In the 1800s, the general belief was that the ether permeated the entire universe and allowed light to flow through it. In addition, scientists had no good theory regarding why the sun continued to burn and hadn't used up all its energy. As the scientists had a very good handle on the mass of the sun and the amount of energy it produced, there was no substance on earth that could burn for any significant amount of time and produce the amount of energy the sun produced. I often wonder if our current theories, especially about such things as dark matter and dark energy, which is really no different than the 1800s "theories" regarding how the sun could continue to burn, won't prove to be as wrong as these previously discredited theories. All well, we can only work with what we got (in the same way that prior to E=Mc2, there was no way to come up with good theories for what the sun burned).