The Rise of the Wave Theory of Light, Optical Theory and Experiment in the Early Nineteenth Century. by BUCHWALD, Jed Z - 1989

Chicago and London:: University of Chicago Press, (1989)., 1989. 8vo. xxiv, 474 pp. Diagrams, figures, index. Printed wrappers. Near fine. [br] "No one interested in the history of optics, the history of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century physics, or the general phenomenon of theory change in science can afford to ignore Jed Buchwald's well-structured, highly detailed, and scrupulously researched book. . . . Buchwald's analysis will surely constitute the essential starting point for further work on this important and hitherto relatively neglected episode of theory change."—John Worrall, Isis. Contents: Part 1 – Selectionism ; 1. The Optical Ray ; 2. The Concept of Polarization ; 3. Arago and the Discovery of Chromatic Polarization ; 4. Mobile Polarization ; Part 2 - Fresnel, Diffraction, and Polarization ; 5. Fresnel's Ray Theory of Diffraction ; 6. Huygen's Principle and the Wave Theory ; 7. The Puzzle of Polarization ; 8. Transverse Waves ; Part 3 - Controversy and Unification ; 9. A Case of Mutual Misunderstanding ; 10. Selectionists and Polarization after 1815 ; 11. Fresnel's Final Unification ; 12. The Emerging Dominance of the Wave Theory. Jed Z. Buchwald is Doris and Henry Dreyfuss Professor of History at California Institute of Technology. He was previously director of the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ISBN: 0226078868