Article ID: CBB001220431

Helmholtz and the British Scientific Elite: From Force Conservation to Energy Conservation (2012)

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This article discusses the close relationship that developed during the 1850s and 1860s between Hermann von Helmholtz (1821--94), one of the leading German scientists during the second half of the nineteenth century, and the British scientific elite generally. It focuses especially on the importance of the law of conservation of energy to both sides of that relationship as the law emerged and became popularized. In presenting this Anglo-German relationship, the article relates Helmholtz's friendships or acquaintanceships with numerous members of the British elite, including William Thomson, John Tyndall, Henry Enfield Roscoe, Michael Faraday, Edward Sabine, Henry Bence Jones, George Gabriel Stokes, James Clerk Maxwell, Peter Guthrie Tait, George Biddell Airy and James Thomson. It suggests that the building of these social relationships helped create a sense of trust between Helmholtz and the British elite that, in turn, eased the revision of the understanding of the law of conservation of force into that of energy and consolidated its acceptance, and that laid the personal groundwork for Helmholtz's future promotion of Maxwell's electromagnetic theory in Germany and for Anglo-German agreements in electrical metrology.

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Authors & Contributors
Wegener, Daan
Caneva, Kenneth L.
Cahan, David L.
Underwood, Ted
Robotti, Nadia
Pourprix, Bernard
Concepts
Physics
Conservation of energy (physical concept)
Energy (physics)
Scientific communities; interprofessional relations
Societies; institutions; academies
Science and literature
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
Medieval
18th century
Places
Great Britain
Germany
Bath (England)
United States
Institutions
Royal Society (Great Britain). European Science Exchange Programme
Royal Society of London
British Association for the Advancement of Science
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