http://theconversation.com/faster-th...here-yet-41112
Robert Scherrer, Professor and Chair of Physics and Astronomy at Vanderbilt University: "When scientists developed the theory of light back in the 19th century, it came with a special puzzle: their theory seemed to show that every observer should measure the same speed for light, about 186,000 miles per second. But that means if you try to chase a beam of light, no matter how fast you move, the light beam will still fly away from you at 186,000 miles per second. (...) Instead of trying to explain away this bizarreness, Albert Einstein embraced it."

No theory of light in the 19th century had said that "every observer should measure the same speed for light"; rather, all of them had established that differently moving observers measure different speeds of light. The "bizarreness" (more precisely, absurdity) was Einstein's own fabrication, and he wrestled with his conscience "over a lengthy period of time, to the point of despair" before introducing it and and killing physics thereby:

http://www.aip.org/history/exhibits/...relativity.htm
John Stachel: "But here he ran into the most blatant-seeming contradiction, which I mentioned earlier when first discussing the two principles. As noted then, the Maxwell-Lorentz equations imply that there exists (at least) one inertial frame in which the speed of light is a constant regardless of the motion of the light source. Einstein's version of the relativity principle (minus the ether) requires that, if this is true for one inertial frame, it must be true for all inertial frames. But this seems to be nonsense. How can it happen that the speed of light relative to an observer cannot be increased or decreased if that observer moves towards or away from a light beam? Einstein states that he wrestled with this problem over a lengthy period of time, to the point of despair."

Pentcho Valev