Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field
Page 33
permanent, 54, 69
V-shaped, 69
Manchester Square, London, 20
manganese dioxide, 26
Marcet, Alexander, 24, 34
Marcet, Jane, 23–24, 34
Marconi, Guglielmo, 13, 16, 260
Marischal College, Aberdeen, 115, 166, 169, 178, 283n2
Mathematical Tripos. See Tripos
Matter in Motion (Maxwell), 234
Maurice, Frederick Dennison, 145, 149–150, 155
Maxwell, James Clerk
courtship and marriage, 173–174
creates concept of Maxwell's Demon in statistical thermodynamics, 220
creates the terms curl, divergence, and gradient to describe properties of fields, 220–221
derives statistical distribution of molecular speeds in a gas, 175–176
early childhood, 129–131
and first color photograph, 183
first paper at age fourteen, 133
forbears, 127–129
home experiments, 137–139
last days, 236–238
mathematical training at Cambridge University, 143–151
measures by experiment the ratio of the electromagnetic and electrostatic units, 219
and principles of color vision, 155, 179, 182, 200, 212
produces first physical standard of electrical resistance, 218–219
produces theory of the electromagnetic field, uniting electricity, magnetism, and light, using an imaginary mechanical model, 204
publishes his Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, 12, 218
re-derives theory of the electromagnetic field, using only the laws of dynamics, 204–210
represents Faraday's ideas mathematically using a fluid-flow analogy for static electric and magnetic fields, 159
solves problem of Saturn's rings, 171–172
studies philosophy, 134–136
writes paper on control theory, 150–151
Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution of molecular energies, 176
Maxwell clan, 127
Maxwell distribution of molecular speeds, 175
Maxwell's Demon, 220
Maxwell's equations, 18, 109, 211, 248, 266, 268–269
Mechanics’ Institution, Aberdeen, 170, 177
mercury, 57–59
mesmerism, 121
Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science (Kant), 49
meteorology, 231
mica, 138
Michell, John, 11, 45
Michelson, Albert, 12, 266–268, 291n8
Middlebie, 127–128
Milan, 34
Milton, John, 129
mobile phones, 17
Modern Views on Electricity (Lodge), 250
molecules, 175–176, 192, 220, 234
Mona Lisa of science, 248
Monro, Cecil, 196, 282n16
Montpellier, 33, 35
“Morality; Language and Speculation” (Maxwell), 146
Morlaix, 31–32
Morley, Edward, 12, 266–267
Morse, Samuel, 113
Morse code, 243
Munich, 253
muriatic acid, 26
Museo di Storia Naturale, Florence, 34
Musschenbroek, Pieter von, 11, 45
Nahin, Paul J., 288n1
Napier Shaw, William, 231
Naples, 34
Napoleon, 30, 35, 124, 274n11, 274n12, 280n10
Napoleon Prize, 29, 124
Napoleon III, 124
National Gallery, London, 121
National Physical Laboratory, 231
Nature (journal), 137, 230, 239, 286n6
Naturphilosophie, 48–50, 57
Neptune, 171, 213
Neumann, Franz Ernst, 254, 256
Newcastle upon Tyne, 243–244
Newfoundland, 260
Newgate Prison, 20
Newington Butts, 20
Newton, Isaac
experiments on light, 44
inverse-square law, 45
law of gravitation, 46
publishes Principia Mathematica, 43
Nice, 33
Nicholl, Whitlock, 86
nickel, 100–101, 107, 185
Nicol, William, 123, 138, 141
Nicol polarizer, 123
Nicol prism, 138–141
nitrogen trichloride, 29
nitrous oxide, 25, 95
Niven, William Davidson, 275n3, 282n2, 289n9
Nobel Prize, 120, 291n13
Nobili, Leopoldo, 79–80
North Christopher. See Wilson, John
“Note on the Electromagnetic Theory of Light” (Maxwell), 289n9
Oersted, Hans Christian
and electric conflict, 276n5
gravitational model of, 47
and magnetic compass, 47
method of detecting current, 71
as professor of physics at the University of Copenhagen, 48
and reverse-polarity hypothesis, 104
Ohm's law, 230, 233, 246
oil lamps, 98, 119
“On Boltzmann's Theorem on the Average Distribution of a Number of Material Points” (Maxwell), 234
“On Faraday's Lines of Force” (Maxwell), 164, 165, 170, 282n10, 283n3
“On Physical Lines of Force” (Maxwell), 196, 284n6, 284n7, 285n10
“On the Equilibrium of Elastic Solids” (Maxwell), 139
optical instruments, 63
Order of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus, Savoy, 124
Ostend, 36
Outhgill, 20
Oxford Street, London, 20
Oxford University, 36, 139, 148, 181, 227
oxygen, 26, 34, 107
Paget, Dr., 237–238
paramagnetism, 107
Paris, 25, 30–35, 50, 53, 79
Paris, John Ayrton, 68, 274n10, 274n12, 275n6
Parton, 239
Pauli, Wolfgang, 265
Penicuik, 127
Pennines, 19
Peterhouse, Cambridge, 96, 143
Phillips, Richard, 57, 72, 80, 276n9, 277n1, 277n5, 278n6
Philosophical Magazine (journal), 103, 278n5, 278n6, 278n9
photoelasticity, 139
photoelectric effect, 13, 265
photon, 13, 265, 268
Piccadilly, 182
Planck, Max, 13, 120, 264, 290n6
Planck's constant, 265
Playfair, Lyon, 274, 280n3
Playfair cipher, 274
Plymouth, 30–31
Poincaré, Henri, 267–269, 291n9, 291n10
poison gas, 121, 280n3
Poisson Siméon Denis, 47, 197
polarized light, 97–98, 138–139, 184, 196
Poldhu, Cornwall, 260
Pomeroy, Robert Henry, 151
Pope, Alexander, 43, 155
Post Office, 236
potassium, 26, 48, 56
potential
electric, 160–161
gravitational, 161
magnetic, 163, 222, 246, 284n5, 288n5
scalar, 266, 288n5
vector, 246, 266, 284n5, 288n5
Poynting, John Henry, 12, 231, 249
Poynting vector, 249
Preece, William, 260
Presbyterians, 19
Priestley, Joseph, 11, 45
Principia Mathematica (Newton), 43, 285n12
Prussia, 124
Prussian Order of Merit, 124
public-school commissioners, 121, 280n4
pyrolusite, 26
quantum, 13, 265
quantum electrodynamics, 265–266, 290n7
quantum mechanics, 106–107, 176, 265
Quarterly Journal of Science (journal), 60
quartz, 97
quaternions, 222–224, 247, 259–260, 290n1
radar, 17, 261
radiation, 13, 24, 102, 264, 268–269, 290n2. See also electromagnetic waves
radio, 17, 103, 256, 261
radio telegraphy, 260
Rankine, William, 200
&nbs
p; Ray Club, 155
Rayleigh, Lord. See Strutt, John William (Baron Rayleigh of Terling Place)
Rayleigh scattering (of light), 242
reciprocal diagrams, 201
Reith, George, 283n9
Reith, John Charles Walsham (Baron), 283n9
relativistic factor, 267
relativity, special theory of, 13, 17, 103, 210, 268–269
resistance, electrical, 186, 199–200, 219, 274n1
Rhümkorff coil, 15
Ribeau, George, 20, 26–27
right-hand rule for electric generators, 110, 279n15
Ritter, Johann, 24, 281n1
Roman alphabet, 223
Roman Empire, 25, 34
Rome, 34–35, 42
Routh, Edward John, 143, 150–151, 281n4
Routhian, 151, 281n5
Royal Artillery, 64
Royal Institution
and Brande, 38
and Davy's experiments, 26–28, 48
and Faraday, 36
and Faraday as director, 92
and Faraday's apartment, 56
and Faraday's experiments, 53, 90
and Faraday's laboratory, 97
and Faraday's promotion to director, 61
Faraday's “Ray-vibrations” talk, 280n3
founding fathers of, 229
and Friday Evening Discourses, 62, 101
income for, 40
and John Tyndall, 64
and Maxwell's color photograph, 183
and Tyndall's promotion to director, 123
Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, 64, 92, 98
Royal Society of Edinburgh, 133, 135, 137, 139, 154
Royal Society of London, 33, 61, 179
Rumford, Count, 18, 25, 229
Rumford, New Hampshire, 25
Rumford Medal, 179, 257
Russians, 121, 280n3
safety lamp, 37
St. Andrews University, 178, 224
St. John's College, Cambridge, 171, 219
St. Mary's Church, Cambridge, 238
St. Peter's, Rome, 34
St. Peter's College, 143
Salam, Abdus, 291n13
Sandemanians, 19–20, 27
Sanders, Dr., 237
Sands, Matthew, 287, 290n7
Sartor Resartus (Carlyle), 288n2
satellites, 261
Saturn, 171
Savoy, 124
scalar, 221–222, 247, 266, 281n5, 288n5
scarlet fever, 242
Schelling, Friedrich von, 48–50
Schönbein, Christian Friedrich, 125, 279n19, 280n12
Schrödinger, Erwin, 265
Schuster, Arthur, 284n2
Scotland, 19, 127, 131, 167, 217, 283n9
Scroope Terrace, Cambridge, 236
Senate House, Cambridge, 147, 149–150
Shairp, John Campbell, 224
Shakespeare, William, 129, 233, 240
shellac, 89
silver, 47–48
Simpson, Thomas K., 282n6, 282n7, 282n10, 283n3, 284n6, 285n2, 285n3, 285n10, 286n7
smallpox, 179
Smith's Prize, 147, 150, 172, 230
Society of Arts, 252
sodium, 26, 48, 123
sodium nitrate, 38
sodium sulphate, 97
solenoid, 54
Solent, 260
sound, 81, 136
sound cable, 200
sound waves, 70, 194
Southey, Robert, 29
South Foreland, 119–120, 280n1
spark, 15, 45, 82, 88, 102, 255–256
spectrum
of electromagnetic waves, 17
light, 123
lines in, 123
radiation, 13, 264
solar, 154, 284n2
visible, 44
Staffordshire, 250
Standard Model, 211, 265, 272
standing wave, 16, 252, 256
static electricity, 22, 81, 91–92, 105, 164
statistical mechanics, 176, 234
steel, 39, 53, 101, 201
Stephenson, George, 134
Stewart, Allan, 139
Stewart, Balfour, 199
Stokes, George Gabriel, 122, 281n4
Strachey, Lytton, 145
strain functions, 139
Strand, London, 124, 181
Strutt, John William (Baron Rayleigh of Terling Place), 225, 242
sub-ocean cable. See undersea telegraphy
Suffolk, 150
sulfur, 89
sulfuric acid, 97
sun, 56, 120, 171
Sutton, Thomas, 183, 284n2
Swan, William, 282n14
Swiss Patent Office, 264
table-turning, 112
Tait, Peter Guthrie (P. G.)
at Cambridge, 139, 148, 281n4
as chair of natural philosophy at Edinburgh, 178
as friend of Maxwell, 133, 143
Maxwell's letter to, 283n7
as professor of mathematics at Belfast University, 167
and quaternions, 222
and Treatise on Natural Philosophy (with William Thomson), 136, 285n4, 290n1
on vector analysis, 259, 290n1
Tatum, John, 21–22
Technische Hochschule, Karlsruhe, 16, 253
telegraph
and the Atlantic telegraph cable, 156
and induction, 89
Marconi sends telegraph signal, 13
Maxwell as technical consultant on the Atlantic telegraph-cable project, 172, 199–200
Maxwell's model telegraph, 138
and potential of radio telegraphy, 260–261
progress of, 113–114
William Fothergill Cooke, building the first commercial telegraph in Britain, 243–244
telephone, 234
telescope, 34, 64
television, 17, 62, 103, 154, 261
Tennyson, Alfred, 145
terella, 42
Tesla, Nikola, 113
Teufelsdröckh, Diogenes (Thomas Carlyle character), 244, 288n2
Thames, river, 111, 200
Thénard, Louis-Jacques, 48
Theological Essays (Maurice), 150
Theory of Heat, The (Maxwell), 219
thermionic valve, 231
thermodynamics, 176, 220
Thompson, Benjamin. See Rumford, Count
Thompson, Sylvanus Phillips, 92, 273
Thomson, David (“Crafty”), 178
Thomson, James, 168
Thomson, Joseph John, 264
Thomson, William (Baron Kelvin of Largs)
and the Atlantic Telegraph Company, 114–115
fellow of Peterhouse, 96
and Hugh Blackburn, 155–157
and laboratory at Glasgow, 227
Maxwell's letter to, 286n5
physicist, 90
quality control in the manufacture and supply of cables, 199
Treatise on Natural Philosophy (with Peter Guthrie Tait), 136
and the vortex sponge, 266
Times Educational Supplement, The, 240
Todhunter, Isaac, 230
Torquay, 257, 259
torsion balance, 45, 275n2
Traité de mécanique céleste (Laplace), 47
transformer, 112, 261
transmission line, 244–245
Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism (Maxwell), 156, 218, 231, 241, 282n5, 286n8
Treatise on Natural Philosophy (Thomson and Tait), 136, 205, 285n4, 286n6
Trinity College, Cambridge, 96, 140, 143, 151, 166, 275n3
Trinity College, Dublin, 250–251
Trinity House, 92, 95, 119–121
Tripos, 147–151, 218
Turin, 33
Turkey, 35
Tuscany, 37
Tyburn Street, London, 20
Tyndall, John, 64, 85, 104, 123, 125, 250, 277n11, 280n14
Tytler, James, 22
ultraviolet radiation, 24
undersea cables, 113–114
undersea tele
graphy, 113
United States of America. See America
University College, Liverpool, 249
University College, London, 181, 250
Urr River, 215
vacuum, 46, 104, 185, 192–193, 195, 207, 268
vacuum pump, 107, 113, 227
Vale of Urr, 127, 130
van Musschenbroek, Pieter, 11, 45
vector algebra, 224, 247, 289n11
vector analysis, 12, 247, 259, 284n4, 290n1
vector notation, 12, 259
vector product, 289n11
vectors, 164, 211, 220, 247–248, 260, 289n11
Versailles, 36
versorium, 42
Vesuvius, 36, 121
Victoria, Queen, 114
Victoria Institute, 217
Vienna, 176
viscosity of gases, 176, 198–199
Volta, Alessandro, 11, 22–23, 34, 40, 47–48, 76, 233, 275n6
voltage, 15, 113, 160, 230. See also electromotive force
voltaic cell. See batteries
voltaic pile. See batteries
vortex sponge, 266
Voyager (space vehicle), 172
War Office, 121
Watson, Joseph, 280n2
Watts, Isaac, 21, 274n4
wave-particle duality, 265
waves, 70, 80
wax, 58, 89, 138, 254
weak nuclear force, 101, 291n13
Weber, Wilhelm, 105–108, 184, 195, 204, 219, 254, 256
Wedderburn, Isabella, née Clerk, 131
Weinberg, Steven, 291n13
Westmorland, 19–20
Wheatstone, Charles, 69, 101–102, 113, 243, 274n1, 280n3
Wheatstone bridges, 15, 274n1
Whewell, William, 86, 96, 140, 277n12
Williams, L. Pearce, 273, 274n3, 275n3, 275n12, 276n1, 276n11, 280n1
Wilson, John (pen name Christopher North), 135, 281n1
wireless. See radio
Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 145
Wollaston, William Hyde, 53, 60–61, 81
working men's colleges, 150
Wuthering Heights (Brontë), 19
Young, Thomas, 153
Zeeman, Peter, 123, 278n16
Zeeman effect, 123
zinc, 16, 23, 26, 47–48, 138, 256
PHOTO BY DIANA ADAMS
NANCY FORBES is an experienced science writer with over twenty-five publications in the area of science and technology, including Imitation of Life: How Biology Is Inspiring Computing. She has also served as a contributing editor for the Industrial Physicist of the American Institute of Physics and for IEEE's Computing in Science & Engineering. Currently, she works for the US Department of Defense.
PHOTO BY EMILY MAHON
BASIL MAHON is the author of The Man Who Changed Everything: The Life of James Clerk Maxwell and Oliver Heaviside: Maverick Mastermind of Electricity, among other publications. With degrees in engineering and statistics, Mahon was formerly an officer in the Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, and until his retirement he worked for the British Government Statistical Service.