This study discusses some of the experiments developed by different scientists, to confirm a theory advanced by Fresnel – namely, Fresnel’s ether particle drift coefficient –, referring to light propagation in moving bodies (actually, this may be considered as one of the earliest roots of the special relativity theory).
There are also analyzed the theoretical deductions of the above-mentioned coefficient, as proposed by Fresnel, Lorentz and Einstein.
The main idea supported by Fresnel, within the inevitable restrictions of the scientific thinking of the time, was that once accepted the existence of a universal environment/milieu:
“light is only a certain mode of vibration of a universal fluid, the ether, the only objective of optics being therefore limited to the study of that fluid’s physical properties.”
Fresnel also introduced the concept of polarisation, describing an exclusively transversal vibration, along with that of partial dragging of the ether.
The two – probably – most important supporters of the relativity theory, H. A. Lorentz and J. H. Poincaré, are present in the study by their works devoted to the concepts proposed by Fresnel.
The three appendices of the study discuss: Fizeau’s dragging coefficient; the theories of Maxwell and Fizeau; Lorentz’s transformation and the corresponding states.