Critical Researches on General Electrodynamics

CRITICAL RESEARCHES ON GENERAL ELECTRODYNAMICS
BY WALTER RITZ

Key concepts: Ballistic Theory of Light, Emission Theory, Electrodynamic Irreversibility
Latest update - 12 Mar 2008.

Translated (1980) from Recherches critiques sur l'Électrodynamique Générale,
Annales de Chimie et de Physique, Vol. 13, p. 145, 1908.

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145¹ 317²

FIRST PART
1. Recall of Lorentz's Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 323
2. Criticism of Notions of Electric and Magnetic Fields . . . 159 329
3. Irreversibility and Retarded Potentials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 332
4. Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 340
5. Gravitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 345
6. Action and Reaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 347
7. Analogy Between Ether and Electric Bodies . . . . . . . . . 186 351
8. Electrodynamic Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 354
9. Absolute Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 360
10. Summary and Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 367

To review an analysis of the Introduction and First Part,
see: Commentary on Ritz's Electrodynamics.

SECOND PART

1. General Considerations. Propagation of Forces . . . . . . . 209 370
2. The Elementary Force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 377

Phenomena of Slow Variation.
3. General Calculation of Forces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 382
4. Electrostatics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 388
5. Electric Currents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 388

Electrodynamic and Electromagnetic Actions.
6. Action of a Closed Current
on an element of Neutral Current . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 390
7. Action of a Closed Neutral Current or of a Magnet
on an Ion in Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 394
8. Convective Action of Electricity. Experiments
of Rowland, Roentgen and Eichenwald . . . . . . . . . . 240 396

Induction.
9. The Inductive Current is Neutral and Closed . . . . . . . . . 242 397
10. Inductive Circuits and Open Secondaries . . . . . . . . . . . 244 400
11. Action of a Charged Rigid Body on Itself.
Electromagnetic Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246 401
12. Electric Oscillations, General Considerations . . . . . . . . . 248 403
13. Hertzian Oscillations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252 406
14. Study of Great Speeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254 408
15. Kaufmann's Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260 413
16. Gravitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267 419
17. General Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271 422

¹ Page numbering is from Annales de Chimie et de Physique, 13 (1908).
² Page numbering from Gesammelte Werke - Walther Ritz- Oeuvres, Gauthier Villars, Paris, 1911, is shown in parentheses in the body of the text.

Translation notes

This work was originally translated from the French to English in 1972-1973 by Ms. Jocyln Lucier, a French Canadian citizen residing in Ventura California.

A second independent translation was begun in 1978 by Mr. George Toth, of Czechoslovakia, at the University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS. Mr. Toth completed pages 145-229 before having to return to Europe. The final portion of the second translation (pages 230-275) was done in 1979 by Ms. Elizabeth Bull at Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS.

The independent translations were compared against one another in preparing this English version for publication. Editing/redacting in English and manuscript preparation of the Introduction and First Part was done by Mr. Robert Fritzius, fritzius@bellsouth.net, of Starkville, MS.

A number of difficult passages in the Introduction and First Part were cleared up in 1980 by two members of the Foreign Language Department at Mississippi State University. (It would appear that Ritz was composing in German but writing in French. According to George Toth, there has to be a German original somewhere.)

The Second Part was edited/redacted from the independent translations (translations checked in the process) and converted to electronic format by Dr. Yefim Bakman, bakman@post.tau.ac.il, of Tel Aviv University, Israel. Final English smoothing was done by Robert Fritzius. The Second Part files, including html versions, were installed on this website in January 2005.

Sections 5, 6, and 7 of the First Part were prepared as doc and html files and installed on the website in March 2005.

Mr. Fritzius and Dr. Bakman are desirous of having a scientfic publishing house or physics journal to make the entire document available in hard copy. Monetary assistance for publishing costs would be welcome.

Related Material

John G. Fox, Evidence Against Emission Theories, Am. J. Phys., 33, 1 (1965)

Also see Fox's 1975 letter about the Ritz translation.

Alberto Martinez, Ritz, Einstein, and the Emission Hypothesis, Physics in Perspective, 6, 4, (2004). NADS abstract is online at: http://http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004PhP.....6....4M