Francis Hauksbee's theory of electricity |
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Authors: | Roderick W Home |
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Institution: | (1) Department of the History and Philosophy of Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana |
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Abstract: | Conclusion Historians of science have usually assumed that the science of electricity developed in the period prior to Franklin, or at least prior to Nollet, in what amounted to a theoretical vacuum. It has been my aim in this paper to demonstrate the falsity of that assumption. I have shown, I hope, that Hauksbee's important researches were guided throughout by strong theoretical considerations, and I have indicated that Dufay's even more important studies were guided by exactly the same considerations. Nor was their theory in any sense a stagnant one. As it was developed by Hauksbee, it could give a fairly adequate explanation of almost all the known electrical phenomena; it even enabled him to predict the outcome of experiments such as the one involving the rubbing of a globe while it was positioned near a second, exhausted, globe. With the discovery of so many new phenomena in the 1730's, the theory turned out to be no longer adequate, but it is not at all surprising that it was a few years before the full extent of its inadequacies was appreciated, nor is it surprising that a strong continuity is evident between it and the theory which eventually replaced it. In the meantime, the theory continued to serve a useful function by suggesting new lines of research to its adherents. The theory functioned, then, in the same way as any other scientific theory, and it deserves a more serious treatment than it has usually received. This paper, I hope, can serve as a beginning. |
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