Talk:History of electromagnetic theory

This is a rather disappointing page given how much waffle and crap there is written about political and subjective topics. This is such an important topic for the amount which current society relies on electricity.

I know that I'm just being a whinger and should write something myself, but I don't have the time.

Can someone else please do it?DrBob127 03:47, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

I got quite a bit of info from this page dog.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.162.242.42 (talk • contribs) 23:58 25 October 2006

WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 09:54, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

History of Static Electricity

What would a medievil person do when they were shocked by static electricity? 69.220.2.188 (talk) 06:40, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

They would say "Ouch"218.186.12.9 (talk) 09:42, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Furture

The practical application of electricity will go on apace. It is an every day saying of laymen that electricity is as yet in its infancy. This remark causes technical men to smile, for "electricity" is already a most prodigious infant. But in the sense that we may only be on the threshold of the possible utilizations of this most wonderful of nature's agents, the remark is perhaps true. Predictions that were with diffidence made in the closing decade of last century to the effect that within 100 years of that time people would probably speak to one another without artificial means of communication; that wires would be laid along every street and knocked into every house as gas pipes were then, for lighting and power purposes, have been for a decade facts accomplished. What the next 120 years shall bring forth with regard to the applications of electricity none can tell. One hundred and twenty years ago it would have been difficult to find one steam railroad engineer willing to admit that application of electric traction to steam railroads was a possibility even though it was.

Other means, now unknown, of developing electricity may be wrested from nature's storehouse. Indeed in view of the past progress of electricity, and especially in view of its marvelous progress in the last two centuries, theoretically and practically, it required no great exercise of the imagination to conceive that the time was not too distant when the universal artificial source of the world's heat, light and power, is electricity, and that what is now only surmise as to the sameness of electricity and matter has been demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt. Not only has wireless been more perfected and "seeing by electricity" to a distance been perfected, but many other accomplishments can be practically accomplished. Indeed, it is not even beyond the possibilities that the transference of thought directly from brain to brain with the space-time as the medium — the suggestion of which is now regarded as the vagrant of a disordered imagination — may then also be realized. In short our successors of 125 or 130 years hence may wonder at our obtuseness in not perceiving the obviousness of things which to them may then be self-evident, virtually as we now marvel at the simplicity of our cleverest ancestors in so long failing to recognize the identity of frictional, animal, and voltaic electricity, or the more simple fact that the wind, by them regarded as a phenomenon, is merely air in motion.

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Updated from the The Encyclopedia Americana; a library of universal knowledge. (1918). New York: Encyclopedia Americana Corp.

J. D. Redding 02:28, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Paragraph on pre-historic man

too much unattributed text and sources too old to be considered valid today

Although there are no copyright issues, quite a bit of this (including footnotes 12 and 13) are directly copied from very old books, specifically Park Benjamin's 1898 A History of Electricity with no indication that they are actually quotations. Additionally, I think using speculation from a book over a century old is inappropriate in a 21st century encyclopedia article, and that the book does not qualify as a RS for the article (but would be for an article on 19th century thought). Doug Weller (talk) 13:50, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Public Domain text. J. D. Redding 15:09, 26 August 2008 (UTC) (PS., this is a history article ... it is appropriate in a encyclopedia history article)

That the text is in the public domain is not in dispute: see the first sentence of Doug Weller's main paragraph. That it is appropriate here is. As Doug has said, discussion on 19th century thought might be an appropriate venue, but it should be properly attributed, public domain or not, and its historical context made clear. Copying hundred-year old (and older) script here verbatim makes for a hundred-year old article, and is very poor scholarship. Are, you for example, able to identify those for whom "It is an every day saying... that electricity is as yet in its infancy"? Is electricity still in its infancy? Your sources are not reliable for the purposes to which you are putting them. — BillC ^talk 01:47, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks Bill, you put my points better than I did. Doug Weller (talk) 13:40, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

Thales - needs rewriting

At the moment this reads:
According to Thales of Miletus, writing at around 600 BC, noted that a form of electricity was known to the Ancient Greeks would cause a particular attraction between the two. Rubbing fur on various substances, such as amber, would cause a particular attraction between the two, although he never understood why.[16] Thales wrote on various substances, such as amber, would cause effects now known as static electricity. The Greeks noted that the amber buttons could attract light objects such as hair and that if they rubbed the amber for long enough they could even get a spark to jump. During this time in alchemy and natural philosophy, the existence of a medium of the æther, a space-filling substance or field, thought to exist.

Because in this form it makes no sense -- the first sentence mentions 'attraction between the two' and we don't know what 'two' is, the 3rd sentence makes no sense either, I went back to an earlier version, dropping the 'aether' bit which seemed irrelevant. My version(which also had a reference) was:
Thales of Miletus in the 6th century BC wrote that The Greeks noted that the amber buttons could attract light objects such as hair and that if they rubbed the amber for long enough they could even get a spark to jump.

This edit (and my removal of the unattributed 19th century speculation), although they had detailed edit summaries explaining why I made them, were reverted by Reddi with only the comment 'restored some information', ie no explanation. I'm not the only editor Reddi has reverted with no explanation. Doug Weller (talk) 14:01, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Hmm. Tried to work that in. J. D. Redding 15:13, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Tesla with his own section?

Tesla had his own section in this article. That's a bit novel and weird. We don't give Volta, Gauss, Coulomb, Ampere, Henry, Faraday, Weber, Lenz, Lorentz, Einstein, etc. their own sections but we give Tesla his own section? What's the possible rationale? Answer: none. I merged the section with the next section. ScienceApologist (talk) 18:07, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

Heaviside The really weird thing is that Oliver Heaviside seems to be completely missing. Ivor Catt

Electromagnetic world view

To describe the works of Lorentz and Poincaré and others before the rise of Albert Einstein's special relativity, I've included a new section on that topic in "20th century". Also some references to Miller, Pais, Darrigol, Katzir, Janssen, Galison are included in "References". --D.H (talk) 12:24, 4 September 2008 (UTC)