{"title":"American Nineteenth-Century Manufacturers and Importers of Philosophical Apparatus","authors":"Thomas B. Greenslade Jr.","doi":"10.1007/s00016-021-00273-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00016-021-00273-5","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Professors of physics in nineteenth-century America had two options for procuring the apparatus that they needed to demonstrate the phenomena of physics to their students. Some apparatus was available from makers and dealers in Europe, mostly in France (for optical apparatus) and Germany. A few teachers, such as Ebenezer Snell of Amherst, made some of their own apparatus. The rest of the instruments came from the fledgling North American apparatus industry, based in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and toward the end of the century, Chicago. In this article, I will discuss apparatus made by Chamberlain, Wightman, Davis, Ritchie, Pike and Ritchie, Queen, and then a few Chicago companies, and will give examples of some of their products. Toward the end of the century, a few colleges decided that the making of physics apparatus was a key adjunct of the experience of learning physics, and I will give some examples.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":727,"journal":{"name":"Physics in Perspective","volume":"23 4","pages":"202 - 230"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4877782","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From England to Italy: The Intriguing Story of Poli’s Engine for the King of Naples","authors":"Salvatore Esposito","doi":"10.1007/s00016-021-00277-1","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00016-021-00277-1","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>An interesting, yet unknown episode concerning the effective permeation of the scientific revolution in eighteenth-century Kingdom of Naples (and Italy more generally) is recounted. The intriguing story of James Watt’s steam engine, prepared to serve a Royal Estate of the King of Naples in Carditello, reveals a fascinating piece of the history of that kingdom, as well as an unknown step in the history of Watt’s steam engine, whose final entrepreneurial success for the celebrated Boulton & Watt company was a direct consequence. This story reveals that, contrary to what claimed in the literature, the first introduction in Italy of the most important technological innovation of the eighteenth century did not take place with the construction of the first steamship of the Mediterranean Sea, but rather thirty years before that, thanks to the incomparable work of Giuseppe Saverio Poli, a leading scholar and an influential figure in the Kingdom of Naples. The tragic epilogue of Poli’s engine accounts for its vanishing from historical memory.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":727,"journal":{"name":"Physics in Perspective","volume":"23 2-3","pages":"104 - 138"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00016-021-00277-1.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4588511","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reporting Science","authors":"Joseph D. Martin","doi":"10.1007/s00016-021-00279-z","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00016-021-00279-z","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":727,"journal":{"name":"Physics in Perspective","volume":"23 2-3","pages":"83 - 84"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4275191","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Past Looks Like an Onion: The Centennial “Great Debate” Through Journalists’ Testimonies","authors":"Victória Flório, Olival Freire Júnior","doi":"10.1007/s00016-021-00275-3","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00016-021-00275-3","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The discussion between California astronomers Harlow Shapley of Mount Wilson Observatory and Heber Doust Curtis of Lick Observatory during the 1920 NAS meeting in Washington, DC, is now a centennial vestige of early twentieth-century scientists’ efforts to map the universe. Historians have reconstructed that evening session using surviving archives (such as the formal accounts published in the <i>Bulletin of the National Research Council</i> in 1921), which could have contributed to a romanticized version of the event. Nevertheless, the repercussions of the event in the press have been overlooked as a source of information. On the day following the session, newspapers from all over the country covered the news on a debate on “the size of the universe” including the question of the existence of other galaxies. They used metaphors, figures, and quotes from the lecturers and the attendees, reinforcing the rivalry between the Lick and Mount Wilson observatories, with the goal of stirring the imagination of the American public, connecting the existence of other galaxies to pluralist debates. The myth of the debate may not have been based solely on the <i>Bulletin</i> papers; it is a complex process, which involves the media’s coverage of the event (from journalists’ testimonies in the newspapers articles to public perception).</p></div>","PeriodicalId":727,"journal":{"name":"Physics in Perspective","volume":"23 2-3","pages":"85 - 103"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4594969","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Scientific Revolution in Art","authors":"Robert Fleck","doi":"10.1007/s00016-021-00274-4","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00016-021-00274-4","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In the continuing spirit of narrowing the gap between the “two cultures,” this essay illustrates, quite literally through representative works of Western art, the striking parallels between the visual arts and the discoveries made during the Scientific Revolution, the period between Copernicus’s 1543 <i>De revolutionibus</i> and Newton’s 1687 <i>Principia</i> when the foundations of modern science swept away the scientific heritage of the ancient and medieval worldviews, a period that, though underrepresented in art–science studies, marked the birth of the modern mind and, indeed, the modern world.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":727,"journal":{"name":"Physics in Perspective","volume":"23 2-3","pages":"139 - 169"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4062985","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Robert P. Crease, Joseph D. Martin, Richard Staley
{"title":"Writing Things Up: Endings and Beginnings","authors":"Robert P. Crease, Joseph D. Martin, Richard Staley","doi":"10.1007/s00016-021-00272-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-021-00272-6","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":727,"journal":{"name":"Physics in Perspective","volume":"23 1","pages":"1 - 2"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s00016-021-00272-6","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"5180658","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Occupation of Niels Bohr’s Institute: December 6, 1943–February 3, 1944","authors":"Stephan Schwarz","doi":"10.1007/s00016-021-00270-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-021-00270-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The occupation of the Niels Bohr Institute by German authorities in war-time Denmark has hitherto not been described or analyzed in detail, leaving a number of questions open, such as the background and purpose of the occupation, the lack of planning of the operation, formation, mandate and actual work of the “Expert Commission,” and the justification of release without conditions. These questions are addressed and answers suggested compatible with all relevant facts available.</p>","PeriodicalId":727,"journal":{"name":"Physics in Perspective","volume":"23 1","pages":"49 - 82"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s00016-021-00270-8","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4092646","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Observation and Annihilation: The Discovery of the Antiproton","authors":"Kevin Orrman-Rossiter","doi":"10.1007/s00016-021-00271-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-021-00271-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper is the first investigation of the events associated with the discovery of the antiproton. The 1955 observation of the antiproton by Owen Chamberlain, Emilio Segrè, Clyde Wiegand, and Thomas Ypsilantis was “no surprise,” in Chamberlain’s words, and might therefore be understood as a classic example of an experimental proof of an existing theory—except there was no complete theory—at best it was a further validation of Dirac’s 1930 prediction of antiparticles. Instead, I argue, it became a contest between the serendipitous observations of cosmic-ray events and the deliberate observation possible with the new accelerator-based experiments. I show that the discovery was an extended event and was seen by the physicists involved as emerging from a combination of supporting experiments—the counter-based detection of antiprotons was accepted as proof of discovery only with the supporting images of antiproton annihilations.</p>","PeriodicalId":727,"journal":{"name":"Physics in Perspective","volume":"23 1","pages":"3 - 24"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s00016-021-00271-7","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"5041802","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Professors of Natural Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century","authors":"Thomas B. Greenslade Jr.","doi":"10.1007/s00016-020-00264-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-020-00264-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The introductory physics course taught in American College and Universities in the twenty-first century is a descendent of the natural philosophy—later, physics—course that developed in these institutions in the nineteenth century. In the present paper, I discuss the backgrounds of a number of prominent professors of natural philosophy who taught these courses. These came, variously from experience as high-school teachers, engineers, and clergymen. Few of them planned to become faculty members, as contrasted to today’s professors who have rigorous educational and research training to prepare themselves for their task.</p>","PeriodicalId":727,"journal":{"name":"Physics in Perspective","volume":"22 4","pages":"226 - 238"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2020-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s00016-020-00264-y","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4683649","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Problem of Reflection in Eighteenth-Century Projectile Theories of Light","authors":"Breno Arsioli Moura","doi":"10.1007/s00016-020-00266-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-020-00266-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper explores the mechanical models elaborated by projectile theorists throughout the eighteenth century to explain the reflection of light. Influenced by Isaac Newton’s <i>Opticks</i>, these projectile theorists proposed that repulsion was the cause of reflection. My purpose is to show that their models were not unified and lacked a deeper understanding of the origin of repulsive powers. This analysis illustrates how a simple optical phenomenon was not easy for eighteenth-century theorists to explain, even when the projectile theory of light was prominent among natural philosophers.</p>","PeriodicalId":727,"journal":{"name":"Physics in Perspective","volume":"22 4","pages":"191 - 214"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2020-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s00016-020-00266-w","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4015932","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}