From Electromagnetism to the

Electromagnetic Field:
The Genesis of Maxwells Equations
Ovidio Mario Bucci
University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy
E-mail: bucci@unina.it

Abstract
This contribution outlines the main stages of the path that in ten years led James Clerk Maxwell to the introduction of the
concept of the electromagnetic eld, to the formulation of the electromagnetic theory of light, and to the development of
the equations we still adopt for the description of electromagnetic phenomena.

1. Introduction

xactly 150 years ago, on December 8, 1864, James Clerk

Maxwell (1831-1879) read to the Royal Society of London his third and last fundamental memoir on electromagnetism, entitled A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic
Field, the abstract of which had been submitted on October
27. In this memoir, published in the Transactions of the Society
the following year [1], the equations bearing his name appeared
for the first time.
This introduced a way of looking at electromagnetic phenomena that opened completely new conceptual (and practical) horizons. Together with his other seminal contribution, the
kinetic theory of gases, Maxwell modified the body of accepted
theories and physical conceptions, namely what Kuhn [2]
called the scientific paradigms of normal science, laying
the foundations of todays vision of a physical world made of
particles interacting through fields.
It must be stressed that the development of both theories
was not motivated by new experimental findings that did not
fit in the existing scientific body of knowledge. In particular, in
the case of electromagnetism, all the facts known in Maxwells
time had been satisfactorily interpreted within the Newtonian
paradigm, and incorporated in a theoretical framework of
excellent predictive power. This was indeed exploited and
further developed until Hertzs experimental verification of the
most striking physical consequence of Maxwells theory, i.e.,
the existence of electromagnetic waves.

IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 56, No. 6, December 2014

AP_Mag_Dec_2014_Final.indd 299

As for Newton before him and Einstein after, the main

motivation behind Maxwells effort was metaphysical, i.e., his
adherence to a world view alternative to the dominant one, a
vision introduced by Faraday in connection with his studies on
electromagnetic induction and polarization. The construction
of a coherent and satisfactory theory based on this alternative
conception required ten years, and an exceptional intellectual
effort. Following [3, 4], this paper outlines the main stages
of this enterprise, in order to follow and attempt to clarify the
evolution of Maxwells thoughts, which led to the introduction
of the concept of the electromagnetic field, to the electromagnetic theory of light, and to the formulation of those equations
we still adopt for the description of electromagnetic phenomena.

2. Mathematizing Faraday
Maxwell was introduced to the study of magnetism by
William Thomson (1824-1907, Figure 1), the future Lord
Kelvin, when he was still an undergraduate student at the Trinity
College in Cambridge. However, Maxwells explicit interest in
electromagnetism started just after his successful graduation at
the final honors examination for the BA in Mathematics (the so
called Tripos) in January 1854, when he was nearly 23 years
old (Figure 2). As a matter of fact, in a letter to Thomson, dated
February 20, 1854, we read [5]:

299

12/27/2014 2:04:56 PM

Figure 1. William Thomson in 1852.

Figure 2. James C. Maxwell, about 1854.

Figure 3. Michael Faraday in his laboratory at the Royal Institution (1850s).

300

AP_Mag_Dec_2014_Final.indd 300

IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 56, No. 6, December 2014

12/27/2014 2:04:57 PM

2
F= q1q2 4 0 r r 3 1 1 2 c 2 ( dr dt ) + 1 c 2 r d 2 r dt 2

(1)

with 0 being the vacuum permittivity, r being the vector

pointing from 1 to 2, r being its length, and c being the ratio
between the units of charge in the electromagnetic and electrostatic systems. The first term on the right-hand side of Equation (1) clearly corresponds to the Coulomb interaction, the
second is equivalent to Ampres law for the force between
current elements, while the third accounts for the electromagnetic induction.
Maxwell made rapid progress. In a letter to Thomson,
dated November 13, 1854 [7], he wrote,
....Then I tried to make out the theory of attractions
of currents but tho I could see how the effects could
be determined I was not satisfied with the form
of the theory which treats of elementary currents
& their reciprocal action....Now I have heard you
speak of magnetic lines of force & Faradays seems
Figure 4. Wilhelm Eduard Weber.
Suppose a man to have a popular knowledge of
electrical show experiments and a little antipathy to
Murphys Electricity1, how ought he to proceed in
reading & working so to get a little insight into the
subject wh(ich) may be of use in further reading? If
he wished to read Ampre Faraday &c how should
they be arranged, and in what order might he read
your articles in the Cambridge Journal?
In choosing as a field of enquiry electromagnetism, an
area at the forefront of current research, Maxwell was naturally
drawn to the work of Michael Faraday (1791-1867, Figure 3),
whose extraordinary series of experimental discoveries formed
(in Maxwells words) the nucleus of everything electric since
1830. Maxwell was also drawn to the work of the German
scientists Franz Newmann, Gustav Kirchhoff, and, above all,
Wilhelm Eduard Weber (1804-1891, Figure 4). Weber had
developed a comprehensive explanation of all electromagnetic
phenomena in the classic Newtonian framework of a direct
action at distance between charges and currents. These last
were conceived according to a hypothesis first formulated in
1845 by the Leipzig professor Gustav Theodor Fechner, as a
streaming of opposite charges, traveling with equal velocities
in opposite directions.
In modern vector notation and units, which will be adopted
henceforth, Webers expression for the force exerted in vacuo
by a point charge, q1 , on another point charge, q2 , reads [6]

A popular textbook of the day.

IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 56, No. 6, December 2014

AP_Mag_Dec_2014_Final.indd 301

to make great use of them....Now I thought that as

every current generated magnetic lines & was acted
on in a manner determined by the lines thro(ough)
wh:(ich) it passed that something might be done by
considering magnetic polarization as a property
of a magnetic field or space and developing the
geometric ideas according to this view.
This clearly shows that since the beginning, Maxwell
was strongly influenced by Faradays conception that the
transmission of forces is mediated by the action of contiguous
particles of matter in the space between charged or magnetized
bodies, i.e., through the action of lines of force in space.
This commitment to Faradays ideas underlies all Maxwells
subsequent work, and was central to the development of his
field theory of electromagnetic phenomena.
Maxwell immediately realized that the first necessary
step to make Faradays conceptions acceptable was to show
that contrary to what had been generally thought, they were
compatible with a mathematical theory of electromagnetic
phenomena. In fact, in a letter to Thomson, dated May 15, 1855
[8], we read,
I am trying to construct two theories, mathematically
identical, in one of which the elementary conceptions
shall be about fluid particles attracting at a distance
while in the other nothing (mathematical) is
considered but various states of polarization,
tension, etc., existing at various part of space.
The construction of the envisaged theory was carried out during the summer and autumn of the same year, and led to the
memoir, On Faradays Lines of Forces. This was presented
to the Cambridge Philosophical Society in two parts, December
301

12/27/2014 2:04:57 PM

10, 1855, and February 11, 1856, and published in extenso the
same year in the Transactions of the Society [9].
The first sentence of the paper was trenchant, almost
arrogant, for a 24-year-old neo-graduate:
The present state of electrical science seems
particularly unfavourable to speculation.
At the very beginning, Maxwell then stated the purpose of his
work:
...to show how, by a strict application of the ideas
and methods of Faraday, the connection of the
very different orders of phenomena which he
has discovered can be clearly placed before the
mathematical mind.
The method Maxwell adopted to deal with electrostatics,
magnetostatics, and electric conduction was that of the physical analogy, i.e., in his own words, that partial similarity
between the laws of one science and those of another which
makes each of them illustrate the other. To this end, he
exploited a mechanical model, that of an imponderable and
incompressible fluid moving through a resisting medium,
which exerts on it a retarding force proportional to its velocity.
The fluid can be supplied or swallowed by sources and sinks
within the considered region of space, or from outside through
its boundaries. In this framework, Faradays lines of force and
tubes of flux correspond to lines and tubes of (steady) fluid
motion, respectively, the geometrical and dynamical properties
of which are examined in detail in the first two sections of the
first part of the memoir.
By properly reinterpreting the mechanical quantities of
the model, in the third section, Maxwell obtained the laws of
magnetostatics (in absence of currents), electrostatics, and
electric conduction. In the same section, he also started to
address the phenomena of electrodynamics and electromagnetic induction.
Concerning the mutual actions between currents, Maxwell
made a crucial observation:
We must recollect however that no experiments
have been made on these elements of currents
except under the form of closed currents....Hence if
Ampres formulae applied to closed currents give
true results, their truth is not proved for elements of
currents unless we assume that the action between
two such elements must be along the line which
joins them.
He then put down his main argument:
Although this assumption is most warrantable and
philosophical in the present state of science, it will
be more conducive to freedom of investigation
if we endeavour to do without it, and to assume
the laws of closed currents as the ultimate datum
302

AP_Mag_Dec_2014_Final.indd 302

of experiment....In the following investigation,

therefore, the laws established by Faraday will be
assumed as true,....
However, no physical analogy was now available, so that
Maxwell wrote at the end of the first part:
...I can do no more than simply state the
mathematical methods by which I believe that
electrical phenomena can be best comprehended
and reduced to calculation.
This was not an easy task, as was testified by the much higher
mathematical level of the second part of the memoir. In connection with electromagnetic induction, Maxwell made reference to a somewhat vague concept introduced by Faraday, that
of Electro-tonic state. For its mathematical description, he
adopted what today we call the vector potential, defined, with
the usual meaning of the symbols, by
= A ,
A =
0.

(2)

Note that in analogy to the model adopted in the first part, to

make the vector potential unique (which is obviously necessary if it must represent a physical property), Maxwell enforced
what is today called the Coulomb gauge.
By a full exploitation of the results of the vector analysis
available at his time, he then could state the laws of electrodynamics and electromagnetic induction in explicit mathematical
form:
J = H ,
E = + Ei ,
Ei = A t .

(3)
(4)

Maxwell also provided the expression of the potential energy

of a closed current in a magnetic field in terms of the current
intensity and the circulation of A, from which all the dynamical
actions can be derived. It is noteworthy that Maxwell explicitly
stressed that the so-called Ampre law, Equation (3), can only
be valid for closed currents, and said:
Our investigation are therefore for the present
limited to closed currents; and we know little on
the magnetic effects of any currents which are not
closed.
Maxwell had achieved his goal. However, he was well aware of
the purely mathematical and somehow artificial character of his
construction, and wrote:
....I do not think that it contains even the shadow of
a true physical theory; in fact, its chief merit as a
temporary instrument of research is that it does not,
even in appearance, account for anything.
IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 56, No. 6, December 2014

12/27/2014 2:04:57 PM

After this even excessive understatement of the relevance

of his work, and a great praise of Webers electrodynamics, as
he wanted to anticipate the objections of continental physicists,
he asked:
what is the use then of imaging an electrotonic state
of which we have no distinctly physical conception,
instead of a formula of attraction which we can
readily understand?
Maxwell provided two answers to this question. One was
related to the dependence on velocity of Webers force. Just
one year after its presentation, Hermann L. von Helmholtz
(1821-1894) had published his famous and influential monograph [10], which put on a firm theoretical basis the principle
of conservation of energy. Based on Helmholtzs results,
Maxwell and others thought that Webers electrodynamics did
not comply with this principle. Although in 1848 Weber had
shown that his force could be derived by a potential, it was
only in 1869 and 1871 that he proved in detail that it satisfies
the principle of conservation of energy. After that, Maxwell
obviously corrected himself, but in the meantime the electromagnetic field theory had been fully developed.
The other answer was, again, of methodological and philosophical nature:
I would answer, that it is a good thing to have two
ways of looking at a subject, and to admit that there
are two ways of looking at it. Besides, I do not think
that we have any right at present to understand the
action of electricity, and I hold that the chief merit of
temporary theory is, that it shall guide experiments,
without impeding the progress of the true theory
when it appears.

memoirs about the color vision, his outstanding memoir about

the stability of Saturns rings, and the first of his epochal
memoirs on the kinetic theory of gases.
However, he didnt stop to reflect on electromagnetism.
His letters to C. J. Monro (May 20, 1857), Faraday (November
9, 1857), and Thomson (January 30, 1858) [11-13] showed an
increasing interest in the theory of molecular vortices, proposed
by Thomson to explain the rotation of the plane of polarization
of linearly polarized light by a magnetic field. Thomson
supposed that this phenomenon, discovered by Faraday in 1845,
was caused by the rotation of molecular vortices in an Aether,
having their axis of rotation along the lines of forces of the
magnetic field.
No wonder, then, that the theory of molecular vortices
was the cornerstone of Maxwells second memoir, On Physical Lines of Force, which was published in the Philosophical
Magazine in March, April, and May, 1861 (Parts I and II), and
January and February, 1862 (Parts III and IV) [14], when he was
30 years old (Figure 5). Again, his goal was clearly stated since
the beginning:
My object in this paper is to clear the way for
speculation in this direction (i.e., Faradays point
of view) by investigating the mechanical results of
certain states of tension and motions in a medium,
and comparing these with the observed phenomena
of magnetism and electricity. By pointing out the

The key words here are temporary and true. They clearly
unveiled Maxwells deep conviction that Webers theory was
unsatisfactory (hence temporary), not so much because of
its weak points but because of its being an action at distance
theory, while the way toward a true theory was that paved
by Faraday, through his conception of an action mediated by
the medium. However, to develop a true physical theory,
mathematics was not enough: such a theory must also rely on
sound physical, i.e., (for Maxwells times) mechanical bases.
This explains why Maxwell closed the first part of the memoir
with a hope, which was also a program:
By a careful study of the laws of elastic solids and of
the motions of viscous fluid fluids, I hope to discover
a method of forming a mechanical conception of the
electro-tonic state adapted to general reasoning.

3. Electromagnetic Clockwork
A relatively long time (for Maxwell standards) had to pass
before the hope expressed in the first memoir could be realized.
In the meantime, Maxwell published, among the others, five
IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 56, No. 6, December 2014

AP_Mag_Dec_2014_Final.indd 303

Figure 5. J. C. Maxwell (circa 1862).

303

12/27/2014 2:04:58 PM

mechanical consequences of such hypothesis, I

hope to be of some use to those who consider the
phenomena as due to the action of a medium, but are
in doubt as to the relation of this hypothesis to the
experimental laws already established, which have
been generally expressed in the language of other
hypotheses (action at distance).
As it is sketched in Figure 6, which appeared in the memoir,
the hypothetic medium consisted of molecular vortices, with
the axes directed along the magnetic lines of forces, revolving
with a peripheral velocity proportional to the intensity of the
magnetic field. The density of the vortices was proportional to
the magnetic permeability.
To overcome the obvious difficulty that the periphery
of contiguous vortices must move in opposite directions,
Maxwell made recourse to the interposition of a layer of round
particles between contiguous vortices, playing the role of idle
wheels (see Figure 6). These particles, which were in rolling
contact with the vortices but did not rub against each other,
played the role of electricity. Their motion of translation constituted an electric current, while their rotation transmitted the
motion of the vortices from one part of the field to another.
The corresponding tangential stresses thus called into play
constituted electromotive force.
By applying to this model the laws of continuum mechanics, in the first two parts of the memoir Maxwell derived the
Ampre law, Equation (3), the (local) law of the magnetic force
on a current,
f= J B ,

(5)

and that of electromagnetic induction, in the form we now call

the first Maxwell equation:
E = H / t = B / t .

(6)

He showed that it was equivalent to Equation (4), which was

generalized to the case of moving bodies by adding the convective term v B .
Of course, Maxwell was well aware of the awkwardness
of his mechanical model, as he clearly stated at the end of the
second part. However, he had achieved his goal, and it is likely
that he originally envisaged his paper as consisting of only those
two parts. However, during the summer of 1861, in his country
house of Glenlair, in Scotland, he developed his mechanical
theory along lines which led to revolutionary and apparently
unexpected results. His excitement was clearly testified to by
all extant scientific letters between the summer of 1861 and
January 1862, just before the publication of the last two parts of
the memoir.
To account for the phenomena of electrostatics, Maxwell
extended his model by providing the medium with elastic
properties. As the vortices rotation was no more of interest,
he now spoke of elastic cells, surrounded by the layer of
304

AP_Mag_Dec_2014_Final.indd 304

Figure 6. Maxwells model of molecular vortices.

particles that played the role of electricity. When the electric

particles were displaced from their equilibrium positions, they
distorted the cells and called into play a force arising from their
elasticity, equal and opposite to that which urged the particles
away from their equilibrium positions. This state of particles
displaced from their equilibrium positions and distorted cells
was assumed to represent an electrostatic field. However, what
happens during the displacement?
In the light of his model, the answer was apparently obvious to Maxwell, who said:
This displacement does not amount to a current
because when it has attained a certain value it
remains constant, but it is a commencement of a
current, and its variations constitute currents, in
the positive or negative direction, according as the
displacement is increasing or diminishing.
He then performed the crucial step, i.e., the inclusion of
the displacement currents in the Ampre law, Equation (3).
Assuming a linear relationship between electromotive force
(i.e., electric field) and displacement,
E = E 2h ,

(7)

h being the displacement and E a constant depending on the

elastic constants of the medium, he obtained
J = H + Jd
= H + h t

(8)

= H 1 E 2 E t .
IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 56, No. 6, December 2014

12/27/2014 2:04:58 PM

Note that in coherence with the model, the displacement current,

J d , was added to that due to the molecular vortices, i.e., H
. The correct result in terms of E (i.e., what we call the second
Maxwell equation) was obtained because of the minus sign in
Equation (7), which implied that in Equation (7), E must be
identified with the elastic reaction exerted by the cells on the
electric particles and not vice versa, as it should be.
This ambiguity shows that while Maxwell was by then
sure that the displacement current must be taken fully into
account, he was still not aware of the fact that the total current
must be closed (soleinodal), as well as of the relevance of the
step he performed. As a matter of fact, he used Equation (6)
only to derive, through the equation of continuity, the Gauss
equation (and that is why he needed the minus sign in
Equation (5)), which he exploited to find the force acting
between two charged bodies, in order to relate the mechanical
constant E 2 to the dielectric constant.
Instead, he came back to the mechanical model, and determined the velocity of propagation of transverse vibrations
through the medium. This turned out to be equal (in air) to
the same ratio between the measures of an electric charge in
the electrostatic and electromagnetic systems that appears in
Equation (1). This ratio, determined by Weber and Kohlrausch
in 1857, agreed so nearly with the velocity of light in air, as
determined by Fizeau in 1849, that he concluded:
.we can scarcely avoid the inference that light
consists in the transverse undulations of the same
medium which is the cause of electric and magnetic
phenomena.
Maxwell had unexpectedly established the basis for the electromagnetic theory of light!
Since the beginning, he was fully persuaded of the correctness of his hypothesis. This is clearly shown by his interest for
a precise determination of the electromagnetic value of the
light velocity, and by his first attempts to explain the reflection
and refraction of light in the framework of the theory.
It must be stressed that the almost perfect coincidence
between the constant c in Equation (1) and the velocity of light
in vacuo had been noted by Weber and Kohlrausch in their 1856
paper, but they did not consider this to be physically significant.
Even more impressive is the fact that in 1857, Gustav Kirchhoff
(1824-1887), applying Webers electrodynamics to the study of
the propagation of electrical signals along metallic wires [15],
had shown that they propagate with nite velocity, which in the
case of vanishingly small resistance is equal to the velocity of
light. Again, he did not develop the implications of this result.
The contrast with Maxwells attitude is a striking illustration of the influence of paradigms on the development of science. If we look at electromagnetic and optical phenomena
under different paradigms, the Newtonian (action at distance
between particles) and Cartesian (action by contact, through
an interposed medium), respectively, a numerical coincidence
IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 56, No. 6, December 2014

AP_Mag_Dec_2014_Final.indd 305

between electromagnetic and optical properties appears fortuitous. On the other side, if we look at them under the same
paradigm, as Maxwell did, the coincidence becomes physically
relevant, and discloses their possible substantial unity, opening
the way to a scientific revolution.
However, at least two points had to be addressed before
the theory could be considered satisfactory. First of all, the
equations for the electromagnetic field and the fundamental
property of the total current needed to be clearly and explicitly
stated. The properties of the electromagnetic (and optical) waves
then had to be derived from the equations, and not exploiting
a model so tricky to be considered imaginary by Maxwell
himself.
The difficulty of this goal is quite evident: it required about
three years to be achieved, and during this period Maxwell
published just one minor geometrical paper.

4. Electromagnetic Field
The task was apparently completed in the summer of
1864, as witnessed by a letter to C. Hockin dated September 7,
1864.
On October 27, Maxwell presented to the Royal Society
the abstract of his third memoir, which, as already said, was
read on December 8, and published in extenso the following
year. In the introduction, which summarized in detail the
motivations and the content of the memoir, he stated the essence
of his theory:
The theory I propose may therefore be called a
theory of the Electromagnetic Field, because it has
to do with the space in the neighbourhood of the
electric and magnetic bodies, and it may be called
a Dynamical theory, because it assumes that in
that space there is matter in motion, by which the
observed electromagnetic phenomena are produced.
It is clear from this statement that Maxwell ascribed a physical,
material, reality to the electromagnetic medium, and that, in his
view, the electromagnetic phenomena were just the expression
of the mechanical properties of this medium. This was by no
means surprising. On the contrary, it was in complete agreement
with the then widely accepted view that the propagation of light
and radiant heat consisted of undulations of an omnipervasive
Aether. In fact, he wrote:
We may therefore receive, as a datum from a branch
of science, independent of that with which we
have to deal, the existence of a pervading medium,
of small but real density, capable of being set in
motion, and of transmitting motion from one part to
another with great, but not infinite velocity.
However, this time only very general assumptions concerning
the properties of the medium were made, namely the capacity of
305

12/27/2014 2:04:58 PM

receiving and storing both actual (i.e., kinetic) and potential

energy (through some kind of elasticity), and the fact that it must
be subject to the general laws of dynamics.
In the following two sections, expressing the laws of
electromagnetic induction in the language of Lagrangian
dynamics, Maxwell identified the vector potential as the generalized momentum conjugate to the current density, which he
explicitly requires to be the total current, namely the sum of the
conduction current and the displacement current. This allowed
him to get the following equations:
A)

C= K + D t

eq. of total currents

B)

H = A

eq. of magnetic force

C)

H =C

eq. of currents

D)

E= V H A t

eq. of electromotive force

to which he added the following equations. He thus obtained a

set of 20 scalar equations in 20 unknowns:
E)

E = kD

F)

E = K

eq. of electric resistance

G)

D + e =
0

eq. of free electricity

H)

K + e t = 0

eq. of continuity

eq. of electric elasticity

He then derived the expressions of the magnetic (i.e., kinetic)

and electric (i.e., elastic) energy densities, which was exploited
in the following section to find the forces on currents and
magnets.
Putting V = 0 (stationary media) and B = H , we immediately recognize that Equations A to D are equivalent to the
first two Maxwells equations, as we write them today, plus the
fourth one (that expressing that the magnetic induction is
solenoidal). On the other side, Equation G is not Gauss
equation, as it should be, because of the wrong sign. This is
exactly the opposite of what happened in the second memoir,
wherein Gauss law was correct, whereas the relation between
the electric field and electric displacement had the wrong sign:
see Equation (7). Moreover, this time the relation Equation F
between the field and conduction current also had the wrong
sign.
The presence of these errors, which would be corrected in
the Treatise [16], was quite surprising, in the light of Maxwells
deep physical and mathematical attitude. In fact, Equation G
is mathematically inconsistent with Equations C and H, while
Equation F clearly contrasts with the dissipative nature of
conduction currents. We will come back to this point in a while.

306

AP_Mag_Dec_2014_Final.indd 306

Anyway, the errors did not have a direct impact on

Maxwells main goal: the electromagnetic theory of light,
which was addressed in Section VI, wherein the properties of
electromagnetic waves were deduced directly from the field
equations (even if in a somewhat involved way), and their
propagation in isotropic and anisotropic media was examined in
detail and compared with that of optical waves. This allows him
to state:
Hence electromagnetic science leads to exactly
the same conclusions as optical science with
respect to the direction of the disturbances which
can propagate through the field; both affirm the
propagation of transverse vibrations and both give
the same velocity of propagation....The agreement of
the results seems to show that light and magnetism
are affections of the same substance, and that light is
an electromagnetic disturbance propagated through
the field according to electromagnetic laws.
The electromagnetic theory of light had been established.
Maxwell then proceeded to analyze the propagation of
electromagnetic waves in conductive media. It is interesting to
note that he avoided the consequence of the sign error in Ohms
law, Equation F, by means of a further change of sign, assuming
for a sinusoidal plane wave along x the expression
A ( x, t ) =
exp ( px ) cos ( qx + nt ) ,

(9)

i.e., a wave attenuating in the forward direction, but propagating in the backward direction!
The root of this kind of plus-minus dyslexia lies in
Maxwells attitude toward the nature of electric charges and
currents. In accordance with his emphasis on the role of the
medium, Maxwell (and the British Maxwellians after him)
considered charges and currents not as the sources of the field,
but, vice versa, as a product or a property of the field itself.
In other words, the Aether was the only fundamental physical
entity, and the description of the phenomena must be obtained
by a proper characterization of its dynamical properties (i.e., its
Lagrangian or Hamiltonian).
Apart from being doomed to failure because charged
matter possesses its own degrees of freedom, so that it constitutes a dynamical system distinct from (even if coupled to)
the electromagnetic field this attitude explains the fact that
neither Maxwell nor the Maxwellians considered the question
of generating electromagnetic waves distinct from light. As is
well known, this crucial validation of Maxwells equations was
performed by Heinrich R. Hertz (1857-1894) only in October
1886, twenty-two years after their formulation, whereas the
definitive abandonment of mechanical Aether theories had to
wait for Einsteins epochal paper of 1905.

IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 56, No. 6, December 2014

12/27/2014 2:04:58 PM

In the meantime, the atomic theory of matter had been

developed and the quantum revolution had started. However,
the equations stood unchanged, and today are still those envisaged by Maxwells genius 150 years ago.

5. References
1. J. C. Maxwell, A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic
Field, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., 155, pp. 459-512, 1865.
2. T. S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientic Revolutions, Chicago,
The University of Chicago Press, 1962.
3. O. M. Bucci, The Genesis of Maxwells Equations, in T. K.
Sarkar et al. (eds.), History of Wireless, New York, John Wiley
& Sons, 2006, Chapter 5, pp. 189-214.

8. The Scientic Letters and Papers of James Clerk Maxwell,

Volume 1, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990, p.
294.
9. J. C. Maxwell, On Faradays Lines of Force, Trans. Camb.
Phil. Soc., X, 1856, pp. 27-83.
10. H. L. Helmholtz, Uber die Erhaltung der Kraft, Berlin, G.
A. Reimer, 1847.
11. P. M. Harmon (ed.), The Scientic Letters and Papers of
James Clerk Maxwell, Volume 1, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990, pp.505-507.
12. The Scientic Letters and Papers of James Clerk Maxwell,
Volume 1, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990, pp.
548-552.

4. O. M. Bucci, The Birth of Maxwells Equations, 44th

European Microwave Conference, Rome, Italy, October 2014.

13. The Scientic Letters and Papers of James Clerk Maxwell,

Volume 1, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990, pp.
578-581.

5. P. M. Harmon (ed.), The Scientic Letters and Papers of

James Clerk Maxwell, Volume 1, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990, pp. 237-238.

14. J. C. Maxwell, On Physical Lines of Force, Phil. Mag.,

XXI, pp. 161-175, 281-291, 338-348, 1861 (Parts I and II);
Phil. Mag., XXIII, pp. 12-25, 85-95, 1862 (Parts III and IV).

6. W. Weber, Elektrodynamische Maassbestimmungen, uber

ein allgemeines Grundgesetz der Elektrischen Wirkung,
Leipzig Abhandl., 1846, pp. 211-378.

15. G. Kirchhoff, Uber die Bewegung der Electricitat in

Drahten, Ann. Phys., 100, pp. 193-217, 1857.

7. P. M. Harmon (ed.), The Scientic Letters and Papers of

James Clerk Maxwell, Volume 1, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990, pp.254-263.

IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 56, No. 6, December 2014

AP_Mag_Dec_2014_Final.indd 307

16. J. C. Maxwell, A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism,

Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1873.

307

12/27/2014 2:04:58 PM