Heinrich Hertz and the Development of Physics

MAR 01, 1989

In addition to confirming Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory. Hertz’s experimental and theoretical work one hundred years ago helped lay the foundation for quantum theory and relativity.

DOI: 10.1063/1.881211

Joseph F. Mulligan

The discovery that electromagnetic radiation in the microwave and radio regions of the spectrum displays the same basic behavior as visible light—reflection, refraction, diffraction, interference, polarization—was made in Karlsruhe in 1888 by Heinrich Rudolf Hertz. Some special events last year marked the centennial of Hertz’s momentous discovery. The Technical University in Karlsruhe, at which Hertz did his electromagnetic research, held a symposium on Hertz and the consequences of his work, and devoted one complete volume of its publication Fridericiana to him. In the US, the Microwave Theory and Techniques Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers held a symposium in New York City to celebrate Hertz’s achievements. On display at this meeting, from the Science Museum in London, was a refurbished set of replicas of Hertz’s original apparatus. These replicas were exhibited at the MIT Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, before returning to London late last year.

References

1. Fridericiana: Z. Univ. Karlsruhe 41 (1988).
2. For an excellent catalog of this exhibit of Hertz’s apparatus, see J. H. Bryant, Heinrich Hertz: The Beginning of Microwaves, IEEE, New York (1988).
3. The best English‐language sources on Hertz’s life are R. McCormmach, in Dictionary of Scientific Biography, C. C. Gillispie, ed., Scribner’s, New York (1970–78);
J. Hertz, M. Hertz, C. Susskind, eds., Heinrich Hertz: Memoirs, Letters, Diaries, San Francisco P., San Francisco (1977).
This volume, arranged and edited by Hertz’s two daughters, consists of facing pages in German and English, with an excellent biographical introduction by M. von Laue. On the influence of Helmholtz on Hertz’s contributions to physics, see J. F. Mulligan, Am. J. Phys. 55, 711 (1987).https://doi.org/AJPIAS
4. H. Hertz, Miscellaneous Papers, Macmillan, London (1986), p. 273.
On the importance of this paper see S. d’Agostino, Hist. Stud. Phys. Sci. 6, 261 (1975).
5. H. Hertz, Electric Waves, Dover, New York (1962). This volume contains all of Hertz’s experimental papers on electromagnetic radiation.
6. A. Sommerfeld, Elektrodynamik, Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft Geest und Portig KG, Leipzig (1954), p. 2.
7. H. Hertz, Miscellaneous Papers, Macmillan, London (1896), p. 313;
reprinted with an introduction by E. C. Watson, in Am. J. Phys. 25, 335 (1957).https://doi.org/AJPIAS
8. H. Hertz, Miscellaneous Papers, Macmillan, London (1896).
9. J. F. Mulligan, Am. J. Phys. 44, 960 (1976).https://doi.org/AJPIAS
10. C. H. Townes, in Advances in Quantum Electronics, J. R. Singer, ed., Columbia U.P., New York (1961), p. 5.
11. For a good photograph of this coaxial line and of the detector Hertz used inside this line, see J. H. Bryant, Heinrich Hertz: The Beginning of Microwaves, IEEE, New York (1988), p. 33.
12. Nobel Lectures in Physics, 1901–1921, Elsevier, New York (1967).
13. W. C. Roentgen, translated in H. A. Boorse, L. Motz, eds., The World of the Atom, Basic, New York (1966), p. 395.
14. M. von Laue, in Heinrich Hertz: Memoirs, Letters, Diaries, J. Hertz, M. Hertz, C. Susskind, eds., San Francisco P., San Francisco (1977), p. xxxv.
15. A. Einstein, quoted in E. Segre, From Falling Bodies to Radio Waves, Freeman, New York (1984), p. 182.
16. L. Boltzmann, quoted in L. Koenigsberger, Hermann von Helmholtz, English edition, Dover, New York (1965), p. 421.
17. A. Einstein, “On the Examination of the State of the Aether in a Magnetic Field,” unpublished 1895 manuscript referred to in A. Pais, ‘Subtle is the Lord…,’ Oxford U.P., New York (1982), p. 130.
18. A. Einstein, in James Clerk Maxwell: A Commemoration Volume 1831–1931, Cambridge U.P., Cambridge, England (1931), p. 70.
19. M. Planck, in James Clerk Maxwell: A Commemoration Volume 1831–1931, Cambridge U.P., Cambridge, England (1931), p. 62.
20. M. Planck, Physikalische Abhandlungen und Vorträge, vol. 3, F. Vieweg und Sohn, Braunschweig (1958), p. 288.

More about the Authors

Joseph F. Mulligan. University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Catonsville, Maryland.