Ether is closely tied to the history of Lumon Industries and its founder, Kier Eagan, later playing a role in Harmony Cobel’s story. It is explored through medical, scientific, mystical, and mythological perspectives, making it a complex subject. This article provides a brief overview, with further details available in the “See Also” section.

Ether, specifically diethyl ether, is a colourless, highly volatile, and flammable liquid with a sweet odour.

First used as a general anaesthetic in 1846, it revolutionised medicine and remained a key anaesthetic and pain reliever for over a century. While largely replaced in developed countries due to safety concerns, ether is still used as an industrial and laboratory solvent.

It plays a role in chemical synthesis, plastics production, engine starting fluids, and certain cleaning products. In some developing regions, its medical use persists due to its affordability.

Ether has significant abuse potential. Ether addiction, known as etheromania, involves the compulsive inhalation or ingestion of ether, leading to euphoria, dizziness, and hallucinations. Prolonged abuse can result in memory loss, anxiety, depression, heart problems, brain damage and in severe cases, death.

• The theremin — played by Ms. Huang during the ORTBO campfire — was originally called the Etherphone, named after the 19th-century belief that radio waves traveled through an all-encompassing ether, thought to carry electromagnetic waves before their nature was fully understood.^[1]

8. Sweet Vitriol

• How Ether Went From a Recreational ‘Frolic’ Drug to the First Surgery Anesthetic
• Ether for Every Occasion: Wedding Nights, Frolics, and Flammable Binges