1991 book about followers of James Clerk Maxwell
The Maxwellians is a book by Bruce J. Hunt, published in 1991 by Cornell University Press; a paperback edition appeared in 1994, and the book was reissued in 2005. It chronicles the development of electromagnetic theory in the years after the publication of A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism by James Clerk Maxwell. The book draws heavily on the correspondence and notebooks as well as the published writings of George Francis FitzGerald, Oliver Lodge, Oliver Heaviside, Heinrich Hertz, and Joseph Larmor.
Contents
The book has nine chapters; their titles and section headings are:
- FitzGerald and Maxwell's Theory
- FitzGerald and the Dublin School, Maxwell's Theory, Reflection and Refraction, FitzGerald's Accomplishment.
- FitzGerald, Lodge, and Electromagnetic Waves
- Oliver Lodge, Maxwell and Electromagnetic Waves, Lodge and "Electromagnetic Light", FitzGerald and "The Impossibility . . .", The Undetected Waves.
- Heaviside the Telegrapher
- Oliver Heaviside, Cable Empire, At Newcastle, Cables and Field Theory, Heaviside on Propagation, Turning to Maxwell.
- Ether Models and the Vortex Sponge
- Models, Wheels and Bands, Charging Displacement, "We Find Ourselves in a Factory", The Vortex Sponge, "Mathematical Machinery".
- "Maxwell Redressed"
- Energy Paths, Model Research, "When Energy Goes from Place to Place . . .", Heaviside's Equations.
- Waves on Wires
- "Beams of Dark Light", Loading and the Distortionless Circuit, Suppression, Campaigning for Recognition, Lightning.
- Bath, 1888
- Hertz's Waves, Reception, "The Murder of Ψ", Practice vs Theory.
- The Maxwellian Heyday
- Strengthening the Links, The Origins of the FitzGerald Contraction, What Is Maxwell's Theory?
- The Advent of the Electron
- Joseph Larmor and the Rotational Ether, Inventing Electrons, "Larmor's Force," Assimilating Electrons, Conclusion.
- Epilogue
- Appendix
- From Maxwell's Equations to "Maxwell's Equations".
- Abbreviations, Bibliography (10 pages), Index (6 pages).