Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy
Banned
WI James C Maxwell had not died of cancer at the age of 48 and developed the special theory of relativity?
but IIRC Einstein's GToR came as much from a sudden insight of the type rather peculiar to him. GToR also developed following years of futile pursuits of aether theory,
It's IMO far from guaranteed that Max will go in that direction rather than go off into a completely different direction, such as proving the existence of his "lumiferous aether".
Maxwell really has no shot at General Relativity. He does have an outside shot at Special Relativity.
I could see him producing Lorentz's work a decade or two early. Assuming Michelson-Morley happens per OTL (perhaps by Maxwell), the jump to special relativity is not too big (at least mathematically).