Maxwell’s foundational work on electromagnetism, detailed in his 1861–1864 papers “On Physical Lines of Force,” required a mechanical medium—the luminiferous aether—to propagate light as transverse waves. He modelled the aether as an elastic, incompressible fluid with molecular vortices and “idler wheels” (counter-rotating particles) to transmit forces without friction, unifying electricity, magnetism, and optics. This mechanical necessity is always ignored in post-1915 physics, where relativity reframed light in vacuum without acknowledging the aether’s role in wave transmission.
Osborne Reynolds addressed Maxwell’s mechanical aether directly in his 1885 paper “On the Dilatancy of Media Composed of Rigid Particles in Contact,” introducing dilatancy (volume expansion under shear in granular media) as a property enabling elastic wave propagation. This granular, quasi-crystalline medium refined Maxwell’s vortex/idler gear model with “kinetic elasticity” from internal distortions, providing a structured aether basis for physical phenomena.
Reynolds explicitly built on the concept in his 1903 book The Sub-Mechanics of the Universe, extending Maxwell’s vortex/idler gear concept to a granular, dilatant aether. Reynolds introduced “kinetic elasticity” as internal distortional motions in a quasi-crystalline medium (“wheel within wheel” mechanics), explaining relativity-like effects, quantum phenomena, and granular behaviour through a structured aether. This was a mechanical refinement of Maxwell’s elastic aether, applied to sub-atomic and cosmic scales but as Reynolds himself states in the opening paragraph of his 1903 paper,‘…there is one, and only one, conceivable purely mechanical system capable of accounting for all the physical evidence, as we know it, in the Universe’.
Viktor Lewe, in his 1906 physics dissertation Die plötzlichen Befestigungen eines starren Körpers, analyzing takes the concept of dilatancy as sudden impulses in rigid bodies (velocity changes without displacement), using vector calculus to model grain construction and interactions in a granular medium. Lewe’s 1915 2nd dissertation in engineering, and contributions to the Handbuch fur Eisenbetonbau, on absolute motion and nuclear forces (matrix calculus, positive moments) built on Reynolds’ dilatancy, treating grains as sites of impulse-driven fixations with viscous transitions. Lewe remains obscure except among historians of structural engineering (eg Karl-Eugen Kurrer) suggests classification as secret because of nuclear applications. The 1993 PCA publication Circular Concrete Tanks Without Prestressing (updated by August W. Domel, Jr. and Anand B. Gogate, first published 1942, coinciding with Manhattan Project, 2nd ed 1965) uses unreferenced coefficient tables for bending moments and ring tensions, which trace directly to Lewe’s methods via H Carpenter’s contribution to W.S. Gray’s 1931 work.
The coefficient tables imply aether-derived statics without credit. Rebuilding the tables using Lewe, 1906, reveals dynamic elements have been excluded from the PCA tables: non-cancelling impulses yield negative mass moments (Δm <0 from relative frames, from a pulse exchange similar to a 2-stroke expansion chamber power addition), indicating -ve volume increase as ZPE extraction in aether grains.
Details on Rebuilding PCA Tables
Using Lewe 1906: Revealing Dynamic Element and Negative Mass Moments. The PCA 1993 tables (eg A-1 for tension in circular rings, A-2 for moments in cylindrical walls) provide coefficients for fixed base-free top triangular loads, based on H²/Dt (H = height, D = diameter, t = thickness). The tables are unreferenced but trace to Lewe via W.S. Gray’s 1931 Reinforced Concrete Reservoirs and Tanks (referenced in PCA 1993), Lewe’s 1915 handbook (graphs for coefficients), and Lewe’s 1906 theory (foreword-referenced). Using Lewe’s sudden fixation equation (p. 47 in 1906 dissertation): Impulse J = F Δt, leading to velocity change Δv = J / m without displacement. For container statics, model the tank wall as discretized rigid body segments (grains) with impulses at joints simulating hydrostatic load q = w (H – x). This introduces a dynamic element: impulses reveal negative mass moments (from relative motion terms in Lewe’s vis viva theorems, where living force change ΔT = 1/2 m (v’^2 – v^2) can yield negative contributions in opposing impulses). To rebuild/extend tables:
- Treat wall as chain of rigid bodies with sudden fixations at base (fixed v=0).
- Matrix from Lewe 1915 normalizes infinite angle changes (vector rotations) to coefficients.
- Extend beyond PCA limit (H²/Dt =16) using Lewe’s vector method, showing negative mass moments (e.g., inverse inertia in relative frames, Δm <0 from opposing impulses).
This chain demonstrates suppressed aether use in engineering while denied theoretically
References
Maxwell, J. C. (1861). XXV. On physical lines of force. The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, 21(139), 161–175
Reynolds, O. (1903). The Sub-Mechanics of the Universe..
Domel, A.W. Jr., & Gogate, A.B. (1993). Circular Concrete Tanks Without Prestressing. PCA.
Lewe, V. (1906/1915). Matrix calculus for elastic shells/beams.
