The historical background of the 19th century electromagnetic theory is
revisited from the standpoint of the opposition between alternative approaches
in respect to the problem of interactions. The 19th century electrodynamics
became the battle-field of a paramount importance to test existing conceptions
of interactions. Hertz's experiments were designed to bring a solid
experimental evidence in favor of one of them. The modern scientific method
applied to analyze Hertz's experimental approach as well as the analysis of his
laboratory notes, dairy and private letters show that Hertz's
"\textit{crucial}" experiments cannot be considered as conclusive at many
points as it is generally implied. We found that alternative Helmholtz's
electrodynamics did not contradict any of Hertz's experimental observations of
transverse components as Maxwell's theory predicted. Moreover, as we now know
from recently published Hertz's dairy and private notes, his first experimental
results indicated clearly on infinite rate of propagation. Nevertheless,
Hertz's experiments provided no further explicit information on non-local
longitudinal components which were such an essential feature of Helmholtz's
theory. Necessary and sufficient conditions for a decisive choice on the
adequate account of electromagnetic interactions are discussed from the
position of modern scientific method
