Electricity and Experimental Physics in Eighteenth-Century Europe

ISBN-13: 9780860783183 / Angielski / Twarda / 1992 / 320 str.

R.W. Home

Opis

At the beginning of the 18th century there was no science of physics as we recognise it today; by the early years of the nineteenth century, there was. The articles in this volume are concerned with the process by which this came about. They focus, in particular, on the rise of experimental physics and the interactions between experiment, theory and mathematics in the study of electricity and, to a lesser extent, magnetism and physical optics during this period. Along the way, they provide a significant reassessment of Isaac Newtona s influence on the science of his successors. A further recurring theme is the process by which ideas were disseminated within the expanding scientific community of the day, and the manner of their reception, often in a form somewhat different from that envisaged by their first inventors, as Professor Home argues took place in the case of Franklin. The social and intellectual context of the a scientista, indeed, is the specific subject of several essays, dealing not only with England and France, but also offering new insights into the position of science in 18th-century Russia. Au debut du 18e s., la science physique telle que nous la entendons de nos jours, na existait pas; des les premieres annees du 19e s., cela na etait plus le cas. Les articles contenus dans ce volume sa interessent au procede qui a provoque ce changement. Ils sa attachent plus particulierement A la montee de la physique experimentale et A la interaction entre experience, theorie et mathematiques en ce qui concerne la etude de la electricite et, dans une moindre mesure, celle du magnetisme et de la optique physique durant cette periode. Ce faisant, les etudes fournissent une re-evaluation significative de la influence da Isaac Newton sur la science de ses successeurs. Un autre theme est celui du processus par lequel les idees etaient disseminees A la epoque au sein da une communaute scientifique en pleine expansion; le professeur Home sa interesse aussi A la faA on dont celles-ci etaient reA ues prenant une forme quelque peu differente de celle envisagee par leurs createurs, comme, selon lui, il en fut le cas pour Franklin. Le contexte social et intellectuel du a scientifiquea est specifiquement examine au cours de plusieurs articles; la auteur y traite de la Angleterre et de la France, mais offre aussi de nouvelles perspectives sur la position de la science en Russie au 18e siede."

Spis treści

Contents: Preface; Newton on electricity and the aether; Force, electricity and the powers of living matter in Newton’s mature philosophy of nature; Francis Hauksbee’s theory of electricity; ’Newtonianism’ and the theory of the magnet; Out of the Newtonian straitjacket: alternative approaches to 18th-century physical science; Leonhard Euler’s anti-Newtonian theory of light; The notion of experimental physics in early 18th-century France; Nollet and Boerhaave: a note on 18th-century ideas about electricity and fire; Franklin’s electrical atmospheres; Some manuscripts on electrical and other subjects attributed to Thomas Bayes, F.R.S.; Electricity and the nervous fluid; Electricity in France in the post-Franklin era; On two supposed works by Leonhard Euler on electricity; Aepinus, the tourmaline crystal, and the theory of electricity and magnetism; Science as a career in 18th-century Russia: the case of F.U.T. Aepinus; Aepinus and the British electricians: the dissemination of a scientific theory; Scientific links between Great Britain and Russia in the second half of the 18th-century; Physical principles and the possibility of a mathematical science of electricity and magnetism; Poisson’s memoirs on electricity: academic politics and a new style in physics; Index.

O autorze

R.W. Home