Electricity and Experimental Physics in Eighteenth-Century Europe

At the beginning of the 18th century there was no science of physics as we recognise it today; by the early years of the nineteenth century, there was. The articles in this volume are concerned with the process by which this came about. They focus, in particular, on the rise of experimental physics and the interactions between experiment, theory and mathematics in the study of electricity and, to a lesser extent, magnetism and physical optics during this period. Along the way, they provide a significant reassessment of Isaac Newtons influence on the science of his successors. A further recurring theme is the process by which ideas were disseminated within the expanding scientific community of the day, and the manner of their reception, often in a form somewhat different from that envisaged by their first inventors, as Professor Home argues took place in the case of Franklin. The social and intellectual context of the scientist, indeed, is the specific subject of several essays, dealing not only with England and France, but also offering new insights into the position of science in 18th-century Russia. Au dbut du 18e s., la science physique telle que nous lentendons de nos jours, nexistait pas; ds les premires annes du 19e s., cela ntait plus le cas. Les articles contenus dans ce volume sintressent au procd qui a provoqu ce changement. Ils sattachent plus particulirement la monte de la physique exprimentale et linteraction entre exprience, thorie et mathmatiques en ce qui concerne ltude de llectricit et, dans une moindre mesure, celle du magntisme et de loptique physique durant cette priode. Ce faisant, les tudes fournissent une r-valuation significative de linfluence dIsaac Newton sur la science de ses successeurs. Un autre thme est celui du processus par lequel les ides taient dissmines lpoque au sein dune communaut scientifique en pleine expans