Whittaker-ET: Investigator site log (STEP I)

Run 2026-10-07 (b), full Investigator run (STEP I), triggered by the owner adding Whittaker to the selected list and asking for his better aether-theory researches and for "gravity as a longitudinal standing wave" as a speculative question. Web time: 572 seconds (9.5 minutes) of the 10-minute cap, stopped at the cap. Chrome used throughout. The web-fetch tool was used only where the Chrome extension could not read PDF text (OUP, MacTutor, Cambridge, CERN). Those PDFs were kept in the session's tool-results folder and read there with pdftotext or page images. None was copied into research/files/: downloading needs the owner's explicit approval, so each note gives the download URL.

Run 2026-10-07 (a), follow-up Q07 (STEP F; not a full Investigator run). Web time: 267 seconds (about 5 minutes) of the 20-minute cap; stopped early because the question was answered. Chrome used throughout. No files downloaded.

Keywords tried

• Run (a) Google: Whittaker "On electric phenomena in gravitational fields" 1927 Proceedings Royal Society; "On electric phenomena in gravitational fields" Whittaker "It is a consequence of general relativity"; Puthoff polarizable vacuum model gravitational waves scalar binary pulsar criticism; LIGO Virgo polarization test scalar breathing longitudinal mode GWTC-3 tests of general relativity Bayes factor; arxiv "Constraining the gravitational-wave breathing mode"; MICROSCOPE final result 2022 equivalence principle eta 10^-15 Physical Review Letters; Dicke 1957 "Gravitation without a principle of equivalence" Reviews of Modern Physics dielectric constant vacuum; Whittaker 1903 "undulatory" gravity longitudinal waves standing "inverse square" interference analysis
• Run (a) ADS: 1927RSPSA.116..720W; 1902MNRAS..62..617W
• Run (b) Google: Whittaker 1902 "undulatory explanation of gravity" Monthly Notices; Stoney "Examination of Mr. Whittaker's" "Undulatory Explanation of Gravity"; Whittaker "Old and new ideas of gravitation" Endeavour 1944; "Edmund Taylor Whittaker" Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 1956 Temple; Whittaker "influence of gravitation on electromagnetic phenomena" Nature 1928; Whittaker papers archive "Edmund Taylor Whittaker" Fisher Library OR "Edinburgh University" correspondence collection; "Whittaker" "MS Coll. 219" OR "Manuscript Collection 219" Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library finding aid; Múnera "Whittaker" 1903 longitudinal waves gravity "wave equation" neo-Cartesian OR "Galilean Electrodynamics"; Bearden Whittaker 1903 "longitudinal" gravity "scalar potential" "standing waves"; Navarro 2025 "Edmund T. Whittaker, physics and Catholicism"; "Whittaker" 1903 integral formula wave equation twistor "Penrose" "Bateman" origin; gravity "longitudinal standing wave" aether OR medium theory paper; Whittaker "The aether: past and present" Endeavour 1943; 1902 1903 "Whittaker" gravitation longitudinal waves aether history Stoney Lorentz "kinetic theory of gravitation"; Charles F. Brush "kinetic theory of gravitation" 1911 aether waves; Brush "impaired gravitational acceleration" OR "gravitational acceleration" silicate "Bureau of Standards" 1930 Heyl OR Poor test; "Strong evidence for composition-dependent gravity"; "Whittaker" "undulatory" gravity 1902 OR 1903 Larmor OR Lodge OR Darwin discussion "Royal Astronomical Society" meeting; "Electrodynamic wave-theory of physical forces" See 1917 gravitation; Warwick "Masters of Theory" Whittaker aether gravitation Cambridge Larmor electronic theory
• Run (b) ADS: 1902MNRAS..62..617W (abstract page)
• Run (b) arXiv: abs 2205.08309; search Whittaker 1903 scalar potentials longitudinal; search "Whittaker potentials"; abs 1402.3806 and html v2
• Run (b) zbMATH: au:Whittaker, E* py:1902-1904; Whittaker gravity py:1902-1905; ti:"partial differential equations of mathematical physics" au:Whittaker; rf:2658160
• Run (b) HathiTrust: full-text phrase "Whittaker's undulatory"
• Run (b) Internet Archive: Whittaker AND (aether OR Eddington OR gravitation)
• Run (b) U. Toronto Discover Archives: Whittaker Edmund; "Whittaker" mathematician
• Not yet tried: "speed of gravity" Van Flandern / Carlip / Kopeikin; ultralight scalar dark matter oscillating g gravimeter/PTA limits; Whittaker 1902 newspapers ("Whittaker" + "gravitation" 1902-1903 in The Times, Manchester Guardian, Chronicling America); Fortschritte der Physik 1903 abstract; Bateman 1904 "The solution of partial differential equations by means of definite integrals"; Le Sage / Lorentz 1900 "Considerations on gravitation"; Whittaker Vol. 2 chapter on gravitation (text search in the archive.org djvu.txt); German: "Whittaker Gravitation longitudinale Wellen 1903"; Bureau of Standards Brush silicate test 1929-1931.

Leads for review

1. The inventor's own work

• Run (b): Whittaker, MNRAS 62 (1902) 617-620, §3 "An Undulatory Explanation of Gravity", the first statement of claim 4, a year before Math. Ann. It says the constituent waves are longitudinal in his own words: "the varying vector is a gravitational force perpendicular to the wave-front", against light's vectors "parallel to the wave-front". The "identical property of the medium" and "enormously greater" sentences are already here. Neither text uses "standing". [web: page images pp.619-620] Bears on claim 4 and on the Q07 hypothesis. research/2026-10-07-oup-mnras.md
• Run (b): History Vol. 2 (1953) is on archive.org as an apparently open item. It needs the owner's approval to download. It is the best source for Whittaker's 1953 view of gravity, relativity and the aether. Bears on claims 4-5. research/2026-10-07-archive-org.md
• Run (b): own gravity/EM papers, listed by McCrea and summarised by Synge. The 1928 lecture (J. London Math. Soc. 3, 137-144) compares EM in a gravitational field to a medium with variable ε and μ, "not quite perfect". Also "Relativity, gravitation and world-structure" (Observatory 1935); "The aether: past and present" (Endeavour 1943); "Old and new ideas of gravitation" (Endeavour 1944). Bears on claims 4-5 and the A07 polarizable-vacuum row. research/2026-10-07-cambridge-synge.md, research/2026-10-07-mactutor.md
• Run (b): Fisher Library MS COLL 00219: letters to his son 1918-1956, writings, and an autobiography (Box 11). Only the owner can obtain it. research/2026-10-07-utoronto-fisher.md
• From run (a), still open: 1903 Math. Ann. §5° (pp. 353-355) as read; 1904 Proc. LMS (no gravity); 1927 Proc. R. Soc. A 116 (within GR); History Vol. 1 pp. 206-207 (Laplace's gravific fluid, Tisserand). (follow-up Q07)

2. Supporting information by others (and evidence bearing against)

• Run (b), against: G. Johnstone Stoney, MNRAS 63 (1903) 424-428. He praises the mathematics but rejects the physics: each constituent force has a 1/r and a 1/r^2 part, "flickering" at frequency mu, and they add to a steady force only for one special set of amplitudes. "The improbability of this assumption is so overwhelming that no physicist can feel himself justified in seriously arguing from the supposition". The postscript records a suggestion at the RAS meeting that Laplace's equation needs changing for moving bodies (Mercury). Whittaker's reply, if any, has not been found. [web: page images] research/2026-10-07-oup-mnras.md
• Run (b), contemporary reading: JFM 34.0827.01 (Wangerin, 1903) summarises the gravity section as "longitudinal waves ... with very great speed in a medium". JFM 34.0839.01 records Stoney's dissent. research/2026-10-07-zbmath.md
• Run (b), sympathetic: McCrea 1957: the result shows "how a static gravitational field can be regarded as resulting from effects that are being propagated through the field. In this way he anticipated some features of general relativity"; it "attracted attention in the daily press of the time". research/2026-10-07-mactutor.md
• From run (a): GW170817 speed bound; GWTC-3 polarizations; Jin & Zheng breathing-mode preprint; PSR B1913+16; MICROSCOPE. (follow-up Q07)

3. Related work

• Run (b): twistor theory and the Penrose transform descend from Whittaker 1903 (Hitchin; Mason; Ward 1989; Dunajski 2005). Thompson, Swearngin and Bouwmeester 2014 build linearised gravitational radiation from the "Whittaker solution". This is the mainstream use of Whittaker's decomposition for gravitational waves: tensor (transverse) waves, no medium. Bears on claims 1-2 and 4. research/2026-10-07-zbmath.md, research/2026-10-07-google.md
• Run (b): the "standing waves" reading of Whittaker 1903 comes from Barrett 1993 and Bearden (late 1980s on), and Titleman 2023 repeats it. It is not Whittaker's wording. Cross-project link: review/Bearden. research/2026-10-07-qeios.md, research/2026-10-07-google.md
• Run (b): C. F. Brush 1911-1929, a kinetic aether-wave (shadow) theory of gravity that admits longitudinal waves. Lodge's 1911 objections. Brush's free-fall experiments claim silicates fall slower (about 1e-5), with a Bureau of Standards check whose result has not been located. Bears on claim 4 and A07's composition-independence point. research/2026-10-07-rexresearch.md
• Run (b): Múnera 2019 (J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 1251, 012038) "agrees with Whittaker" on longitudinal solutions and argues for composition-dependent gravity. Darmos 2022 claims composition dependence from Cavendish data (with a published response). T. J. J. See 1917, a wave theory of gravitation. Current "longitudinal standing wave" papers (Meyl; Gouveia 2025; CCSE in/out matter waves). Labels such as "fringe" are the sources' own. research/2026-10-07-google.md
• Run (b): mainstream use of the 1904 potentials: "scalar Whittaker potentials" in plasmon optics (Berthel et al., Phys. Rev. E 92, 033202, 2015). Bears on claim 3 (an ordinary transverse EM tool). research/2026-10-07-qeios.md
• From run (a): Dicke/Puthoff PV model and Ibison 2003; Titleman arXiv 2205.08309; ultralight scalar dark matter. (follow-up Q07)

4. Historical record

• Run (b): Whittaker was RAS secretary (1901-06) when the 1902 note appeared and when Stoney's critique was read. The exchange was indexed across the 1903-04 abstracting services (HathiTrust). The daily press covered the result (McCrea), and those articles have not been found yet. research/2026-10-07-mactutor.md, research/2026-10-07-hathitrust.md
• Run (b): Navarro 2020 (History of Science 59, 287-314), working from the Fisher letters: Vol. 2's treatment of Einstein was shaped by general relativity's low standing in the early 1950s and by Whittaker's commitment to the ether and to a gravity-EM connection. The antisemitism question is left open by Navarro. Navarro 2025 (Notes Rec. 79, 195-216): Whittaker's Catholicism and physics. research/2026-10-07-sagepub.md, research/2026-10-07-royalsociety.md

Corrections to earlier documents

• _text/README (project note, "Not obtained"): "History Vol. 2 ... Internet Archive copies are lending-restricted." This may not hold for every copy. archive.org item e-t-whittaker-a-history-of-the-theories-of-aether-and-electricity-vol-2-london-n (same uploader as the Vol. 1 PDF in the folder) lists the original 14.8 MB PDF and its OCR text. I did not check the access flag, so confirm before relying on it. Other Vol. 2 scans, and From Euclid to Eddington, are lending-only.
• sites.md run (a), NASA ADS row: the bibcode tried, 1902MNRAS..62..617W, returns "Page not found"; the scan carries 1902MNRAS..62..617H. The 1902 note is readable on OUP, so the ADS block no longer matters.
• claims.md claim 4 and A07 attribute the "identical property of the medium" and "enormously greater" sentences to the 1903 paper. That is correct, but both appear first, word for word, in the 1902 MNRAS note (p.620), which also gives the longitudinal character outright ("gravitational force perpendicular to the wave-front"). A07's open item "1902 MNRAS note ... unread" is now read. These are additions, not errors.