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

 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

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

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

 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

 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

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 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 from the independent translations (translations checked in the process) and converted to electronic format by Dr. Yefim Bakman, bakmanyef@gmail.com, 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.

Readers should note that the Second Part of this work is not Ritz's better mousetrap. It is a step in that direction but Ritz was using emission theory with ficticious particles which were not affected by their environment. (This was to be consistent with the superposition principle.) Ritz used his (action without reaction) fictitious particles to re-model Maxwell-Lorentz electrodynamics. At various places he explains that what is being presented is not consistent with his theory, which would have fictious particles being acted on by charges in the media through which they travel. (This amounts to a disagreement with the superposition principle.)

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