We uncover an observer frame error which influenced physics at a critical time. Refraction due to relative motion was considered from the wrong inertial frame, including by Lodge in his 1893 showing a light path 'dragged' by the new medium[1] in his Stellar Aberration paper following Michelson's null result. In the frame of the moving medium (Earth) the light path reverses, refracting towards the normal. Jones's (1970) glass disks experiment used Lodge's observer frame.[2] We show that use of the correct observer frame is essential for Special Relativity (SR), and how the error erroneously disproved Stokes Ether Drag theory, which Michelson supported, engendering incorrect assumption and paradox. We extend Young's experiment, and consider Huygens-Fresnel Principle,[3] wave/particle coupling, scattering and implications on vacuum fields. Through extinction, bow shocks and FM, SR's postulates are confirmed, but important clarifications emerge at Maxwell's field limits, allowing replacement of an assumption with a quantum mechanism deriving SR, using mutually exclusive systems. We find extra predictive powers, symmetries and the ability to resolve perceived paradox and anomalies. New perspectives on Stokes, Raman and beyond arise from a local reality model using Einstein's 1952 view that 'space' is actually; "infinitely many spaces in relative motion."