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At the turn of the 20th century, it was believed that light was propagated through an invisible medium called the luminiferous ether, but scientists could not prove the existence of the ether with data.

Until the experiment was performed in 1887, scientists believed that light waves propagate through a medium that scientists called the luminiferous aether.

Plotting these luminiferous points on a map, the team was stunned to discover a collection of pulsing magmatic structures — the beating volcanic heart of southern Hawaii.

“If Theodore Roosevelt’s turbulent life can be described as cyclonic,” she wrote, “his wife was the still center of the storm. Reserved to the point of aloofness, and given to the sternest self-discipline, Edith was a lifelong enigma even to members of her family. Yet no one denied her power and influence. She was ‘a sort of feminine luminiferous ether, pervading everything and everybody.’

For example, in 1887, an optical interferometer — a sensor based on wave interference — was used to disprove the existence of luminiferous aether, a universal medium through which light waves were thought to propagate1.