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 "Controversial," said Ed.

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Ed doesn't take Merle's question as sarcastic but that's not absolute proof that Merle wasn't being sarcastic! Ed Addle, and many of the other light enthusiasts, could very well be autistic.

"Controversial"
Maybe this exchange is supposed to be humorous. Because Ed is all, "Something akin to temperature can be measured inside the Æther, based on how a bunch of tiny tornados interact but figuring out the density of the water vapor inside the Æther? That's something not everybody seems to buy into."

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 Merle came back with another round of beers. "How about humidity?"

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"Merle Rideout"
Okay! We're back with the main character and how he came to be in Cleveland.

"How about humidity?"
This sounds sarcastic, as if Merle realizes Ed's preoccupation with all the variables related to Æther don't really matter. But it also could be Merle being earnest. It's hard to tell because text doesn't express tone and they're also drinking in a bar. Merle could be busting Ed's balls here. How can all these date points be measured in the Æther, being that it's a theoretical substance to help explain how a wave could be propelled through a vacuum?

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 "Yes it's all here," said Ed Addle, one of the regulars at the Oil Well Saloon, "Æther-wind speed, Ætheric pressure, there are instruments to measure those, even an analogy to temperature, which depends on the ultramicroscopic vortices and how energetically they interact. . . ."

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"Ed Addle"
A new character! Another Ætherist and light addict. "Addle" suggests that he might not be the most scientific person in the saloon to contemplate the nature of light. Also suggestive of his confusion on the nature of light: his list of tools that measure the properties of Æther so as to make the study of light more accurate.

"Oil Well Saloon"
A saloon where light enthusiasts hang out. Reminiscent of "All's well." Oil can be used to fuel fire which produces light. An oil well a place where one finds the oil. So, in a sense, this saloon is a place where one can go to discover illumination, or knowledge.

"Ætheric pressure . . . ."
Just a bunch of mumbo jumbo that Michelson and Morley will make obsolete in the coming days with their experiment. At least for those scientists who haven't invested heavily in the Æther theory of light and so cannot easily adjust to or believe in the results of this experiment. Most scientists, I imagine, were just waiting to be able to jettison all of this Æther crap as just a bunch of pretzel logic to explain unproven theories.

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 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.

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"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!