Other Historical Speculations
In 1690 Pierre Varignon assumed that all bodies are exposed to pushes by aether particles from all directions, and that there is some sort of limitation at a certain distance from the Earth's surface which cannot be passed by the particles. He assumed that if a body is closer to the Earth than to the limitation boundary, then the body would experience a greater push from above than from below, causing it to fall toward the Earth.
In 1748 Mikhail Lomonosov assumed that the effect of the aether is proportional to the complete surface of the elementary components of which matter consists (similar to Huygens and Fatio before him). He also assumed an enormous penetrability of the bodies. However, no clear description was given by him as to how exactly the aether interchanges with matter so that the law of gravitation arises.
In 1821 John Herapath tried to apply his co-developed model of the kinetic theory of gases on gravitation. He assumed that the aether is heated by the bodies and loses density so that other bodies are pushed to these regions of lower density. However, it was shown by Taylor that the decreased density due to thermal expansion is compensated for by the increased speed of the heated particles, therefore no attraction arises.
Read more about this topic: Mechanical Explanations Of Gravitation
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