Finally available, a high quality book of the original classic edition of The Mechanical Universe. It was previously published by other bona fide publishers, and is now, after many years, back in print. This is a new and freshly published edition of this culturally important work by A. E. Dolbear, which is now, at last, again available to you.
Enjoy this classic work today. These selected paragraphs distill the contents and give you a quick look inside The Mechanical Universe:
Properties of Matter and Ether compared-Discontinuity versus Continuity-Size of atoms-Astronomical distances-Number of atoms in the universe-Ether unlimited-Kinds of Matter, permanent qualities of-Atomic structure; vortex-rings, their properties-Ether structureless-Matter gravitative, Ether not-Friction in Matter, Ether frictionless-Chemical properties-Energy in Matter and in Ether-Matter as a transformer of Energy-Elasticity-Vibratory rates and waves-Density-Heat-Indestructibility of Matter-Inertia in Matter and in Ether-Matter not inert-Magnetism and Ether waves-States of Matter-Cohesion and chemism affected by temperature-Shearing stress in Solids and in Ether-Ether pressure-Sensation dependent upon Matter-Nervous system not affected by Ether states-Other stresses in Ether-Transformations of Motion-Terminology p. 
...In the statement of Newton quoted at the head of this chapter, he speaks of a spirit which lies hid in all gross bodies, etc., by means of which all kinds of phenomena are to be explained; but he deliberately abandons that idea when he comes to the study of light, for he assumes the existence and activity of light corpuscles, for which he has no experimental evidence; and the probability is that he did this because the latter conception was one which he 10 could handle mathematically, while he saw no way for thus dealing with the other.
...Then Young applied the wave theory to the explanation of polarization and other phenomena; and in 1851 Foucault proved experimentally that the velocity of light was less in water than in air, as it should be if the wave theory be true, and this has been considered a crucial experiment which took away the last hope for the corpuscular theory, and demonstrated the existence of the ether as a space-filling medium capable of transmitting light-waves known to have a velocity of 186,000 miles per second.
...Properties of Matter and Ether compared-Discontinuity versus Continuity-Size of atoms-Astronomical distances-Number of atoms in the universe-Ether unlimited-Kinds of Matter, permanent qualities of-Atomic structure; vortex-rings, their properties-Ether structureless-Matter gravitative, Ether not-Friction in Matter, Ether frictionless-Chemical properties-Energy in Matter and in Ether-Matter as a transformer of Energy-Elasticity-Vibratory rates and waves-Density-Heat-Indestructibility of Matter-Inertia in Matter and in Ether-Matter not inert-Magnetism and Ether waves-States of Matter-Cohesion and chemism affected by temperature-Shearing stress in Solids and in Ether-Ether pressure-Sensation dependent upon Matter-Nervous system not affected by Ether states-Other stresses in Ether-Transformations of Motion-Terminology.
...Even at absolute zero, when all its vibratory or heat energy would be absent, it would be still an elastic whirling body pulling upon every other atom in the universe with gravitational energy, twisting other atoms into conformity with its own position with its magnetic energy; and, if such ether rings are like the rings which are made in air, will not stand still in one place even if no others act upon it, but will start at once by its own inherent energy to move in a right line at right angles to its own plane and in the direction of the whirl inside the ring.