| History of Physics Group Home page | Return to Archive index | Return to newsletter index |
Welcome to the 1999 issue of the History of Physics Group Newsletter. I’d like to thank my predecessor, Bob Joyce, for his sterling work on previous issues, and for the help he has given me in taking on this new role. From the Chairman’s and Secretary’s addresses, it is clear that we have had a productive year, and we are ending the Millennium with a large membership and an increased presence on the World Wide Web. We always value your feedback about any of the Group’s activities, so if you have an opinion you would like to express, then please do e-mail or write to us. Contact details can be found on page 4.
In this anniversary year for the Institute, we have more on the Blue Plaques for Physicists scheme, including how you can help just by taking a photo. We have two articles on the subject by Malcolm Cooper, one about the Blue Plaques in the Lancashire and Cumbria Branch, and the other a humorous look at why it might be a good idea to have some more of them, entitled “Who?”.
We also have several items associated with past meetings of the Group. Following on from our successful Vectors meeting, we have an article by Hugh Montgomery on the life of William Rowan Hamilton. For those of you who missed the meeting on Electromagnetic Fields held this October, the talk given by Dr. John Roche on Concepts of the electromagnetic field in the twentieth century has been written up in this issue, starting on page 29. Our feature article is about a very unusual carpet with physics connections.
Starting on page 32 you'll find details of future meetings arranged by this Group, followed by listings of lectures and conferences in Britain and abroad that may be of interest.
I hope you enjoy browsing through this newsletter, and, as ever, if you have any comments, ideas or material you would like to submit for future issues, please do let me know.
|
Lucy Hudson |
| Chairman |
Dr. John Roche Linacre College, St. Cross Road, OXFORD, OX1 3JA john.roche@linacre.ox.ac.uk |
| Hon. Secretary & Treasurer |
Mr. Neil Brown The Science Museum, LONDON, SW7 2DD n.brown@nmsi.ac.uk |
| Newsletter Editor | Miss Lucy Hudson 11 Jewel Road, LONDON, E17 4QU lucy.hudson@bbc.co.uk |
| Web Pages Editor | Dr. Mike Thurlow Dept. Physics & Astronomy University of Manchester, Oxford Road MANCHESTER M13 9PL mike.thurlow@man.ac.uk |
| Also: | Prof. R. Chivers Ms. S. Duncan Dr. C. Green Mr. S. Leadstone Mr. H. Montgomery Dr. C. Ray Dr. P. Rowlands |
This has been a vigorous year for the group. We held our annual planning meeting on 14th February 1998 at the Science Museum. We had a very full turnout of committee members. Planning meetings are generally about discussing meetings two years ahead and this was a particularly successful meeting in this respect. Important policy changes were also introduced, the most important of which was to appoint a three-man planning team for each future meeting.
Bob Joyceinformed us that he could look after one further issue of the Newsletter but that he would then have to resign as Editor. I am sure I am echoing the feelings of all of our members in stating how much we appreciate his professionalism. More than one member of the History of Physics Group has expressed their appreciation to me in writing for the quality and content of the Newsletter. We are very fortunate, indeed, that Lucy Hudson has agreed to take over the Newsletter. Raj Williamson is also resigning from our committee. Raj has been of enormous importance to the History of Physics group. She was a founding member, was extremely active and supportive on the committee, organised a series of wonderful and very well attended meetings and even published a collection of articles based on these meetings, The Education of a Physicist. She will be greatly missed. I do hope, if her circumstances change, that she may consider rejoining the committee. Alan Morton is, sadly, also resigning from the committee. Alan introduced the tradition, which has been so enormously beneficial for the Group, of curators at the Science Museum acting as Honorary Secretaries of the Group. His very helpful contributions to Group and committee meetings will be much missed.
We have had three very interesting meetings this year. An afternoon meeting on Aspects of the History of Measurement was held in The National Physical Laboratory at Teddington. There were 50-60 in attendance, bolstered by the participation of the Glazebrook Society in the meeting. Professor Robert Hedges of the Archaeological Research Laboratory, Oxford, spoke on measuring archaeological time. Dr Douglas Ambrose spoke of his years as editor of Kaye and Laby; Dr Brian Petley spoke of the history of electrical units; Dr Anita McConnell spoke of the history of standards of mass and time and then took us on a tour of the N.P.L. Museum. On 14th September an evening lecture was given in 76 Portland place on The Evolution of Medical Imaging by Professor John Mallard and chaired by Christopher Green. It was a fascinating and very professionally prepared lecture and merited a much larger attendance than it attracted. In October, we held a meeting on the changing concept of the electromagnetic field.
Two meetings have been prepared for 1999. One in Spring on Physics and Religion, a subject in which there is a rapidly growing interest, and one in October in the History of Science Museum, Oxford, to celebrate the Volta anniversary.
The History of Physics Group has an Internet page. There have been some difficulties updating this page but we now have now been provided with the tools to modify our own page.
It is high time for the old guard of the History Group to make way for fresh blood. Both Neil Brown and I will resign from our posts at the next AGM, although we will be happy to stay on the committee if you wish us to do so. We need to think about a suitable Chairman. Sir Brian Pippard and Professor A J Meadows were high profile physicists and gave the group considerable credibility. We must institute a search during the coming year. I would ask all members of the group to put forward suggestions to me or to Neil. I believe we have good reasons to look forward to improving organisation, an increasingly enthusiastic committee and highly interesting meetings for the coming year.
John Roche,
Chairman
Disclaimer
The History of Physics Group Newsletter expresses the views of the
Editor or the named contributors, and not necessarily those of the Group nor
of the Institute of Physics as a whole. Whilst every effort is made to
ensure accuracy, information must be checked before use is made of it which
could involve financial or other loss. The Editor would like to be told of
any errors as soon as they are noted, please.
The Secretary has little to add to the Chairman’s remarks.
As well as the two main meetings being organized for 1999, the Group will be arranging an evening lecture. This will be at the Institute of Physics on Monday, 8th March. The speaker will be Professor Sir Joseph Rotblat, well known as the founder of the Pugwash conferences and for his work against nuclear weapons. On this occasion he will talk informally about the start of his scientific career in Poland.
The committee held two meetings last year. One meeting was in Manchester in October 1997 on the same date as the ‘Entropy’ meeting and AGM. The other, the main planning meeting, was held in London in February. We are pleased to welcome four new members elected to the committee at the AGM in October 1998. The committee had been relatively static for a long while, and it is good to have some ‘new blood’ to complement the ‘old hands’. The new committee has met once since the AGM, to review the programme for 1999 and to start planning for the year 2000.
The Group has 398 members, and it is a continuing concern that only about ten per cent of the membership attends meetings or participates actively in any way. It is difficult to know whether the meetings and the newsletter are the sort of thing that members want. Any feedback on this would be welcome, as always. There have been changes in the way IOP headquarters interacts with Groups. At the Honorary Secretaries Meetings, we now receive much more information about activities at headquarters. It is not easy to know how to pass this on to group members, or even committee members, in a way is relevant. The financing of groups has been clarified, which is an improvement. Groups will have more funds in the next twelve months, which gives more flexibility in planning meetings and any other activities.
C. N. Brown,
Honorary Secretary.
We now have the ability to edit our own website. This means that we can use it to provide you with up-to-date information on activities organised by the group. So if you’re considering coming to a meeting, but need more information, it’s worth checking on the internet.
The address is ... www.iop.org/IOP/Groups/HP/
Do visit it if you have internet access. Among other things, the site also includes a collection of websites connected with the history of physics. After this anniversary year, it will also include details of the Institute’s Blue Plaques to Physicists.
* * *
The Mathematics of Measurement: a critical history This is a new book by our chairman, Dr. John Roche. It has just been published in hardback by The Athlone Press, who say: Hitherto, there has been no history of the branches of mathematics which have been specifically developed for the handling of measurements. Dr. Roche now fills this gap with an account which treats dimensional analysis, the quantity calculus, the base calculus, the calculus of error analysis, etc. It also uses the insights of historical study to clarify and solve well-known difficulties in the present-day mathematics of measurement. The primary readership will be among physicists, engineers, mathematicians and historians of science. Priced at £65, its ISBN is 0 485 11473 9. |
If you have a book or other work relating to the history of physics which you would like to publicise, please send me the details and I’ll include them in the next newsletter.
page last updated 24 November2012