A Note on Relativity Before Einstein

Keswani and Kilmister [1983] did not mention Larmor as one of the precur-sors of special relativity. The Lorentz transformations, written here in a form similar to that used by Poincare ́ [1905], x1 = `β−1 (x − vt) y1 = `y z1 = `z (1) t1 = `β−1 t − vx/c2) where β = (1 − v2/c2)1/2 and ` = 1, were first posited by Larmor [1897] although Voigt [1887] had studied these equations with ` = β. Since ` 6 = 1, Voigt’s equations do not form a group (Poincare ́ [1905]), and do not satisfy the principle of relativity. Larmor’s con-tribution is not well known perhaps because he derives the transformations in two steps and never sets them down in their modern form. His book (Larmor