EM and gravitation

[RM Mentock]

In their book Gravitation and Inertia, Ciufolini and
Wheeler (p.391, first full paragraph) say:

"A distinguished physicist even published in his very
last years works, the main point of which is to claim
that gravitation follows the pattern of electromagnetism.
This thesis we cannot accept, and the community of physics,
quite rightly, does not accept."

To which physicist and which of his works are they referring?

--
RM Mentock

Leave out a couple comma's and the average 11 line sentence
can get hard to read. -- Casady

[mikegi]

"RM Mentock" <men...@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:3B3BA308...@mindspring.com...

> In their book Gravitation and Inertia, Ciufolini and
> Wheeler (p.391, first full paragraph) say:
>
> "A distinguished physicist even published in his very
> last years works, the main point of which is to claim
> that gravitation follows the pattern of electromagnetism.
> This thesis we cannot accept, and the community of physics,
> quite rightly, does not accept."
>
> To which physicist and which of his works are they referring?

Were they referring to something recent or something from the distant past
(I don't exactly understand what they mean by "very last years works")?

[Moderator's note: presumably they mean the year or years shortly before
this physicist died. An apostrophe would have helped. - jb]

Maybe they're referring to Oliver Heaviside's 1893 paper: "A Gravitational
and Electromagnetic Analogy". You can read it in Heaviside's Electromagnetic
Theory Vol 2, pp. 455-466.

Mike