Pursuing Power and Light: Technology and Physics from James Watt to Albert Einstein (Johns Hopkins Introductory Studies in the History of Science)
In the nineteenth century, science and technology developed a close and continuing relationship. The most important advancements in physics—the science of energy and the theory of the electromagnetic field—were deeply rooted in the new technologies of the steam engine, the telegraph, and electric power and light. Bruce J. Hunt here explores how the leading technologies of the industrial age helped reshape modern physics.This period marked a watershed in how human beings exerted power over the world around them. Sweeping changes in manufacturing, transportation, and communications transformed the economy, society, and daily life in ways never before imagined. At the same time, physical scientists made great strides in the study of energy, atoms, and electromagnetism. Hunt shows how technology informed science and vice versa, examining the interaction between steam technology and the formulation of the laws of thermodynamics, for example, and that between telegraphy and the rise of e
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Historical detail the textbooks overlook,
I am a physicist, now retired after teaching university physics for thirty years. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Tales of the struggles and mis-steps that often precede the greatest theoretical advances are stories most often left out of our curricula. Some, like Maxwell’s mechanical vortex ideas, were totally new to me. And with the success of today’s satellite and wireless industries, we forget the history of the trans-oceanic cables, and how their needs influenced the development of basic science. Also, how the demand for electrical engineers fueled the growth of physics programs at US universities was interesting news to me.
As another reviewer has already noted, Hunt got the physics mostly right. However, I read the Kindle edition, and was disappointed with the quality of the translation from print. Apparently, the translator bot is programmed to remove hyphens from words split between lines. This had the unfortunate result of converting the Celsius and Fahrenheit temperatures for absolute zero from negative to positive values. There were many other defects in the translation that were merely annoying but quite apparent. It was an unfortunate decision to bypass editing of this version.
Nevertheless, I congratulate the author on a job well done.
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