1997 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
On the Processes of Establishment of Maxwell's Electromagnetic Theory in the Late 19th Century
| Project/Area Number |
08680082
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
科学技術史(含科学社会学・科学技術基礎論)
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| Research Institution | Osaka Women's Junior College |
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Principal Investigator |
OKAMOTO Masashi Osaka Women's Junior College, Professor, 児童教育科, 教授 (70149558)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1996 – 1997
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| Keywords | Maxwellians / electromagnetic waves / J.C.Maxwell / O.Lodge / O.Heaviside / H.Hertz / history of electromagnetism / the 19th century |
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| Research Abstract |
The purpose of this project is to make clear how Maxwellians had performed their parts with establishment of Maxwell's electromagnetic theory in the late 19th century. Although this is the first research on Maxwellians in Japan, the following important results were obtained with the assistance of English scholars, especially Dr. Peter Rowlands, Dr. David Edward and Mr. David King, who had suggested me on many important literatures on Sir O.Lodge and had given me a lot of facilities in the University of Liverpool.
Sir O.Lodge as a Maxwellian had made distinguished services to establish Maxwell's electromagnetic theory after the death of Maxwell, particularly with his famous important experiments on electromagnetic waves and ether drag. He had not only achieved, however, good scientific results with skillful experiments, but found out the excellent works of nameless young Maxwellians and propagated them into the society of scientists. O.Heaviside, an eccentric and solitude engineer but a talented person, was recognized by Lodge and his works were made popular through Lodge's good offices. H.Hertz's historical experiments on electromagnetic waves were also conveyed to scientists in England by Lodge and G.F.FitzGerald who declared Hertz's experiments as experimentum crucis at Bath meeting of BAAS in 1888.
Lodge's influences on Japanese scholars, Dr. NAGAOKA Hantaro and MURAKAMI Harutaro, also were discovered during the term of this project and these are important materials on the history of physics in Japan, though these were not on electromagnetism.
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