history of spectroscopy
"On the Relative Motion of the Earth and the
Luminiferous Ether"*
JEANETTE GRASSELLI
Standard Oil, Research & Development, 4440 Warrensville Center Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44128
I n d e x Headings: History of spectroscopy; Albert A. Michelson; Edward
W. Morley; Michelson-Morley experiment.
The paper titled "On the Relative Motion of the Earth
and the Luminiferous Ether" was published in 1887 by
Albert A. Michelson, Professor of Physics, and Edward
W. Morley, Professor of Chemistry (Fig. 1), at what is
now called Case Western Reserve University. It dem-
onstrated that the speed of light is unaffected by the
motion of the earth. This finding was contrary to then-
current thinking and was an important part of the ex-
perimental framework that paved the way for Einstein's
theory of relativity, and the birth of modern physics.
The centennial celebration of the famous Michelson-
Morley, or "ether drift," experiment is being held in
Cleveland, Ohio, from April to October of this year. Its
theme is "Light, Space, and Time," and it reflects the
broad intellectual and cultural interests of Michelson
and Morley and the age of creativity in which they lived.
The various centennial programs also show how their
work contributed to future developments in pure and
applied science and how their experiment helped reshape
thinking about man's relationship to a universe in which
neither absolute space nor absolute time exists.
In honor of its anniversary celebration, it seems ap-
propriate to review the history and background of this
unique experiment. Although every scientist is generally
aware of the outcome of the experiment, and every as-
tronomer and infrared spectroscopist is intimately fa-
miliar with a Michelson interferometer, I, for one, must
confess that the details of the apparatus and the scientific
concepts of the period around 1885-1887 that led to the
experiment were pretty fuzzy in my mind. A friend re-
ferred me to a biography of Albert M. Michelson, The
Matter of Light (The University of Chicago Press), writ-
ten by his daughter, Dorothy Michelson Livingston. I
was spellbound for several evenings as I entered the world
of physics in the late nineteenth century, encountering
giants such as Lord Rayleigh, Maxwell, Bunsen, Row-
land, Helmholtz, Hertz, Lorentz, Alexander Graham Bell,
Stokes, Fresnel, and Lord Kelvin. Michelson, the exact-
ing scientist, deraanding teacher, and loving father, is
Received 11 April 1987.
* T h i s article appeared, in s o m e w h a t altered form, as a " L e t t e r from
America," in European Spectroscopy News.
Volume 41, Number 6, 1987
warmly drawn; and I followed the details of the aston-
ishing experiment with incredulity.
In 1887, when Michelson and Morley performed their
famous experiment, it was thought that light was a wave
motion in a mysterious substance called the "ether." If
this were true, then it should be possible to determine
the speed of the earth through the ether by measuring
the speed of light in different directions. Light moving
against an "ether wind" would travel more slowly than
light moving across such a wind. Because light travels
exceedingly fast, it was not possible to measure its speed
directly in different directions. It was, however, possible
to measure small differences in speed using an interfer-
ometer, an instrument that Michelson had been im-
proving for many years.
Figure 2 shows the mechanics of the equipment and
Fig. 3 gives the paths of light in the interferometer--
which traveled a total of 36 feet! (This beautiful pattern
is also the logo for the Michelson-Morley Centennial
Celebration.) The experiment was so delicate that vi-
brations from nearby activity would have made accurate
readings impossible. In order that all vibration might be
eliminated, the optical equipment that comprised the
interferometer was positioned on a five-foot square sand-
stone slab, which was mounted on a doughnut-shaped
block of wood, which was in turn floated on a pool of
mercury in a cast-iron trough. The use of liquid mercury
(what would our Environmental Protection Agency say
about this!) eliminated virtually all vibrations and en-
abled the interferometer to be rotated smoothly on its
axis around all points of the compass for the various
readings required. A centering pin prevented the float
from bumping into the sides of the cast-iron trough but
was engaged only while the interferometer was being set
into rotation.
Once set in motion, the slab and interferometer would
rotate slowly (about once in 6 minutes) for hours at a
time. No starting and stopping was necessary, because
the slow movement permitted accurate readings while
the apparatus rotated. The height of the interferometer
was eye level. A single beam of light from the lamp (a,
in Fig. 3) is split in two by a half-silvered mirror (b), so
that half travels in one direction while the other half
moves at right angles to the first. After several reflections
at the mirrors (d or d'), the light is recombined and is
observed through the telescope (f). If the motion of the
ooo3-vo28/87/4~o6-o93352.oo/o APPLIED SPECTROSCOPY 9:33
© 1987Society for Applied Spectroscopy
 Albert A. Mlchelson (1887) Edward W, Morley (c. 1885)
FIc. 1. (Left) Albert A. Michelson (1887). (Right) Edward W. Morley
(ca. 1885).

earth through the ether affects the speed of light in the

two directions differently, then the two halves of the light
beam will not match when they are brought together.
The result may be that no light will be seen in the tel-
escope. FIG. 3. The paths of light in the interferometer.
The experiment began in April, 1887. The final read-
ings were taken at noon on July 8, 9, and 11 and near 6
p.m. on July 8, 9, and 12. They revealed no difference in
the paths of light that could be interpreted as having speed of light traveling at 186,284 miles per second. Ac-
been affected by the movement of the earth through the cording to the English astronomer Arthur Stanley Ed-
ether. Reluctantly, Michelson wrote to Rayleigh: dington, the interferometer could detect "a lag of one-
ten-thousand-billionth of a second in the arrival of a light
The experiments on relative motion of earth and ether
have been completed and the result is decidedly neg- wave."
Shortly before Michelson's death, he attended a gath-
ative. The expected deviation of the interference fringes
ering in honor of Einstein (Fig. 4). Einstein began his
from the zero should have been 0.40 of a fringe--the
prepared remarks by turning to Michelson and saying:
maximum displacement was 0.02 and the average much
less than 0.01--and not in the right place. From far away I have come to you; but not to strangers.
I have come from among men who for many years have
The result was confusing to the world's scientific com-
been true comrades with me in my labors. You, my
munity because it was exactly opposite from what the
honored Dr. Michelson, began with this work when I
experiment was designed to prove: that the rotation of
was only a little youngster, hardly three feet high. It
the earth would have an effect on the speed of light.
was you who led the physicists into new paths, and
But however reluctant physicists of the day were to
through your marvelous experimental work paved the
accept the result, none of them thought of questioning
way for the development of the theory of relativity.
either the experiment or the reliability of the verdict.
This was because of the immense respect that was ac- You might be wondering why the Cleveland Centen-
corded the two scientists and the exquisite instrumen- nial Celebration of the Michelson-Morley experiment in-
tation they had built to measure slight variations in the cludes a significant number of artistic as well as scientific

Light source Adjustable mirror

• M rrors
l Mirrors .,. I Slivered glass plate
Mirrors

Albert Mlchelson. left. and Albert Einstein f1931)

FIG. 2. The Cleveland interferometer of 1887, mounted on a stone
floating in mercury. FIG. 4. Albert Michelson, left, and Albert Einstein (1931).

934 Volume 41, Number 6, 1987

events. Let me give you a few personal notes about the
two men.
Edward Williams Morley (1838-1923) was a major fig-
ure in the field of science--both chemistry and physics--
during the late 1800s and early 1900s. As a chemist,
Morley determined the densities of the gases hydrogen
and oxygen, as well as the proportions of each that, in
combination, form water. From this data he calculated
the relative densities of hydrogen and oxygen. The im-
portance of his results lies in the fact that all of chemistry
is based on accurate knowledge of the weights of the
elements, and Morley's determinations achieved a new
standard of accuracy and reliability. He also conducted
intensive experimentation that led to his determination
of the atomic weight of oxygen. Although essentially a
self-taught scientist, he was regarded as one of the great-
est chemists of his era.
Morley, son of a Congregational minister, was born in
New Jersey and grew up in Connecticut. He was tutored
by his father, then attended Williams College and An-
dover Theological Seminary. He came to Ohio in 1868
as a Congregational minister in Twinsburg. Almost im-
mediately, he joined the faculty of Western Reserve Uni-
versity, then located in Hudson, Ohio. When the Uni-
versity moved to Cleveland in 1880, Morley followed. He
retired in 1906 and moved to his boyhood hometown,
West Hartford, Connecticut, where he died in 1923.
Morley received seven honorary degrees and three gold
medal awards in the sciences, including the Davy Medal
of the Royal Society in London, England. Highly re-
spected by his peers, he served as president of the Amer-
ican Association for the Advancement of Science and of
the American Chemical Society.
Throughout his life, Morley loved music and was an
avid concert goer. In his youth, he had taught himself to
play the organ, and for many years he served as a church
organist. He was devoted to the study of languages--
both English and foreign--and was known among those
he taught as a strict grammarian. Thoroughly proficient
in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French, and German, he also
developed a good reading knowledge of Chaldean and
Russian.
Of his teaching, it was said that he was always inspiring
and that he not only insisted on a mastery of the prin-
ciples of chemistry but also inculcated the proper use of
the English language, good manners, and clear methods
of expression.
Albert Abraham Michelson (1852-1931), the first
American to win a Nobel Prize in the sciences, is best
known for his contributions to the physics of light and
for the elegance and precision of his many experiments.
In 1907 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his
pioneering efforts in measuring the exact speed of light
and for his inventions of precision scientific optical in-
struments. In 1920, he invented the first stellar inter-
ferometer and used it to make the first accurate mea-
surement of a star's diameter. The star was Betelgeuse.
Michelson also developed a standard unit of length by
measuring the meter in terms of a light wave. In 1925,
the International Committee on Weights and Measures
adopted this unit, which has remained the standard length
of a meter ever since.
Michelson was born in 1852 in Strzelno, German-oc-
cupied Poland, and came to the United States at the age
of four. He grew up in the rugged gold and silver mining
towns of California and Nevada and later attended high
school in San Francisco. When Michelson was 16, Pres-
ident Ulysses S. Grant awarded him a special appoint-
ment to the U.S. Naval Academy. In 1882, he was ap-
pointed the first professor of physics at the newly formed
Case School of Applied Science in Cleveland, Ohio.
In 1889, Michelson was appointed to the first chair in
physics at Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts,
and in 1894 he accepted the first chair in physics at the
University of Chicago. He retired from the University of
Chicago in 1929 and moved to Pasadena, California, where
his experiments with the velocity of light continued until
his death in 1931.
Michelson received eleven honorary doctorates and nine
prizes of international prestige in addition to the Nobel
Prize. He served as president of the American Physical
Society and of the National Academy of Sciences.
In his youth, Michelson studied the violin, and he loved
fine music all his life. In addition, he was a gifted artist
whose watercolors were considered of professional qual-
ity.
So, as you see, the Cleveland Michelson-Morley Cen-
tennial Celebration has good reason to salute both the
scientific and the artistic interests and talents of Mich-
elson and Morley.
Albert A. Michelson wrote, in "Light Waves and Their
Uses":
If a poet could at the same time be a physicist, he
might convey to others the pleasure, the satisfaction,
almost the reverence, which the subject inspires. The
aesthetic side of the subject is, I confess, by no means
the least attractive to me. Especially is its fascination
felt in the branch which deals with light.
As a spectroscopist, I too have felt that fascination
shape and influence my life. The history of spectroscopy
is our intellectual heritage, and it is a pleasure to ac-
knowledge, from time to time, the people who made that
history. This year we honor Albert A. Michelson and
Edward W. Morley.
APPLIED SPECTROSCOPY 935