A long time ago, Lord Kelvin (W. Thompson), Lorentz, Maxwell, and Hemholtz recognized that the behavior of matter had characteristics similar to vortex ring structures in a fluid (the atomic vortex hypothesis). This concept was abandoned in the early 1900's. This abandonment was more philosophical than substantive with the real problem being the math describing the model was, "at the time", intractable. Must more success was being obtained by QM methods. This same model rears up again in modern physics in the form of the mathematical topology of string/super string theory as well as in superconductivity and superfluidity. Penrose's twistor is a vortex ring, as is a magnetic field. It is interesting to note that vortex rings can sustain transverse vibrations (analogous to guitar string vibration), indeed Kelvin proved mathematically that linear disturbances in a saturated 3D vortex fluid (he termed a vortex sponge) would produce propagation of pure transverse waves identical to the equations and properties that describe the propagation of light through space. It was this relationship as well as many others that caused this hypothesis to be considered seriously. It also is interesting to note that Maxwell used this conceptual model as the basis for his derivation of the EM relationships.
