Thermodynamic Deduction Versus Quantum Revolution: The Failure of Richardson's Theory of the Photoelectric Effect (2006)
Katzir, Shaul (Author)
Annals of Science: The History of Science and Technology
Volume: 63
Pages: 447--469
Between 1911 and 1914, Owen Richardson formulated a theory of photoelectricity based on thermodynamics and statistical reasoning. Although this theory succeeded in accounting for most of the relevant phenomena and despite the lack of competing causal or descriptive accounts of the phenomena, it failed to attract other physicists. This paper seeks the reasons for the neglect of this theory in contemporary cultures of photoelectric research. Four main causes of neglect are identified: the relatively high number and the nature of the theory's assumptions, the contradiction of one of these assumptions with contemporary views, the failure to suggest new predictions or to account for hitherto unexplained regularities, and the view shared by many scientists that the problem of electromagnetic radiation required a radical solution that a descriptive theory could not provide. The expectation for a radical solution defines the revolutionary character of a research field. In the case of photoelectricity, it originated in a web of evidence to which other fields contributed. The very possibility of Richardson's theory shows that, taken separately, this phenomenon could receive an account which, unlike Einstein's light quantum, did not require deep changes in the conception of nature.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Paoloni, Giovanni;
(2016)
Guglielmo Marconi e l’Istituto di Fisica della Regia Università di Roma.
Article
Konagaya, Daisuke;
(2002)
The Methodology of Planck's Radiation Theory
Article
Arias Vila, Nelson;
Baracca, Angelo;
(2006)
¿Quién propuso la fórmula de Rayleigh-Jean?
Article
Dragoni, Giorgio;
Maltese, Giulio;
Atti, Luisa;
(2007)
Quirino Majorana's Experiments on the Speed of Light and Gravitational Absorption
Article
Joas, Christian;
Katzir, Shaul;
(2011)
Analogy, Extension, and Novelty: Young Schrödinger on Electric Phenomena in Solids
Article
Mário Bacelar Valente;
(2018)
Einstein's Redshift Derivations: Its History from 1907 to 1921
Article
Rentetzi, Maria;
(2004)
From Cambridge to Vienna: The Scintillation Counter in Female Hands
Article
Singh, Rajinder;
(2004)
Designing, Making and Using Scientific Instruments in India: The Example of Jagadis Chunder Bose
Article
Baldwin, Melinda;
(2014)
“Keeping in the Race”: Physics, Publication Speed and National Publishing Strategies in Nature, 1895--1939
Article
Montgomery, H. E., Jr.;
Pupyshev, V. I.;
(2013)
On Lower Bounds for Polarisability
Article
Weiderkehr, Karl Heinrich;
(2006)
Photoeffekte, Einsteins Lichtquanten und die Geschichte ihrer Akzeptanz
Book
Andrade Martins, Roberto de;
(2007)
Os “raios N” de René Blondlot: Uma Anomalia na História da Física
Article
Yeang, Chen-Pang;
(2003)
The Study of Long-Distance Radio-Wave Propagation, 1900-1919
Article
Duncan, Anthony;
Janssen, Michel;
(2007)
On the Verge of Umdeutung in Minnesota: Van Vleck and the Correspondence Principle. Part One.
Article
Brush, Stephen G.;
(2007)
How Ideas Became Knowledge: The Light-Quantum Hypothesis, 1905--1935
Book
Badino, Massimiliano;
(2010)
Il professore e il suo demone: La lunga lotta di Max Planck contro la statistica (1896--1906)
Article
Badino, Massimiliano;
(2005)
Il contributo di Khinchin al problema ergodico
Chapter
Luca Peliti;
Raúl Rechtman;
(2017)
Einstein’s approach to Statistical Mechanics
Article
Deltete, Robert J.;
(2012)
Planck, Ostwald, and the Second Law of Thermodynamics
Book
Hoffmann, Dieter;
(2008)
Max Planck: Die Entstehung der modernen Physik
Be the first to comment!