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How often it is that we look for complicated explanations for physical phenomena when simpler explanations are generally over-looked. In this paper I will review some well-known features of charged particles and electric fields from a fresh point of view. I shall draw upon a letter from Michael Faraday to his friend, Richard Phillips, written in April of 1846. I will review what we have been taught about electric fields and how Faraday thought about them, keeping what appears useful and ignoring the rest. I will begin to construct a somewhat different theory of electromagnetism, making clear distinctions between the current paradigm and what is being proposed here

One can ask how it was possible for Lorentz's simple and elegant theory of gravity to be passed over and for Einstein's wacky theory of gravity to be accepted. We examine a bit of this puzzle by looking at two papers published in 1905 and 1906 that specifically address Lorentz' theory. The first paper by R. Gans examines the theoretical implications for a number of issues including the relationship between inertial and gravitational mass. The second paper by F. Wacker (a student of Gans) explores, among other things, the advance of the perihelion of Mercury after including a term for a mass increase with velocity through the ether. We look specifically for criticisms which might demonstrate fatal flaws in Lorentz' theory.

It is assumed that there is a medium in which electromagnetic disturbances are propagated.  It is assumed that forces are conveyed by fields and that the 'updating' of these fields is subject to a propagation delay in the medium.  With these assumptions it is possible to demonstrate that solids moving through the medium are subject to contraction, both in the direction of motion and laterally.  These contractions are such as to invariably result in a null in the Michelson-Morley experiment.

Summary: Grave sacrifices were made in order to formulate a self-consistant description of electrodynamics after the Michelson-Morley experiment refuted the existence of an ether. In an alternate view submitted here, the superimposed electrostatic fields of individual charged particles are offered as the long-sought medium. The interaction of one electric "fieldlet" moving with respect to all others is discussed. A crucial experiment is suggested, and the gravitational bending of light is reinterpreted.