People can identify with the concept of an elementary particle without knowing what it looks like up close. It is sufficient to know that it moves relative to other particles, and that the mutual acceleration is governed by certain established force laws. Few feel the need to enquire into the meaning of empty space or what a particle is actually made of. Is it spherical? Is it made of hard stuff? Is it shiny? Modern particle physics disregards these questions. If however we reverse the situation and argue that particles are sinks and sources in an all pervading aethereal medium which is dynamic, compressible, and stretchable, the focus then shifts to the question of what the aether itself is made of. Naturally we won't be able to answer that question any more than we can answer the question of what particles are made of in a world without aether. But we can demonstrate that such an aethereal approach to matter can be used to explain the electromagnetic field.
Once we can accept the concept of aether vortices without having to insist upon first knowing what the aether itself is made of, then the mystery of the electromagnetic field will unfold before our eyes.
