Kirchhoff was not the only one working at the time on electric currents. Wilhelm Weber and Rudolf Kohlrausch were also working on the nature of such currents and published similar results to that of Kirchhoff around 1857 on the velocity of a current in a highly conductive wire. Kirchhoff and Weber both discovered that the velocity was independent of the nature of the wire and was almost exactly equal to the velocity of light. However, they both dismissed this as a coincidence rather than making the step which Maxwell made five years later of inferring that light was an electromagnetic phenomenon.
Kirchhoff ay hindi lamang ang isang nagtatrabaho sa panahon sa electric ng tubig. Wilhelm Weber at rudolf Kohlrausch ay din gumawa sa ang kalikasan ng tulad ng tubig at mga katulad na mga resulta na nai-publish na ng Kirchhoff sa paligid ng 1857 sa bilis ng isang kasalukuyang sa isang mataas na kondaktibo kawad. Kirchhoff at Weber parehong natuklasan na ang bilis ay independiyenteng ng kalikasan ng kawad at noon ay halos eksakto sa pantay ang bilis ng ilaw. Gayunman, sila ay parehong awas na ito bilang isang pagkakataon sa halip na gawin ang hakbang na ginawa Maxwell limang taon mamaya ng inferring na ang ilaw ay isang electromagnetic kababalaghan.