Eddington on the Effect of Gravity on Light

In a popular book discussing Relativity from the early 20s Eddington points out that the bending of light by the Sun is similar to that by a refracting medium. One wonders if any attempts were made to combine gravity and wave theory at that time.

"The wave-motion in a ray of light can be compared to a succession of long straight waves rolling onward in the sea. If the motion of the waves is slower at one end that the other, the whole wave-front must gradually slew round, and the direction in which it is rolling must change. In the sea this happens when one end of the wave reaches shallow water before the other, because the speed in shallow water is slower. It is well known that this causes waves proceeding diagonally across a bay to slew round and come in parallel to the shore; the advanced end is delayed in the shallow water and waits for the other. In the same way when the light waves pass near the sun, the end nearest the sun has the smaller velocity and the wave-front slews round; thus the course of the waves is bent.

"Light moves more slowly in a material medium than in vacuum, the velocity being inversely proportional to the refractive index of the medium. The phenomenon of refraction is in fact caused by a slewing of the wave-front in passing into a region of smaller velocity. We can thus imitate the gravitational effect on light precisely, if we imagine the space round the sun filled with a refracting medium which gives the appropriate velocity of light."

-Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, Space, Time and Gravitation, 1921