History of Physics
George Francis Fitzgerald
ISBN 978–3-901585–12-8
Living Edition, June 2009: 160 pages; 28 illustrations, black/white; 236×167 mm; 330 g; soft cover, artprint finishing, mat; layout, graphics editing, typesetting, front & back covers by Arthur G.P. Schuster, Vienna; printed in Vienna, Austria
English edition
€ 25,00 (Austria and retail/int’l)
€ 22,73 (net price)
Buy this book
Denis Weaire FRS, one of Fitzgerald’s successors as Erasmus Smith Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy in Trinity College Dublin, has gathered together a wealth of information and critical comment on one of the 19th century’s most imaginative and inspiring physicists.
It includes five essays originally commissioned by Weaire for the European Review, together with notes on Fitzgerald’s publications and other records of his career. The list of his papers extends far beyond the supposedly complete Scientific Writings edited by Joseph Larmor, so they may fairly be described as brief but hardly sparse. But his chief influence remains to be found
in his correspondence. This publication coincides with the opening up of the Fitzgerald Correspondence by the Royal Dublin Society to the wider world of scholarship, through Web access. It is an extraordinary record of the “invisible college” that centred on Fitzgerald, not just in
electromagnetic theory, the invention of radio and the early hints of relativity, but over a wide range of pure and applied science.
Fitzgerald may have been restless and discontented by the time of his death in 1901, but he had achieved an unrivalled reputation for selfless generosity in advancing science for the common good.
(by Denis Weaire FRS, TCD/School of Physics, May 2009)
The Authors (in alphabetic order):
- David Attis
- J. Michael D. Coey
- Bruce J. Hunt
- James G. O’Hara
- Michael Purser
- Denis Weaire
The Editor:
Denis Weaire FRS, emeritus Professor of Physics, Trinity College Dublin.
€ 25,00 (Austria and retail/int’l)
€ 22,73 (net price)
Buy this book
Moving the Stars—Christian Doppler, His Life, His Works and Principle, and the World After
ISBN 978–3-901585–05-0 (ISBN-10: 3–901585-05–2)
Living Edition, May 2005: 230 pages; 207 illustrations, of which 13 coloured; 241×176 mm; 950 g; cellophaned hardcover, fine linen finishing, sewed binding; designed, typeset and printed in Vienna, Austria, by arrangement with: TechnoGraphic Wien
€ 33,—(Austria and retail/int’l)
€ 30,—(net price)
Buy this book
This 2005 first edition in English incorporates a revised and extended version made in 2004–2005 of the 2003 German original: ‘Weltbewegend – unbekannt: Leben und Werk des Physikers Christian Doppler und die Welt danach’ (for more details on the original, please refer to the German pages of this site, sub Geschichte der Physik.
Up to date, this book is the only comprehensive biography/monograph that is available on the Austrian physicist Christian Doppler (1803–1853) and the Doppler Principle. The historical part is a thrilling read on Doppler and on the eminent personalities, who were his antecedents or who were contemporaneous with him during the five decades of his life in an Austrian Empire that was shaken by continued revolutionary uproar. An entire chapter treats the latest applications of the Doppler principle in the fields of modern medicine, sciences and technology. A complete up-to-date listing of the works and publications by Christian Doppler, and which indicates the original sources, is included.
Like no other discovery the Doppler principle provided the crucial blow that has radically changed our perception of the universe. Doppler’s law is indeed ‘moving the stars’, being the foundation for the measuring techniques of every subdiscipline without exception of astronomy, as well as of medicine, physics and applied science. The book shows how it came to be that Christian Doppler has remained unnoticed despite his comprehensive work and superior achievement, both in conceptual principle and practical application. Albert Einstein noted about Christian Doppler’s idea: “No matter what shape the theory of electromagnetic processes should take, the Doppler Principle … will remain in any case.”
The German original (ISBN 978–3-901585–03-6) had been launched in Salzburg in 2003 to commemorate both the 200th anniversary and the 150th year of death of Christian Doppler. On the author Schuster, who rediscovered the dying place and the burial monument of this savant in Venice, Italy, the Golden Decoration of Merits of the Salzburg Land became conferred in 2004.
Weltbewegend – unbekannt: Leben und Werk des Physikers Christian Doppler und die Welt danach
ISBN 978–3-901585–03-6 (ISBN-10: 3–901585-03–6)
Living Edition, Sept. 2003: 200 pages; 207 illustrations, of which 13 coloured; 241×176 mm; 770 g; cellophaned hardcover, fine linen finishing, sewed binding; designed, typeset and printed in Vienna, Austria, by arrangement with: TechnoGraphic Wien
German edition
€ 33,30 (Austria and retail/int’l)
€ 30,27 (net price)
Buy this book
This is the German original to the English translation ‘Moving the Stars—Christian Doppler, His Life, His Works and Principle, and the World After’ that is described above.
For more details on the original, please refer to the German pages of this site, sub Geschichte der Physik.