- The Oxford Handbook of The History of Physics
- List of Contributors
- Introduction
- Was There a Scientific Revolution?
- Galileo’s Mechanics of Natural Motion and Projectiles
- Cartesian Physics
- Physics and the Instrument-Makers, 1550–1700
- Newton’s <i>Principia</i>
- Newton’s Optics
- Experimentation in the Physical Sciences of the Seventeenth Century
- Mathematics and the New Sciences
- The Physics of Imponderable Fluids
- Physics on Show: Entertainment, Demonstration, and Research in the Long Eighteenth Century
- Instruments and Instrument-Makers, 1700–1850
- Mechanics in the Eighteenth Century
- Laplace and the Physics of Short-Range Forces
- Electricity and Magnetism to Volta
- Optics in the Nineteenth Century
- Thermal Physics and Thermodynamics
- Engineering Energy: Constructing a New Physics for Victorian Britain
- Electromagnetism and Field Physics
- Electrodynamics from Thomson and Maxwell to Hertz
- From Workshop to Factory: The Evolution of the Instrument-Making Industry, 1850–1930
- Physics Textbooks and Textbook Physics in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
- Physics and Medicine
- Physics and Metrology
- Rethinking ‘Classical Physics’
- The Emergence of Statistical Mechanics
- Three and a Half Principles: The Origins of Modern Relativity Theory
- Quantum Physics
- The Silicon Tide: Relations between Things Epistemic and Things of Function in the Semiconductor World
- Physics and Cosmology
- Name Index
- Subject Index
Abstract and Keywords
This article examines developments in electromagnetism and field physics during the early nineteenth century, when electricity had become a fully respected area of research. It begins with a discussion of the ‘Volta’s pile’, an apparatus developed by Alessandro Volta, along with mathematical approaches to electricity and Hans-Christian Ørsted’s discovery of electromagnetism. It then reviews the work of André-Marie Ampère and the Biot–Savart law, introduced by Jean Baptiste Biot and Félix Savart; developments in electrodynamics during the period 1821–1826; and Michael Faraday’s research initiative in electromagnetism, and especially electromagnetic induction and the electrotonic state. It also looks at three important developments in electromagnetism during the 1820s: galvanometers, electromagnets, and Arago’s effect. Finally, it describes Lenz’s law, electromagnetic generators, the electromagnetic telegraph, the Faraday effect, diamagnetism, and the question of polarity as well as the role of mathematics in Faraday’s theories.
Keywords: electromagnetism, field physics, electricity, Volta’s pile, Alessandro Volta, Hans-Christian Ørsted, electrodynamics, Michael Faraday, diamagnetism, mathematics
Friedrich Steinle, Technische Universitaet Berlin, Germany
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- The Oxford Handbook of The History of Physics
- List of Contributors
- Introduction
- Was There a Scientific Revolution?
- Galileo’s Mechanics of Natural Motion and Projectiles
- Cartesian Physics
- Physics and the Instrument-Makers, 1550–1700
- Newton’s <i>Principia</i>
- Newton’s Optics
- Experimentation in the Physical Sciences of the Seventeenth Century
- Mathematics and the New Sciences
- The Physics of Imponderable Fluids
- Physics on Show: Entertainment, Demonstration, and Research in the Long Eighteenth Century
- Instruments and Instrument-Makers, 1700–1850
- Mechanics in the Eighteenth Century
- Laplace and the Physics of Short-Range Forces
- Electricity and Magnetism to Volta
- Optics in the Nineteenth Century
- Thermal Physics and Thermodynamics
- Engineering Energy: Constructing a New Physics for Victorian Britain
- Electromagnetism and Field Physics
- Electrodynamics from Thomson and Maxwell to Hertz
- From Workshop to Factory: The Evolution of the Instrument-Making Industry, 1850–1930
- Physics Textbooks and Textbook Physics in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
- Physics and Medicine
- Physics and Metrology
- Rethinking ‘Classical Physics’
- The Emergence of Statistical Mechanics
- Three and a Half Principles: The Origins of Modern Relativity Theory
- Quantum Physics
- The Silicon Tide: Relations between Things Epistemic and Things of Function in the Semiconductor World
- Physics and Cosmology
- Name Index
- Subject Index
