No Ether?

Sound waves differ from electromagnetic waves in many ways but what if in some crazy way they are the same thing?   A sound wave through a solid moves faster than through a gas which is what we are used to.  Since the molecules are much more tightly packed in a solid the collisions between molecules occur much more quickly and accurately.  If you strike a long piece of metal the sound wave propagates through the metal from one end to the other.  If you strike a large metal pipe that is very long from the top it will create a transverse wave that moves through the pipe much as a water wave on the ocean.  I'm not sure if it could be considered a sound wave that is traveling transversely.  Maybe there will be a sound wave separately from a transverse shock-wave.  However if they are the same thing then Imagine if you grab one end of the pipe and pull it.   How long does it take from the time you pull your end to the time that the other end moves?  Would it be the speed of light? It would probably be the speed of light / or - the speed at which the metal is capable of stretching.  As it stretches it would create a stretch wave that moves longitudinally opposite the direction of the wave. 

What I don't understand is how people can say there is no ether.   On the one hand light supposedly doesn't need a medium to propagate through.  On the other hand space can bend.  Now if space can bend and a transverse wave is the bending of some medium then couldn't space itself be the medium through which waves propagate?  Just as a planet bends space so an electron bends space as it changes energy states.  The rapid change of state makes a rapid bending of space which creates a shock-wave in all directions which moves through space. 

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