A Refinement of the Michelson-Morley Experiment

The investigation which is the subject of this paper was undertaken to the conclusions recently drawn by Professor D. C. Miller from his of the Michelson-Morley experiment. Professor Miller interprets observations as indicating a motion of the sun through the ether a velocity not less, than 200 kilometers per second in a direction right ascension 262 degrees, declination 65 degrees. He supposes a contraction of the apparatus in the direction of motion occurs, , however, departs from that given by the formula of Lorentz and by an amount corresponding to a velocity of about 10 kilometers second. That is, the average shift of the interference pattern, as an of his interferometer is turned through 90 degrees from the direction or parallel to the direction of the inferred drift, is such would be expected if the velocity of the apparatus were 10 kilometers second and no contraction occurred. In his paper in Science, April 30, 1926, he seems to have abandoned the idea that the magnitude of the velocity depends on the altitude above sea level at which the are made. Such results as his, modifying as they would the physical concepts, require the fullest experimental confirmation.