A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity
A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity is any of three books written by British mathematician Sir Edmund Taylor Whittaker FRS FRSE on the history of electromagnetic theory, covering the development of classical electromagnetism, optics, and aether theories. The book's first edition, subtitled from the Age of Descartes to the Close of the Nineteenth Century, was published in 1910 by Longmans, Green. The book covers the history of aether theories and the development of electromagnetic theory up to the 20th century. A second, extended and revised, edition consisting of two volumes was released in the early 1950s by Thomas Nelson, expanding the book's scope to include the first quarter of the 20th century. The first volume, subtitled The Classical Theories, was published in 1951 and served as a revised and updated edition to the first book. The second volume, subtitled The Modern Theories (1900–1926), was published two years later in 1953, extended this work covering the years 1900 to 1926. Notwithstanding a notorious controversy on Whittaker's views on the history of special relativity,[1] covered in volume two of the second edition, the books are considered authoritative references on the history of electricity and magnetism[2] as well as classics in the history of physics.[3][4]
Author
English
- Non-fiction
- Academic history
- Scientific writing
- Longmans, Green (1st ed.)
- Thomas Nelson (2nd ed.)
- 1910 (1st ed.)
- 1951 (2nd ed.) 1
- 1953 (2nd ed.) 2
- 475 (1st ed.)
- 434 (2nd ed.) 1
- 319 (2nd ed.) 2
The original book was well-received, but it ran out of print by the early 1920s.[5] Whittaker believed that a new edition should include the developments in physics that took part at the turn of the twentieth century and declined to have it reprinted.[6] He wrote the second edition of the book after his retirement and published The Classical Theories in 1951, which also received critical acclaim. In the 1953 second volume, The Modern Theories (1900–1926), Whittaker argued that Henri Poincaré and Hendrik Lorentz developed the theory of special relativity before Albert Einstein, a claim that has been rejected by most historians of science.[7][8][1] Though overall reviews of the book were generally positive, due to its role in this relativity priority dispute, it receives far fewer citations than the other volumes, outside of references to the controversy.[4]
Long term impact[edit]
In one of Whittaker's 1958 obituaries, William McCrea remarked that the books are achievements so remarkable that "as time passes, the risk will be of all Whittaker's other great achievements tending to be overlooked in comparison."[71] He predicts that future readers would "have difficulty" in acknowledging it was only the result of "a few years at both ends of a career of the highest distinction in other pursuits."[71] In a 1956 obituary, Alexander Aitken calls the book series Whittaker's "magnum opus", amid a career of distinction, and expresses regret that Whittaker was unable to complete the promised third volume.[72] Other obituaries include one that claims that the two volumes of the second edition "form Whittaker's magnum opus", amid many other distinctions, including 4 standard works other than the History.[12] In a fourth obituary the work is said to be "brilliant" and a "colossal undertaking involving wide reading and accurate understanding".[73]
The book was included in a curated 1958 list of "important books on science" in a Science article by Ivy Kellerman Reed and Alexander Gode, where the volumes are said to be the "first exhaustive history of the classical and modern theories of aether and electricity".[74] In 1968, John L. Heilbron states that the "great value" of Whittaker's second volume on quantum mechanics lies in its ability to connect developments in quantum mechanics with those in other fields as well as its "rich citations", going on to recommend readers it and several other books on the history of science.[75]
John David Jackson recommends both volumes to his readers in the preface of the first edition of the famous graduate textbook Classical Electrodynamics (1962), which has been reprinted in all later editions, including the standard third edition of 1999.[76] Jackson give a brief account of the history of the mathematical development of electrodynamics and says the "story of the development of our understanding of electricity and magnetism is, of course, much longer and richer than the mention of a few names from one century would indicate."[2] He goes on to tell his readers to consult both "authoritative" volumes for a "detailed account of the fascinating history".[2]
In a 1988 Isis review of a combined reprint of the second edition, including both the first and second volumes bound together, published in New York by the American Institute of Physics and Tomash Publishers in 1981, science historian Bruce J. Hunt says that the books stand up "remarkably well" to time and that it is unlikely that others would try to write such books in modern times, as the "encyclopedic sweep is too broad" and the "purely internalist focus too narrow" for recent trends, though he says "we can be glad that someone did write it" and that it is, perhaps, fortunate that Whittaker did so such a long time ago.[4] He goes on to state his appreciation for the new reprint. In contrast to the first volume on The Classical Theories, Hunt notes that the second volume, The Modern Theories, is "rarely cited today, except in connection with this controversy" and that it has had "relatively little influence" on later publications in the history of modern physics.[4] He goes on to say the first volume "continues to be a standard reference".[4] He says that book's greatest weakness is that it lacks a "real historical sense", that it misses wider contexts and is therefore incomplete, as it focuses on theories rather than people.[4] Hunt closes by noting that the book is, in many ways, a "relic of a past age", but remains "very useful" when "approached critically" and praises Whittaker as "one of the last and most thoughtful of the great Victorian mathematical physicists."
In a 2003 review of a book by the French science historian Olivier Darrigol, L. Pearce Williams compares the newer book with Whittaker's second edition, which he calls "old but still valuable".[77] In 2007 Stephen G. Brush included the second volume of the second edition in a curated list of books on the history of light-quantum developments, such as black body radiation.[78]
Others scholars have singled out the original volume, including Darrigol who, in a 2010 article, highlighted the work as an authoritative reference[79] and Abraham Pais who states that both him and his colleagues believe the book to be a "masterpiece" in his 1982 book on Einstein.[68]
