Some spent most of their time at telegraph offices squinting at long scrolls of mysteriously arrived "weather reports," about weather not in the atmosphere but in the luminiferous Æther.
* * * * * * * * * *
"Some"
The light addicts who must learn everything they possibly can about this amazing thing that has always existed and has always been fascinating and has sparked such intense interest in figuring out exactly what it is, why it is, and how it works. The late 19th Century was the beginning of widespread use of electricity outside of the laboratory, with the Chicago World's Fair being a spectacular display of what cities could become by harnessing the power of electricity and light. It was cutting edge science, mesmerizing these light nerds who needed to read every new report on any light phenomena across the skies.
"luminiferous Æther"
Æther has yet to be completely debunked as the transmitter of light through space and time. Even when it will be debunked, we'll all still use the phrase because it's poetic. People like poetic phrases even if they know, literally, what they're saying isn't true. Like when Einstein says that God doesn't play dice with the universe. He doesn't mean an actual God throwing bones. He just means universal law isn't a bunch of random number generators. Sure, everything is chaos. But it's orderly chaos!
No comments:
Post a Comment