The creation of scientific effects : Heinrich Hertz and electric waves / Jed Z. Buchwald.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Buchwald, Jed Z.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hertz, Heinrich, 1857-1894.

Hertz, Heinrich.

Electric waves.

Physicists--Germany.

Physicists.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (497 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, c1994.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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 Drawing on the lab notes, published papers, and unpublished manuscripts of Heinrich Hertz, Buchwald recreates Hertz's 1887 invention of a device that produced electromagnetic waves in wires.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.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

FIGURES

TABLES

PREFACE

ONE. Introduction: Heinrich Hertz, Maker of Effects

TWO. Forms of Electrodynamics

THREE. Realizing Potentials in the Laboratory

FOUR. A Budding Career

FIVE. Devices for Induction

SIX. Hertz's Early Exploration of Helmholtz's Concepts

SEVEN. Rotating Spheres

EIGHT. Elastic Interactions

NINE. Specific Powers in the Laboratory

TEN. The Cathode Ray as a Vehicle for Success

ELEVEN. Frustration

TWELVE. Hertz's Argument

THIRTEEN. Assumption X

FOURTEEN. A Novel Device

FIFTEEN. How the Resonator Became an Electric Probe

SIXTEEN. Electric Propagation Produced

SEVENTEEN. Electric Waves Manipulated

EIGHTEEN. Conclusion: Restraint and Reconstruction

Appendixes

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 465-478) and index.

ISBN:

9786613058126

9780226078915

0226078914

9781283058124

128305812X

OCLC:

704274080