This book is an attempt to reconstitute the tacit knowledge—the shared, unwritten assumptions, values, and understandings—that shapes the work of science. Jed Z. Buchwald uses as his focus the social and intellectual world of nineteenth-century German physics.Drawing on the lab notes, published papers, and unpublished manuscripts of Heinrich Hertz, Buchwald recreates Hertz's 1887 invention of a device that produced electromagnetic waves in wires. The invention itself was serendipitous and the device was quickly transformed, but Hertz's early experiments led to major innovations in electrodynamics. Buchwald explores the difficulty Hertz had in reconciling the theories of other physicists, including Hermann von Helmholtz and James Clerk Maxwell, and he considers the complex and often problematic connections between theory and experiment.In this first detailed scientific biography of Hertz and his scientific community, Buchwald demonstrates that tacit knowledge can be recovered so that we can begin to identify the unspoken rules that govern scientific practice.
Author(s): Jed Z. Buchwald
Edition: 1
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
Year: 1994
Language: English
Pages: 497
Tags: Физика;История физики;
CONTENTS......Page 6
FIGURES......Page 8
TABLES......Page 12
PREFACE......Page 14
1 Introduction: Heinrich Hertz, Maker of Effects......Page 16
PART ONE In Helmholtz's Laboratory......Page 20
2 Forms of Electrodynamics......Page 22
3 Realizing Potentials in the Laboratory......Page 40
PART TWO: Information Direct from Nature......Page 58
4 A Budding Career......Page 60
5 Devices for Induction......Page 74
6 Hertz's Early Exploration of Helmholtz's Concepts......Page 90
PART THREE: Berlin's Golden Boy......Page 108
7 Rotating Spheres......Page 110
8 Elastic Interactions......Page 119
9 Specific Powers in the Laboratory......Page 128
10 The Cathode Ray as a Vehicle for Success......Page 146
PART FOUR: Studying Books......Page 190
11 Frustration......Page 192
12 Hertz's Argument......Page 204
13 Assumption X......Page 218
PART FIVE: Electric Waves......Page 230
14 A Novel Device......Page 232
15 How the Resonator Became an Electric Probe......Page 255
16 Electric Propagation Produced......Page 277
17 Electric Waves Manipulated......Page 314
18 Conclusion: Restraint and Reconstruction......Page 340
Appendixes......Page 346
1 Waveguides and Radiators in Maxwellian Electrodynamics......Page 348
2 Helmholtz's Derivation of the Forces from a Potential......Page 355
3 Helmholtz's Energy Argument......Page 363
4 Polarization Currents and Experiment......Page 366
5 Convection in Helmholtz's Electrodynamics......Page 369
6 Instability in the Fechner-Weber Theory......Page 371
7 Hertz's First Use of the General Helmholtz Equations......Page 373
8 Hertz on the Induction of Polarization by Motion......Page 376
9 Hertz on Relatively Moving, Charged Conductors......Page 379
10 Elastic Bodies Pressed Together......Page 381
11 Evaporation's Theoretical Limits......Page 384
12 Hertz's Model for Geissler-Tube Discharge......Page 387
13 Propagation in Helmholtz's Electrodynamics......Page 390
14 Forces in Hertz's Early Experiments......Page 404
15 Hertz's Quasi Field Theory for Narrow Cylindrical Wires......Page 408
16 Considerations regarding the Possible Background to Helmholtz's New Physics......Page 410
17 Poincare and Bertrand......Page 420
Difficulties with Charge and Polarization......Page 422
NOTES......Page 430
BIBLIOGRAPHY......Page 480
INDEX......Page 494
