Electric Universe
Page 8
Maxwell wrote up his ideas in a number of intricate equations. But when he died, in 1879, although Thomson was a supporter, Maxwell’s ideas were still taken by most scientists as just a hypothesis. Who could believe we live in a universe swarming with such invisible waves? It was accepted that a few soaring waves might leak out here or there from ordinary electrical wires. But no one was actually trying to reconfigure those wires so that they became dedicated launch platforms for these ripples in the “electromagnetic” field; no one, even as the 1880s began, was building a detector to monitor where they might be landing.
And then, in 1887, someone did. The experimenter who accomplished this—Heinrich Hertz—left such a revealing diary that it’s possible to present his work almost entirely through his own words, interwoven with the words of his contemporaries and immediate successors. It’s to those firsthand accounts of the birth of our wireless world that we shall now turn.
PART III
WAVE MACHINES
6
A Solitary Man
KARLSRUHE, GERMANY, 1887
Extract from the diary of Heinrich Hertz, 1884:
27 January 1884. Thought about electromagnetic rays.
11 May. Hard at Maxwellian electromagnetics in the evening.
13 May. Nothing but electromagnetics.
16 May. Worked on electromagnetics all day.
8 July. Electromagnetics, still without success.
17 July. Depressed; could not get on with anything.
24 July. Did not feel like working.
7 August. Saw from Ries’s “Friction Electricity” that most of what I have found so far is already known.
Letter from Heinrich Hertz to his parents, 6 December 1884:
There are rumors about my prospects here and at Karlsruhe, so that I am asked by various [colleagues] “You want to leave us?” while I know nothing at all.
Extract from the diary of Heinrich Hertz, 18851886:
28 November [1885]. Evening at the Saturday night social club.
13 December. Solitary morning walk through a snowstorm to Ettlingen.
31 December. Happy [that] this year is over, and hoping that it will not be followed by another like it.
22 January 1886. Bad cold and toothache.
23 January. Went to bed as early as possible after slinking about all day.
12 February. Worked all day on [a] battery.
18 February. Zealous work on the battery.
24 March. Took on an apprentice mechanic in Martin’s place. His first performance: he smashes the glass plate of the large electric friction generator.
15 June. Whitsun holidays; depressed by danger of war.
31 July. Wedding day.
16 September. Undecided about which project to begin.
Heinrich Hertz, keynote address at the Imperial Palace,
Berlin, August 1891:
Outside our consciousness there lies the cold and alien world of actual things. Between the two stretches the narrow borderland of the senses. No communication between the two worlds is possible excepting across the narrow strip….For a proper understanding of ourselves and of the world it is of the highest importance that this borderland should be thoroughly explored.
Memorial appreciation of Heinrich Hertz (18571894),
by Max von Laue, Nobel Laureate:
Now began the classic period of Hertz’s life….While experimenting…Hertz found something unexpected.
Extract from the diary of Heinrich Hertz, 1887:
3 June. Not much to be done, because of damp weather.
7 June. Experimented a little; feel listless, with no desire to work.
15 July. Started to fill the large battery.
18 July. Experiments with sparks from the battery.
19 July. Desire to work vanishes completely.
7 September. Started to work in the laboratory on rapid oscillations.
8 September. Experimented…to the heart of the matter.
Letter from Heinrich Hertz to his parents, autumn 1887:
My colleagues, as far as they think about it at all, will believe that I am up to my ears in optical experiments, but meanwhile I have been doing some quite different things….
•—————•
Hertz’s mentor, Hermann von Helmholtz, had long before asked him to test Maxwell’s predictions. Hertz now realized he could achieve this by creating an apparatus with two parts. The first was a transmitter, where an electric spark jumped back and forth between shiny metal balls. He hoped that the moving field rippling out from the electric charges in those sparks would generate the invisible waves that Maxwell had predicted.
The second part of his apparatus was a square wire hanger. That was the receiver. If he was right, invisible waves would fly out from his transmitter, travel across the auditorium, and reach this metal hanger. To confirm that they had arrived, he had cut a tiny gap in the hanger. If an invisible wave arrived, it would have to cross that gap and would produce yet another spark.
There was no wire connecting the transmitter and the receiver. If he saw sparks in the gap of the receiver, then he’d know Maxwell’s waves had flown across the room.
•—————•
Heinrich Hertz’s keynote address to the German Association for the Advancement of Natural Science, Heidelberg,
20 September 1889:
The sparks [which have to be detected in the receiver] are microscopically short, scarcely a hundredth of a millimeter long. They only last about a millionth of a second. It almost seems absurd and impossible that they should be visible; but in a perfectly dark room they are visible to an eye which has been well rested in the dark. Upon this thin thread hung the success of our undertaking.
Extract from the diary of Heinrich Hertz, 1887:
17 September. The experiments are yielding very beautiful and complementary results.
19 September. Set up experiments on the relative position of the circuits, and sketched them.
25 September. Sunday. Worked hard on second sketch at home.
2 October. A little daughter born at 2:45 in the morning, to be named Johanna Sophie Elisabeth.
5 October. Began work again in the morning.
Heinrich Hertz to Hermann von Helmholtz (Germany’s leading physicist), 5 November 1887:
I should like to take this opportunity to let you know, most honored Herr Geheimrat, about some experiments that I have recently successfully completed….I have some misgivings about taking up your time but this paper deals with a topic that you yourself once urged me to tackle some years ago.
To Hertz’s parents, from Elisabeth Hertz (his wife),
9 November 1887:
Heins [her name for Heinrich] sent off his manuscript to Prof. Helmholtz on Saturday, and on Tuesday received in answer to it a postcard from him, containing only the following words, “Manuscript received. Bravo! Will hand it to be printed on Thursday.” Naturally that gave us great pleasure; moreover, Heins had already started on new experiments Monday, and when he came home in the evening, he told me that he had set up the apparatus, tested it, and within a quarter of an hour had again succeeded in the most beautiful experiments….He simply pulls these beautiful things out of his sleeve now! Of course…I certainly understand nothing of it.
Memorial address by Professor Max Planck, delivered to the Physical Society of Berlin, 16 February 1894:
What research scientist does not remember even today the feelings of wonder and amazement that came over him at the news of these discoveries? Paper followed paper in quick succession, piling up new observations. We learned that electrical processes can also produce (dynamic) effects; that electromagnetic waves travel through air; that electric waves propagate entirely in the same way as light waves. And the proof for all this was obtained through tiny little sparks, which must be looked at in partial darkness with a magnifying glass in order to observe them at all!
Heinrich Hertz to his parents, 13 November 1887:
T
his week I have again had good luck with my experiments. I have never before been on such fertile soil, prospects are opening right and left. The very thing that I have now done had been on my mind for years, but I did not believe it could be realized…
Extract from the diary of Heinrich Hertz, 1887:
16 December. Went back to my experiments again and started to fill in the gaps.
17 December. Experimented successfully.
21 December. Experimented all day.
28 December. Experimented and observed the effect of the electrodynamic waves.
30 December. Followed the effect throughout the auditorium.
31 December. Weary from experimenting. Evening at the house of my parents-in-law. Looked back on the year with pleasure.
Heinrich Hertz’s keynote address to the German Association for the Advancement of Natural Science; Heidelberg,
20 September 1889:
All these experiments in themselves were very simple, but [when I finished them]…it was natural to go a few steps further….
Heinrich Hertz to his parents, 17 March 1888:
I’ve [now] had the large chandeliers removed from the auditorium to give me the largest possible empty air space….Yesterday I conducted some new experiments.
Memorial appreciation of Heinrich Hertz by Max von Laue:
The [next] investigation…was a great step forward. Whereas transmitter and receiver had until then been kept in close proximity, Hertz now separated them to the full extent permitted by the largest room at his disposal, the auditorium of his Institute, fifteen meters. The transmitter stood at one end wall; the opposite end wall had been turned into a mirror for electric waves.
•—————•
With the great distance between his transmitter and receiver, Hertz hoped to make the invisible waves bounce off the room’s walls.
•—————•
Extract from the diary of Heinrich Hertz, 1888:
27 February. Prepared for new experiments. Made metal shields.
5 March. Experimented with the formation of shadows by electromagnetic beams.
9 March. Death of the Kaiser.
14 March. Evening lecture in the Mathematics Club.
Heinrich Hertz, Collected Papers, 1894:
I thought that I noticed a peculiar reinforcement of the [waves] in front of…the walls of the room….It occurred to me that this might arise from a kind of reflection of the electric force…the idea appeared to me to be almost inadmissible--so utterly was it at variance with the conceptions then current as to the nature of an electric force.
•—————•
Hertz found that the waves he created, though invisible, could be reflected and bounced off mirrors, just as visible light could. They were all still created by the rippling patterns in the force fields stretching from the fast-moving sparks in his simple transmitter.
•—————•
Extract from the diary of Heinrich Hertz, March 1888:
--Repeated the experiments with the utmost care.
--Experimented and thought I detected standing electromagnetic waves by reflection in the hall.
Heinrich Hertz to Hermann Von Helmholtz, 19 March 1888:
I should like to report the following progress: electromagnetic waves in air are reflected from solid conducting walls…the phenomena are very pronounced and manifold…I have also tried to project the effect to a greater distance by means of concave mirrors and have obtained some indications of success….
To his parents from Elisabeth Hertz (his wife),
9 December 1888:
Today I write in Heinrich’s place again; he is so engrossed in his work that he does not want to interrupt it….This morning brought a letter from Geheimrat Althoff offering Heinrich a choice between a professorship in Berlin and in Bonn.
Heinrich Hertz to his parents, 16 December 1888:
Bonn looks certain now; on the 22nd I shall have a conference there with Althoff to settle the terms definitely. According to all I hear, the lecture fees must make the holder of the chair a wealthy man….All in all, it cannot be denied that I have proved to be in luck this time, at least outwardly and according to appearances….
Hermann von Helmholtz to Heinrich Hertz, December 1888:
Honored friend,…Personally I regret you won’t come to Berlin, but I must say I believe you are acting quite rightly…in preferring Bonn….A person who yet hopes of grappling with many scientific problems had better stay away from the big cities….
Heinrich Hertz to his parents, December 1888January 1889:
I have…decided on the Clausius house. The garden contains what is already a beautiful chestnut tree. But there is a hitch.
Until four years ago these rooms served as a medical clinic, and although at the time the walls were scraped and new floors were put down, the medical people had nonetheless advised against moving into the apartment with a young family, since the apartment still could be contaminated….
I went to see the professor of medicine (who) told me…there was little danger of contagion….
From Helmholtz’s nomination of Hertz to the Berlin Academy of Sciences, 31 January 1889:
The undersigned wish to introduce a motion to elect as Corresponding Member of the Academy Prof Heinrich Hertz….Hertz [has] made himself well known by a series of very ingenious and unusually significant pieces of research….
Extract from the diary of Heinrich Hertz, 1889:
17 March. Vigorously calculating.
26 March. Sent the paper off.
Heinrich Hertz’s keynote address to the German Association for the Advancement of Natural Science, Heidelberg,
20 September 1889:
[Electricity] has become a mighty kingdom. We perceive [it] in a thousand places where we had no proof of its existence before….The domain of electricity extends over the whole of nature….
Heinrich Hertz to his parents, on an honorary visit to London, arranged by the Royal Society, 5 December 1890:
I left here on Friday evening and arrived in London at noon on Saturday….I was introduced to nearly everyone--and frequently did not get the names quite right…I was of course especially fascinated to meet the older of the foreign physicists, Sir W. Thomson and others….
From William Thomson’s introduction to Hertz’s
Collected Works:
During the [many] years which have passed since Faraday first offended physical mathematicians with his curved lines of force, many workers and many thinkers have helped to build up the nineteenth-century school….Hertz’s electrical papers, given to the world in the last decade of the century, will be a permanent monument.
Extract from the diary of Heinrich Hertz, 1891:
14 January. A little daughter [born], mother and child doing well.
16 January. Charged the electrometer.
18 January. Tried a condensor for the transmission of electricity.
Heinrich Hertz to his parents, 1892:
Our days are now as peaceful as they could conceivably be….Unfortunately it has been spoiled as thoroughly as possible for me personally, and thus for Elisabeth as well, because I have caught a cold in the head, God knows how, which is as stubborn as it is unpleasant.
Extract from the diary of Heinrich Hertz, 1892:
10 May. Installed a large sand pit in the garden for the children to play in during Elisabeth’s absence. It has a magic cave in it.
27 July. My cold is becoming vicious. Broke off work and let it lie.
Memorial address by Professor Max Planck, delivered to the Physical Society of Berlin, 16 February 1894:
While at first his malady was thought to be harmless, there was no notable improvement with treatment; rather, his difficulties increased as time went on. By the beginning of the winter, [his friends] would not, could not, face the possible outcome….
Extract from the diary of Heinrich Hertz, 1892:
29 August. Parents arrive on the way back to Hamburg.<
br />
6 October. Major operation.
7 October. Difficulties in swallowing very severe.
9 October. Severe pain.
11 October. Tried to get up, but fever very high.
Heinrich Hertz to his parents:
Now unfortunately my strength has been numbed for some time to come….But I still hope for a future time when I shall be able to concentrate completely.
Heinrich Hertz to his parents, October 1892:
Unfortunately I cannot report anything encouraging about myself; there is absolutely no progress and the only consolation--if it is a consolation--is that according to experience these conditions tend to be protracted….
Extract from the diary of Heinrich Hertz, 1892:
19 October. A troubling period.
28 October. The swelling behind my ear keeps growing; unsuccessful attempts to drain through there.
29 October. Walb called Professor Witzel, who performed operation chiseling through mastoid.
Heinrich Hertz to his parents, 23 December 1892:
Is Christmas really here? It seems only yesterday that it was the middle of summer, and since then I have not been aware of anything that has happened, or that I have experienced anything but a dreadful dream from which I still cannot awaken.
Miscellaneous diary entries of Heinrich Hertz, Bonn, 1890s:
--Took a walk, searched in vain for starting points for fresh work.
--Experiments with the iron barometer pipe.
--The experiments yield probability of favorable results.
--The experiments seem to show little promise; therefore discouraged and broke off same.
--Felt fed up with work in physics.
Heinrich Hertz to his parents, December 1893:
I am among those…destined to live for only a short while….I did not choose this fate, but since it has overtaken me, I must be content.
•—————•
Heinrich Hertz succumbed to what was then termed blood poisoning on January 1, 1894, possibly caused by infection from substances in the medical clinic that had previously occupied his house. He was thirty-six.
Soon after, his theoretical researches began to be taken up by practical inventors, most notably the son of the Irish-born heiress to the Jameson whisky fortune. Since she had settled in Italy, her son--though fluent in English--was known by her husband’s name: Marconi.