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Dr. Jefimenko is an accomplished electrical physicist who has published one of the better textbooks, Electricity and Magnetism (2nd edition, Star City, WV, Electret Scientific, 1989), as well as other books and papers. He frequently presents his views on peculiarities and speculations in the fields of electricity and magnetism.

Utilization and conversion of electrostatic energy is still an essentially unexplored area of physics and engineering, although there are compelling reasons to believe that such utilizatization and conversion will be of considerable significance in the future. This paper presents a brief discussion of the following three subjects associated with electrostatic energy and its utilization: (a) the earth's electric field as a natural source of electrostatic energy, (b) generation of electrostatic energy, and (c) conversion and utilization of electrostatic energy by means of electrostatic motors.

Electromagnetic industion is usually attributed to generation of electric fields by changing magnetic fields to generation of magnetic fields by changing electric fields.  However, an analysis of the causal relations in time-variable electric and magnetic fields has shown that neither of the two fields can create the other, and that in time-dependent systems both fields are simultaneously created by a common causative source--the time-variable electric current.  A time-variable electric current creates an electric field whose direction is parallel to the current.  This field exerts a "dragging force" on electric charges located within nearby conductors thus creating induced electric currents in them.

Transformation equations for gravitational fields analogous to Lorentz-Einstein transformations of relativistic electrodynamics are derived from retarded gravitational field integrals.  The derivation shows that Newton's gravitational theory extended to time-dependent fields is fully compatible with the principle of relativity and allows a covariant formulation.  It also shows that the classical theory of retardation can be used for developing a relativity theory equivalent to Einstein's special relativity theory in its practical aspects but free from the controversial elements of the latter - time dilation and length contraction in particular.

Equations for the gravitational field of a point mass moving with constant velocity along a straight line or along a circular orbit are derived from retarded integrals representing Newton's gravitational law generalized to time-dependent mass distributions.  It is shown that Newton's inverse square gravitational law is only approximately valid for gravitational fields of moving bodies.  It is concluded that the nature of Mercury's "residual" perihelion precession of 43" of arc per century is highly questionable and that this value of residual procession can not be used for proving the validity of the general relativity theory.

Maxwell's electromagnetic theory is used for calculating the force exerted by a slowly moving neutral current-carrying loop on a stationary electric charge. It is shown that, contrary to some recent claims, the value that the theory gives for the force exerted by the moving loop on the stationary charge is the same as the value that it gives for the force experienced by the charge when it is moving and the loop is stationary.