Abstract

This paper revisits the once-important subject of the luminiferous ether, and presents what we believe is a compelling empirical case to reestablish this medium as a viable physical construct. We first review the historical background leading up to the unsuccessful search for ether drift arising from the movement of Earth in its approximately uniform motion around its Sun. Following this, the failure of the Michelson-Morley and Kennedy-Thorndike second-order ether-drift detection experiments is explained by the experimentally established Fitzgerald-Lorentz-Larmour contractions. Two well-known first-order experiments are then presented and it is shown that the associated optical phenomena represent detection of ether drift occurring as a result of the revolving Earth. The analysis of these two experiments is done in the framework of an absolute space, and takes the Fitzgerald-Lorentz-Larmour contractions fully into account. Our results (along with the considerable data that accumulated up to the end of the 19th century) provide direct experimental confirmation of the existence of the luminiferous ether-the great dream of Michelson and Morley - and completely invalidate Einstein?s Special Relativity Theory.