178–9.

Wynne , op. cit. (ref. 5), 178–9.

Wynne , op. cit. (ref. 5), 183.

Wilson , Kelvin and Stokes (ref. 3), 17–40; Warwick , Masters of theory (ref. 8), 427; Goldberg S. , “In defense of ether: The British response to Einstein's special theory of relativity, 1905–1911”, Historical studies in the physical sciences, ii (1970), 89–125, pp. 121–5; and Cross J. , “Integral theorems in Cambridge mathematical physics, 1830–55”, in Harman P. (ed.), Wranglers and physicists: Studies in Cambridge mathematical physics in the nineteenth century (Manchester, 1985), 112–48.

Hunt to Barnes , 15 July 1983, op. cit. (ref. 6); Wynne , “Note of correction”, op. cit. (ref. 7).

For Barrett see Noakes R. , “‘The bridge which is between physical and psychical research’: William Fletcher Barrett, sensitive flames, and spiritualism”, History of science, xlii (2004), 419–64. For FitzGerald see Hunt B. , The Maxwellians (Ithaca, 1991), 5–47. For Stewart see Gooday G. , “Sunspots, weather, and the Unseen universe: Balfour Stewart's anti-materialist representations of ‘energy’ in British periodicals”, in Cantor G. Shuttleworth S. (ed.), Science serialized: Representations of the sciences in nineteenth-century periodicals (Cambridge MA, 2004), 111–48.

For Lodge see Lodge O. , Past years (London, 1931); Wilson , “The thought of late-Victorian physicists” (ref. 3); and Hunt , Maxwellians (ref. 22), 24–47, 73–107.

Warwick has emphasized the role of local cultures of mathematical training in creating idiosyncratic styles of scientific puzzle-solving: Warwick , Masters of theory (ref. 8).

For Crookes's spiritualistic investigations see Noakes R. , “‘Instruments to lay hold of spirits’: Technologising the bodies of Victorian spiritualism”, in Morus I. (ed.), Bodies/machines (Oxford, 2002), 125–63, pp. 140–8. For Crookes's work on electrical discharge see Dekosky R. , “William Crookes and the fourth state of matter”, Isis, lxvii (1976), 36–60.

Wynne , op. cit. (ref. 5), 172.

Falconer I. , “Corpuscles, electrons and cathode rays: J. J. Thomson and the ‘discovery of the electron’”, The British journal for the history of science, xx (1987), 241–76, pp. 243–51; and Darrigol O. , Electrodynamics from Ampère to Einstein (Oxford, 2000), 265–313.

Compare the cultures of Cambridge physics analysed in Warwick , Masters of theory (ref. 8), 357–99, and Kim Dong-Won , Leadership and creativity: A history of the Cavendish Laboratory, 1871–1919 (Dordrecht, 2002), 93–186. See also Warwick A. , “The sturdy protestants of science: Larmor, Trouton, and the Earth's motion through the ether”, in Buchwald J. (ed.), Scientific practice: Theories and stories of doing physics (Chicago, 1995), 300–43, p. 311.

Moulton J. F. , “Matter and ether [1877]”, Proceedings of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, viii (1875–78), 335–46; Poynting J. H. , “Presidential address to the mathematical and physical section of the British Association (Dover), 1899”, in Poynting, Collected scientific papers (Cambridge, 1920), 599–612; Lodge O. , obituary notice in Poynting, Collected scientific papers, pp. ix–xiv, p. xiv. For Poynting's scepticism of ether models see Hunt , Maxwellians (ref. 22), 94–95.

Stephen L. Pollock F. (ed.), Lectures and essays by the late William Kingdon Clifford (London, 1886), 139–40, 161–79.

Wynne , op. cit. (ref. 5), 178.

Wynne , op. cit. (ref. 5), 223.

Hunt to Barnes , 2 August 1983, op. cit. (ref. 6).

Wynne , op. cit. (ref. 5), 183; Hunt to Barnes , 3 August 1983, op. cit. (ref. 6).

Tyndall J. , Light and electricity: Notes of two courses of lectures given before the Royal Institution of Great Britain (New York, 1871), 125.

Noakes , op. cit. (ref. 22), 423–9; Lodge , Past years (ref. 23), 78.

Larmor J. , Aether and matter: A development of the dynamical relations of the aether to material systems on the basis of the atomic constitution of matter (Cambridge, 1900), p. vi; Larmor Joseph , “A dynamical theory of the electric and luminiferous medium — Part III: Relations with material media [1897]”, in Larmor J. , Mathematical and physical papers (2 vols, Cambridge, 1929), i, 624–39, pp. 629, 631. For Larmor see Warwick , Masters of theory (ref. 8), 357–98; idem, “‘That universal aethereal plenum’: Joseph Larmor's natural history of physics”, in Knox K. Noakes R. (ed.), Newton to Hawking: A history of Cambridge University's Lucasian professors of mathematics (Cambridge, 2003), 343–86; Hunt , Maxwellians (ref. 22), 209–39; and Buchwald J. , From Maxwell to microphysics: Aspects of electromagnetic theory in the last quarter of the nineteenth century (Chicago, 1985), 133–73.

McCormmach R. , “H. A. Lorentz and the electromagnetic view of nature”, Isis, lxi (1970), 459–97; and Buchwald , op. cit. (ref. 36), 133–258. For Cunningham see Warwick , Masters of theory (ref. 8), 399–442.

Barrett W. F. , “Science and spiritualism”, Light, xiii (1894), 539–40, 559–61, 571–2, 583–5, 595–7, p. 572; [ Stewart B. Tait P. G. ], The unseen universe or physical speculations on a future state, 3rd edn (London, 1875), 70, 116; Stokes G. G. , Burnett lectures: On light (London, 1892), 15; Thomson J. J. , “Address”, Report of the seventy-ninth meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Winnipeg: 1909 (London, 1910), 15, 17.

Stein H. , “‘Subtler forms of matter’ in the period following Maxwell”, in Cantor Hodge (ed.), op. cit. (ref. 1), 309–40, p. 317.

Hunt , Maxwellians (ref. 22), 217.

Lamb Horace , “The ether of space”, Nature, cxxxii (1909–10), 271.

Lodge O. , “Continuity”, Report of the eighty-third meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Birmingham: 1913 (London, 1914), 3–42, p. 27; Lodge O. , My philosophy: Representing my views on the many functions of the ether of space (London, 1933), 192.

Lodge , My philosophy (ref. 43), 190–1.

Dolbear A. , Matter, ether and motion: The factors and relations of physical science (London, 1899), 352.

Wynne , op. cit. (ref. 5), 181.

Warwick , “Sturdy protestants” (ref. 28), 311.

Warwick A. , “On the electrodynamics of moving bodies and the principle of relativity in British physics, 1894–1919”, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1989, 65.

Warwick , “On the electrodynamics” (ref. 48), 110.

Buchwald , op. cit. (ref. 36); Hunt , Maxwellians (ref. 22); Darrigol , op. cit. (ref. 27), 137–264.

Preston T. , The theory of light, 2nd edn (London, 1895), 30–31.

Larmor J. , “Aether”, in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edn (Cambridge, 1910–11), i, 292–7, p. 293.

Einstein A. , “The ether and relativity”, in Sidelights on relativity, transl. by Jeffrey G. Perrett W. (New York, 1922), 3–24.

Lodge O. , “Physics and psychics”, Morning Post, 26 October 1927, 11. Cf. Larmor , Aether and matter (ref. 37), 273; Thomson J. J. , Recollections and reflections (London, 1936), 432.

Morus I. , When physics became king (Chicago, 2005), 181.

Stokes , Burnett lectures (ref. 39), 80; Larmor , “The physical aspect of the atomic theory [1908]”, in Larmor , Mathematical and physical papers (ref. 37), ii, 344–72, p. 372.

Larmor J. , “Address”, in Report of the seventieth meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science held at Bradford in September 1900 (London, 1900), 613–28, p. 618.

This built on decades of scientists' public rhetoric stressing the need for the unity of the sciences: See Barton R. , “‘Men of science’: Language, identity, and professionalization in the mid-Victorian scientific community”, History of science, xli (2003), 73–119. For later manifestations of this desired unity see Hiebert E. , “The state of physics at the turn of the century”, in Bunge M. Shea W. (eds), Rutherford and physics at the turn of the century (New York, 1979), 3–22, pp. 4–7.

Lodge , “Continuity” (ref. 43), 27. See Warwick , “On the electrodynamics” (ref. 48), 97.

Lodge O. , Modern views of electricity (London, 1889), 307.

FitzGerald G. F. , “Physical science and its connections”, Science progress, i (1894), 1–11, p. 2; Lodge O. , “Lord Kelvin's philosophy”, Nature, lxxviii (1908), 198–9, p. 199.

Wynne , op. cit. (ref. 5), 178.

In 1921 the SPR's Honorary Secretary, Eleanor Sidgwick, tried successfully to persuade Thomson to remain a vice-president of the society by explaining that the post was “purely honorary” and did not require Thomson to attend meetings: It was enough that Thomson's name on the society's publications implied a “general approval of our objects and methods”. Sidgwick E. M. to Thomson J. J. , 6 January 1921, private collection of Thomson family papers owned by David Thomson, JJT H22/1. For Rayleigh and psychical research see Rayleigh , “Presidential address”, Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, xix (1919–20), 276–90. Thomson detailed his interests in psychical research in Thomson , op. cit. (ref. 54), 147–63.

For the work of Gurney, Myers and Sidgwick, see Gauld A. , The founders of psychical research (London, 1968), and Oppenheim J. , The other world: Spiritualism and psychical research in Britain, 1850–1914 (Cambridge, 1985), 111–58.

Thomson Stokes cited in [ Stead W. T. ], “The response to the appeal”, Borderland, i (1892), 10–23, pp. 17, 19.

Maxwell J. C. , “Idiotic imps [1853]”, in Campbell L. Garnett W. , The life of James Clerk Maxwell with selections from his correspondence and writings, 2nd edn (London, 1884), 341–3, p. 342; Maxwell , “Paradoxical philosophy”, in Niven W. (ed.), The scientific papers of James Clerk Maxwell (2 vols, Cambridge, 1890), ii, 756–62, p. 762.

Larmor J. to Lodge O. , 7 January 1901, Oliver Lodge Papers, University College London (hereafter “OJL-UCL”), MS Add. 89/65.

Chattock A. , “Experiments in thought-transference”, Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, viii (1897–98), 302–7.

FitzGerald to Lodge , 11 December 1894, OJL-UCL, MS Add. 89/35; FitzGerald to Barrett, 23 April 1882, cited in Barrett W. F. , “First report of the ‘Reichenbach’ committee”, Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, i (1882–83), 230–7, p. 236. Citation from FitzGerald cited in [Stead], “The response to the appeal” (ref. 65), 19.

Heaviside O. to Lodge O. , 11 January 1895, 28 January 1895, and 26 August 1896, OJL-UCL, MS Add. 89/50, ff. 91–92 and 100; Perry J. to Lodge O. , 29 August 1891, OJL-UCL, MS Add. 89/82; Thompson J. Thompson H. , Silvanus Philips Thompson: His life and letters (London, 1920), 332; Thompson S. P. , “A physiological effect of an alternating magnetic field”, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society, lxxxii B (1909–10), 396–8.

Smith C. , The science of energy: A cultural history of energy physics in Victorian Britain (London, 1998), 239–67; Wilson , Kelvin and Stokes (ref. 4), 74–99. For scientific naturalists' critical attitude towards materialism see Lightman B. , The origins of agnosticism: Victorian unbelief and the limits of knowledge (Baltimore, 1987), 22–26; Barton R. , “John Tyndall, pantheist: A re-reading of the Belfast address”, Osiris, n.s., iii (1987), 111–34; Kim S. S. , John Tyndall's transcendental materialism and the conflict between religion and science in Victorian England (Lewiston, 1996).

Rayleigh cited in Rayleigh Lord [ Strutt R. J. ], John William Strutt third Baron Rayleigh (London, 1923), 361; Lodge O. , Life and mind: A criticism of Professor Haeckel's “Riddle of the Universe” (London, 1905).

Wynne , op. cit. (ref. 5), 171, 173. For the problems of using ‘professional’ and ‘professionalization’ to describe the activities of Victorian scientists see Barton , “‘Men of science’” (ref. 58), and Morrell J. , “Professionalisation”, in Olby R. (ed.), Companion to the history of modern science (London, 1990), 980–9.

For Huxley's aversion to narrow scientific education see Desmond A. , Huxley: Evolution's high priest (London, 1997), 247–8; White P. , Thomas Huxley: Making the ‘man of science’ (Cambridge, 2003), 94–97. For industrial and specialized sciences at Cambridge see Kim , op. cit. (ref. 28); Schaffer S. , “Late Victorian physics and its instrumentation: A manufactory of Ohms”, in Bud R. Cozzens S. (ed.), Invisible connections: Instruments, institutions, and science (Bellingham, 1992), 23–56; Schaffer , “Accurate measurement is an English science”, in Wise M. N. (ed.), The values of precision (Princeton, 1995), 135–72; Schaffer , “Physics laboratories and the Victorian country house”, in Smith C. Agar J. (ed.), Making space for science: Territorial themes in the shaping of knowledge (London, 1999), 149–80; Wilson D. B. , “Experimentalists among the mathematicians: Physics in the Cambridge Natural Sciences Tripos, 1851–1900”, Historical studies in the physical sciences, xii (1982), 325–71; and idem, “Arbiters of Victorian science: George Gabriel Stokes and Joshua King” in Knox Noakes , op. cit. (ref. 37), 295–342, pp. 312–15.

For Stewart see Gooday G. , “Precision measurement and the genesis of physics teaching laboratories in Victorian Britain”, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Kent, 1989, chap. 7. For Barrett see Noakes , op. cit. (ref. 22), 429–31. For Lodge see Clow N. , “The laboratory of Victorian culture: Experimental physics, industry, and pedagogy in the Liverpool laboratory of Oliver Lodge, 1881–1900”, Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1999. For FitzGerald see Jones G. , “Scientists against Home Rule”, in Boyce D. O'Day A. (ed.), Defenders of the Union: A survey of British and Irish Unionism (London, 2001), 188–208, esp. p. 191, and Whyte N. , Science, colonialism and Ireland (Cork, 1999), 46–50.

For the Physical Society see Moseley R. , “Tadpoles and frogs: Some aspects of the professionalisation of British physics, 1870–1939”, Social studies of science, vii (1977), 423–46, and Gooday G. , “Teaching telegraphy and electrotechnics in the physics laboratory: William Ayrton and the creation of an academic space for electrical engineering in Britain 1873–1884”, History of technology, xiii (1991), 73–111, pp. 83–84.

Maxwell J. C. , A treatise on electricity and magnetism, 3rd edn (2 vols, Oxford, 1891), i, pp. vii–viii.

Maxwell J. C. , “On action at a distance [1873]”, in Niven (ed.), op. cit. (ref. 66), ii, 311–23, p. 322.

For further analysis see Gieryn T. , Cultural boundaries of science: Credibility on the line (Chicago, 1999), 37–64.

Tyndall J. , Six lectures on light delivered in America in 1872–1873, 3rd edn (New York, 1901), 222.

Tyndall J. , “On radiant heat in relation to the colour and constitution of bodies”, in Tyndall J. , Fragments of science: A series of detached essays, addresses, and reviews, 6th edn (2 vols, London, 1879), i, 74–95, p. 94.

Tyndall , Six lectures on light (ref. 80), 245.

For Maxwell and Rayleigh see Schaffer , “Late Victorian physics” (ref. 74) and Schaffer , “Accurate measurement” (ref. 74). For Lodge see Hunt B. , “Experimenting on the ether: Oliver J. Lodge and the great whirling machine”, Historical studies in the physical sciences, xvi (1986), 111–34. For Barrett see Noakes , op. cit. (ref. 22). For Stewart see Gooday , “Precision measurement” (ref. 75), chap. 7.

Tyndall J. , “The scientific use of the imagination”, in Tyndall , Fragments (ref. 81), ii, 101–36.

Maxwell to Monro C. J. , 15 March 1871, in Campbell Garnett , op. cit. (ref. 66), 289. For Tyndall's use of the imagination to represent the ether see Tyndall , “The scientific use of the imagination” (ref. 81), 106–9. For Huxley's use of the imagination see White , op. cit. (ref. 74), 94–97.

Brush S. , The kind of motion we call heat: A history of the kinetic theory of gases (2 vols, Amsterdam, 1976), i, 90–102 and 274–99; Knight D. , Atoms and elements: A study of theories of matter in England in the nineteenth century (London, 1967); and Nye M.J. , “The nineteenth-century atomic debates and the dilemma of an ‘indifferent hypothesis’”, Studies in history and philosophy of science, vii (1976), 245–68.

FitzGerald G. F. , “Ostwald's energetics”, in Larmor J. (ed.), The scientific writings of the late George Francis FitzGerald (Dublin, 1902), 387–91.

For example, I omit discussion of Samuel Tolver Preston (d. 1917), a British-born civil engineer turned writer on physics who, in Physics of the ether (London, 1875) and elsewhere, built on Le Sage's theory of gravity to develop an hypothesis in which action between material bodies originated in the motion of ultramundane molecules which themselves constituted the ether. Although his work was often cited by Maxwell, Lodge and other leading physicists, he remained well outside such scientific circles partly because of his training and reclusive existence in Britain and Germany. Preston's views on the ether seem to have been only tangentially connected with his religious views. His adherence to an ether qua mechanical continuum for vanquishing action at a distance in physics may well have reflected his bitter hostility to traditional Christian doctrines that broke the chain of cause and effect between human motive and action and which discouraged moral responsibility. Unlike the trained British physicists considered here, he ridiculed the idea of a future spiritual existence as unproven and irresponsible because it seemed to fill people's minds with mysterious ideas and diminished their desire to increase happiness in this world. See Preston S. T. , “On method in causal research”, Philosophical magazine, ix (1880), 356–67, and “Science and sectarian religion” in Preston S. T. , Original essays (London, 1884), 19–51.

This may, and probably will, change if and when scholars are granted access to the full range of Rayleigh family papers at Terling Place near Witham in Essex.

Larmor , “Address” (ref. 57), 617; Lodge , “Continuity” (ref. 43), 19.

For Searle see [Anon.], Searle G. F. C. , The Times, 18 December 1954, 8. For Stokes see Wilson , Kelvin Stokes (ref. 3), 74–99. For Maxwell see Smith , op. cit. (ref. 71), 211–18. For Tait see Knott C. G. , Life and scientific work of Peter Guthrie Tait (Cambridge, 1911). For Barrett see Noakes , op. cit. (ref. 22), 423–5. For Challis FitzGerald Stewart , see Oxford dictionary of national biography http://www.oxforddnb.com, accessed 19 September 2005. For Lodge see Bowler , op. cit. (ref. 3), 96–101. For Rayleigh see Rayleigh , Third Baron Rayleigh (ref. 72), 360–1. For Thomson J. J. see Rayleigh Lord [ Strutt R. J. ], The life of Sir J. J. Thomson (Cambridge, 1942), 283–1.

The religious views of many in this group were quoted in the important late-Victorian survey of the Christian views of leading scientists: Tabrum A. H. , Religious beliefs of scientists (London, [1910]).

Jacyna , op. cit. (ref. 5); Lightman B. , “Victorian sciences and religions: Discordant harmonies”, Osiris, xvi (2001), 343–66, pp. 349–55.

[ Stewart Tait ], op. cit. (ref. 39), p. vii.

Stewart B. Tait P. G. , The unseen universe or physical speculations on a future state, 8th edn (London, 1879), 3.

Smith , op. cit. (ref. 71), 211–67.

Stokes G. G. and Earl of Halsbury [ Giffard H. S. ], “Infidelity and how to meet it”, The Times, 8 December 1892, 10.

Barrett W. F. , “The demons of Derrygonnelly”, Dublin University magazine, xc (1877), 692–705, p. 702, and “The psychic factor in evolution”, The quest, ix (1917–18), 177–202; Lodge , Life and mind (ref. 72).

Barrett W. F. , “The phenomena of spiritualism”, Nonconformist, xxxvi (1875), 934–7, p. 937; Barrett , “The demons” (ref. 98), 702.

Lodge O. , The substance of faith allied with science: A catechism for parents and teachers, 2nd edn (London, 1907), p. viii.

Bowler , op. cit. (ref. 3), 96.

Lodge O. , Man and the universe: A study of the influence of the advance in scientific knowledge upon our understanding of Christianity, 5th edn (London, 1909), 24.

Larmor J. , “Sir Joseph Larmor's address”, The Times, 25 January 1911, 9.

Jones , op. cit. (ref. 75), 188.

For Balfour, Sidgwick and Seeley on Home Rule see Schultz B. , Henry Sidgwick: Eye of the universe (Cambridge, 2004), 563–8, 608–9; Foster R. , Modern Ireland 1600–1972 (Harmondsworth, 1989), 415–28; and Jacyna , op. cit. (ref. 5), 19–23.

Jones , op. cit. (ref. 75), 188.

On Tyndall's Unionism see Eve A. Creasey C. , Life and work of John Tyndall (London, 1945), 264–8. For William Thomson's Unionism see Smith C. Wise M. N. , Energy and empire: A biographical study of Lord Kelvin (Cambridge, 1989), 802–11.

A version of Stokes's election manifesto was published as Stokes G. G. , “To the members of the Senate of the University of Cambridge”, Cambridge Chronicle, 11 November 1887, 4. Larmor's election manifesto appeared as Larmor, “Sir Joseph Larmor's address” (ref. 103). Morton W. Larmor Joseph Sir , Proceedings of the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society, 1942–43, 82–90, p. 89; Balfour A. , “Mr. Balfours views”, The Times, 8 February 1911, 7.

FitzGerald G. F. to Lodge O. , 11 July 1892 and 27 February 1893, OJL-UCL, MS Add 89/65. For further discussion see Jones , op. cit. (ref. 75), passim and Whyte , op. cit. (ref. 75), 46–50.

Cardwell D. , James Joule: A biography (Manchester, 1989), 262; Knott , op. cit. (ref. 91), 36; Rayleigh , Third Baron Rayleigh (ref. 72), 43; Stewart B. , “Politics and the presidency of the Royal Society”, Nature, xxxvii (1887–88), 76; Thomson J. J. to Threlfall R. , c. July 1886, Thomson papers, Cambridge University Library, Add 7654, T10.1 owe the last reference to Katrina Dean.

Barrett W. F. to Gladstone W. E. , 4 April 1886, Gladstone Papers, British Library, Add. 44496, f. 165; Lodge O. , The war and after: Short chapters on subjects of serious practical import for the average citizen in A.D. 1915 (London, 1915), 201.

Barrett W. F. to Lodge O. , 13 December 1892, Oliver Lodge Papers, Society for Psychical Research Archive, Cambridge University Library, SPR.MS.35/61.

See Noakes , op. cit. (ref. 22), 430.

Lodge , Man and the universe (ref. 102), 148. See also Webb S. to Lodge O. , 12 February 1905, Oliver Lodge Papers, Birmingham University Library (hereafter OJL-BUL), OJL 1/424/1; Hardie K. to Lodge O. , 15 October 1895, OJL-BUL, OJL 1/166/1.

[ Stewart Tait ], op. cit. (ref. 39), p. viii.

[ Stewart Tait ], op. cit. (ref. 39), 158–9. For discussion see Smith , op. cit. (ref. 71), 254–5 and Gooday , “Sunspots” (ref. 22).

[ Stewart Tait ], op. cit. (ref. 39), 119.

[ Stewart Tait ], op. cit. (ref. 39), 159.

Tait P. G. to Stokes G. G. , 6 and 11 March 1875, Stokes Papers, Cambridge University Library, Add 7646, T73-T74. Stokes G.G. , Natural theology: The Gifford Lectures delivered before the University of Edinburgh in 1893 (London, 1893), 57.

Stokes , Natural theology (ref. 119), 57.

Stokes , Natural theology (ref. 119), 33.

Stokes , Natural theology (ref. 119), 1–26, 34, 46. See also Bowler , op. cit. (ref. 3), 92.

Whewell W. , Astronomy and general physics considered in relation to natural theology, 6th edn (London, 1837), 138, 141. For discussion see Cantor , op. cit. (ref. 2).

Challis J. , An essay on the mathematical principles of physics (Cambridge, 1873), 106–7.

Maxwell , “On action at a distance” (ref. 78), 322.

Thomson , “Address” (ref. 39), 15, 29.

[Anon.], “ Searle G. F. C. ” (ref. 91).

Searle G. F. C. , “The modern conception of the universe”, in Pan-Anglican papers. Being problems for consideration at the Pan-Anglican Congress, 1908 (London, 1908), 1–8, pp. 3, 7.

Barrett , “Science and spiritualism” (ref. 39), 597; Lodge O. , Ether and reality: A series of discourses on the many functions of the ether of space (London, 1930), 155, 174, 179.

Barrett W. F. Gurney E. Myers F. W. H. , “Thought-reading”, Nineteenth century, xi (1882), 890–900, p. 900; Lodge O. , “Experiments in thought-transference”, Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, ii (1884–85), 189–200, p. 191; Crookes W. , “Some possibilities of electricity”, Fortnightly review, li (1892), 173–85, p. 176; Heaviside O. to Lodge O. , 28 March 1895, OJL-UCL, MS. Add 89/50, f. 100; Preston S. T. , “On the physics of thought reading”, accompanying Preston to J. J. Thomson, 5 May 1893, J. J. Thomson Papers, Cambridge University Library, Add. 7554, P45; Preston S. T. , “On the importance of experiments in relation to the mechanical theory of gravitation”, Philosophical magazine, 5th ser, iii (1881), 391–3, p. 391; and FitzGerald G. F. to Preston S. T. , 3 September 1890, FitzGerald Papers, Royal Dublin Society, 11/63.

Barrett W. F. , “Presidential address”, Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, xvii (1901–3), 1–21, pp. 19–20. Lodge Oliver , The survival of man: A study in unrecognised human faculty, 2nd edn (London, 1909), 34–35.

Lodge O. , “Scope and tendencies of physics”, in Sedgwick A. , The 19th century: A review of progress (London, 1901), 348–57, pp. 352, 354.

Barrett , “Science and spiritualism” (ref. 39), 597.

[ Stewart Tait ], op. cit. (ref. 39), 42–43. An example of Lodge's use of this work is Lodge, My philosophy (ref. 43), 224. For detailed discussion of Lodge's “etherial body” see Wilson , “The thought of late Victorian physicists” (ref. 3).

Lodge O. , “Ether, matter, and the soul”, Hibbert journal, xvii (1918–19), 252–60, pp. 258–9.

Lodge , Ether and reality (ref. 129), 177.

Hunt , Maxwellians (ref. 22), 98–100.

FitzGerald cited in Barrett W. , “The marginal regions of science”, Contemporary review, civ (1913), 467–76, p. 470.

Larmor , Aether and matter (ref. 37), 288.

Larmor J. to Lodge O. , 31 May 1900, UCL-OJL, MS Add. 89/65.

Larmor , “The physical aspect” (ref. 56), 350. For further discussion see Warwick , “‘That universal aethereal plenum’” (ref. 37), 368–9.

FitzGerald , “Physical science” (ref. 61), 1–2.

FitzGerald , “Physical science” (ref. 61), 2.

Warwick , “‘That universal aethereal plenum’” (ref. 37), 365–73.

Larmor , “Address” (ref. 57), 619.

Larmor cited in Thompson D'Arcy , “Joseph Larmor, 1857–1942”, Year book of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1941–42 (Edinburgh, 1943), 11–13, p. 12.

Larmor , “Sir Joseph Larmor's address” (ref. 103).

Larmor J. , “The story of province”, The Times, 23 May 1914, 5; Larmor reported in Hansard's House of Commons debates, 5th ser., xxxviii (1912), 462. For the “Curragh mutiny” see Foster , op. cit. (ref. 105), 469.

This paragraph leans heavily on Warwick, “Sturdy protestants” (ref. 28).

Trouton F. , “Address”, Report of the eighty-fourth meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Australia: 1914 (London, 1915), 285–90, p. 286.

Warwick , “Sturdy protestants” (ref. 28), 327.

Barrett W. F. , “Address by the President”, Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, xviii (1903–4), 323–50, p. 336.

Barrett W. F. , “Dynamic thought”, Humanitarian, vii (1895), 242–8, p. 245.

Lodge O. , Talks about wireless with some pioneering history and some hints and calculations for wireless amateurs (London, 1925), p. x.

Lodge O. , Science and human progress (London, 1926), 61.

Lodge O. , Public service versus private expenditure (London, 1905), 3.

Lodge , Public service (ref. 156), 4.

See, for example, Lodge , “Scope and tendencies” (ref. 132), 352. Barrett W. F. Gurney E. Myers F. W. H. , “Thought-reading”, Nineteenth century, xi (1882), 890–900, p. 900; Lodge O. , “Experiments in thought-transference”, Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, ii (1884–85), 189–200, p. 191; Crookes W. , “Some possibilities of electricity”, Fortnightly review, li (1892), 173–85, p. 176; Heaviside O. to Lodge O. , 28 March 1895, OJL-UCL, MS. Add 89/50, f. 100; Preston S. T. , “On the physics of thought reading”, accompanying Preston to Thomson J. J. , 5 May 1893, J. J. Thomson Papers, Cambridge University Library, Add. 7554, P45; Preston S. T. , “On the importance of experiments in relation to the mechanical theory of gravitation”, Philosophical magazine, 5th ser., iii (1881), 391–3, p. 391; and FitzGerald G. F. to Preston S. T. , 3 September 1890, FitzGerald Papers, Royal Dublin Society, 11/63.

Lodge , Public service (ref. 156), 10–11.

For further discussion of Lodge, ether, and relativity see Rowlands P. , Oliver Lodge and the Liverpool Physical Society (Liverpool, 1990), 251–98; and Warwick , On the electrodynamics (ref. 48), 105–9.

Lodge , War and after (ref. 111), 65, 91.

Lodge , War and after (ref. 111), 18.

Lodge , War and after (ref. 111), 7, 18.

Lodge , War and after (ref. 111), 54.

A comparative analysis of the moral and political uses to which nineteenth- and twentieth-century German physicists put the ether may well lend support to this thesis, a possibility suggested by the metaphysical background of many nineteenth-century German ether conceptions and the overt political uses that Nazi physicists such as Phillip Lenard made of the ether. For further discussion of these points see Wise M. N. , “German conceptions of force, energy, and electromagnetic ether: 1845–1880”, in Cantor Hodge (ed.), op. cit. (ref. 2), 269–307. For Lenard see Hentschel K. , Interpretationen und fehlinterpretationen der speziellen und der allegemeinen relativitätstheorie durch Zeitgenossen Albert Einsteins (Basel, 1990).

Lodge O. to Hill J. A. , 5 March 1928, in Hill J. A. (ed.), Letters from Sir Oliver Lodge: Psychical, religious, scientific and personal (London, 1932), 222–5, p. 224.

Warwick A. , “Cambridge mathematics and Cavendish physics: Cunningham, Campbell, and Einstein's relativity 1905–1911. Part II: Comparing traditions in Cambridge physics”, Studies in history and philosophy of science, xxiv (1993), 1–25, pp. 10–13; and Warwick , Masters of theory (ref. 8), 427.

Swenson L. , The ethereal aether: A history of the Michelson-Morley-Miller aether-drift experiments, 1880–1930 (Austin, 1972), 228–45.

Swenson , op. cit. (ref. 168), 231.

Trotter A. , “Illumination and light”, Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, lxiv (1926), 367–71.

Thornton W. M. , The scientific background of the Christian creeds. Riddell Memorial Lectures. Second series (Newcastle, 1930), 17–18.

See, for example, Hooper W. , The universe of ether and spirit (London, 1913); Powell A. , The etheric double and allied phenomena (London, 1925); and Findlay J. , On the edge of the etheric (London, 1931).