Abstract

Attention is called to the remarkable fact that, relative to the observer, Maxwell's equations allow field-source motions but not field-sink motions.  These equations thus implicitly refer to a "preferred observer."  On correcting this unwarranted suppresssion of instrumental degrees of freedom, we obtain generalized equations for electromagnetism that (at first order in detector velocity) prove to be Galilean invariant.  The extra parameters needed to describe filed-detector motions enter the wave equation and spoil the spherical symmetry of radiation propagation, so our previous "acausal" hypothesis of radiation convection by the absorber, in conjunction with physical non-occurrence of the Lorentz contraction, - receives independent confirmation.  Higher-order correction to Maxwell's equations are also discussed.  Experimental testing of the radiation convection hypothesis becomes imperative and should be feasible in view of the first-order nature of the effect. Convection is defined as something that occurs at the locus of each detector - a 'pulling along of the wave by the detectors.