The theory of light which Sir Oliver Lodge propounded to
the British Association on Friday, September 14th, caused considerable interest. It could not, of course, command assent because it was only a speculation, but it was an interesting one. He asked what became of all the light that was being poured through the Universe. The earth gets less than one thousand millionth of the light of the sun, but this small fraction of energy does all our work for us. For millions of centuries every star has also been pouring out such energy. Sir Oliver Lodge suggested that in the remote depths of space that energy may be absorbed and produce new matter. We cannot say at what rate the sun and the stars are moving ; we know only the rate at which they move in relation to one another ; and therefore we cannot say absolutely what energy is. With the help of Einstein's theory of relativity, however, we are coming nearer to some idea of absolute energy, and thus to understand, in Sir Oliver Lodge's words, that " energy and matter are really one." Sir Oliver Lodge suggested that if you translated light into a vortex you might generate an electron. " The question I propound is this : Matter produces radiation ; does radiation produce matter ? "
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