336 The Philippine Journal of Science 1921 
The real problem of physics for the past twenty years has 
not been to show how matter is nothing but a form of energy, 
or that the entropy of the universe is constantly increasing, or 
to explain e = hv, but to explain how positive and negative units 
of electricity combine to form atoms. It is very easy to obtain 
a possible partial solution of this problem if one states it clearly 
as follows : 
1. Given that atoms contain positive and negative units of 
electricity, and so far as we know nothing else. 
2. Given the classical electromagnetic equations as a working 
hypothesis to be applied to the interpretation of experimental 
data. 
3. To find an explanation for the stability and definiteness 
of atoms. 
A MECHANICAL CONCEPTION OF THE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE UNITS 
For the purposes of the argument here presented no partic- 
ular mechanical concept of the electron is necessary, but if 
we use the term “ether” in the sense defined by Cunningham 29 
and “space” in the sense used by Einstein, 30 we can obtain a 
mechanical concept which is fairly accurate. A positive unit 
is thus a small cavity in space, from which ether is continual- 
ly proceeding, presumably from some sphere beyond the confines 
of our knowledge. The flow of ether is constant and its tension 
is constant, presumably due to a kind of resistance which it 
meets in passing through the surface of the cavity. The only 
way of conceiving of the effect due to this tension is to consider 
space projected down to two dimensions. It then becomes like 
a rubber band being pulled through a sheet of paper, which 
causes a local distortion of the sheet. The attraction which 
two distortions in the same direction would naturally have (cf. 
the paper analogy) for one another is comparable to Einstein’s 
expression for gravitation. 
According to this view an electron is a larger cavity through 
which ether escapes from our space, having accomplished its 
purpose, so far as we are concerned, of tending to bring 
positive and negative units together. 
29 Cunningham, E., Relativity and the Electron Theory. London, Long- 
mans, Green & Co. (1915), 92. 
30 Einstein, A., Ann. d. Phys. 354 (1916) 769. 
