Radiation and electrical power transmission

The paper discusses the mode of propagation of energy under steady current conditions, and advances the view that it is only a special case of radio transmission. The electromagnetic theory governs all electrical processes, but, while the high-frequency disturbances of light, or radio-telephony, move in waves which are known to retain their individuality when superposed, the principle of independence does not seem to be applied when the disturbances are of very low frequency so as to approach steady current conditions. In the last case the electromagnetic fluxes are, even nowadays, often regarded as static, and when such fluxes are superposed it is generally assumed that they merge into a single flux. Poynting´s theorem of energy flow suggested that the fluxes due to steady currents are moving through the dielectric, but tacitly assumed that the fluxes form a single stream, and that nothing of the nature of reflection occurs when this stream reaches a material surface. It would seem only to harmonize with Maxwell´s theory, and with the properties of light, if such streams when incident on matter were to give rise to reflected ones, and therefore to a system of superposed streams. The aim of the paper is to show that such a view is quite consistent with the known distribution of energy to the various parts of the conducting circuit. The mathematical problem is discussed in Part 2 of the paper. The analysis is an example of Heaviside´s vector methods. It is necessarily based on assumptions. The physical aspects and the justification of these assumptions are dealt with in Part 1.