Ludvig Lorenz (1867) on Light and Electricity

Abstract

Independent of Maxwell, in 1867 the Danish physicist L. V. Lorenz proposed a theory in which he identified light with electrical oscillations propagating in a very poor conductor. Lorenz's electrodynamic theory of light, which formally was equivalent to Maxwell's theory but physically quite different from it, was published in well-known journals in German and English but soon fell into oblivion. In 1867 Lorenz also published a paper on his new theory in a semi-popular Danish journal which has generally been overlooked. This other paper is here translated into English and provided with the necessary annotations.