Old Email Archive

digest 2001-07-26 #001.txt

11:15 PM 7/25/01 -0700
From: "Society for Literature & Science" 
Daily SLS Email Digest

-> Fwd: volunteers for research work
     by Carol Wald 
-> Re: Fwd: volunteers for research work
     by Noel Gough 

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Date: 25 Jul 2001 18:24:40 -0700
From: Carol Wald 
Subject: Fwd: volunteers for research work

If you are interested in 19th c. electro-magnetism and science and
technology in fin-de-siecle Dublin . . .

>X-Sender: lambertk@pop.ucla.edu
>Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2001 15:41:45 -0700
>To: lambertk@ucla.edu
>From: Kevin Lambert 
>Subject: volunteers for research work
>
>Please forward this to anyone you think might be interested. Thank you.
>
>The editors of the correspondence of George Francis FitzGerald are
looking
>for volunteers to transcribe FitzGerald's letters to and from Oliver
Lodge,
>Joseph Larmor, Oliver Heaviside, William Ramsay, William Thomson and
other
>important scientific figures of the late nineteenth century. Over 1600
>letters have been located and copied, and we plan to transcribe about
900.
>Many of the letters deal with technical matters in electromagnetic
theory,
>so some familiarity with the terms, theories and figures involved would
be
>helpful. There are also a significant number of less technical letters
to be
>transcribed, so a background in electromagnetic theory is by no means
>essential.
>
>We have a small amount of funding and will reimburse people according
to the
>number of words they transcribe. If you are interested in
participating,
>please contact David Attis at daattis@alumni.princeton.edu.
>
>Background to the FitzGerald Correspondence
>
>George Francis FitzGerald (1851-1901) is one of the great
under-appreciated
>physicists in the history of science. On his death, messages poured in
from
>around the world praising his important contributions to science,
>particularly in the field of electromagnetism. Yet because his greatest
>ideas often appeared in the form of useful suggestions in letters to
other
>scientists rather than through his own publications, scientists and
>historians have been slow to recognize the crucial role he played in
late
>nineteenth-century physics. As Bruce Hunt has recently shown,
FitzGerald was
>a key figure in the group of physicists who molded Maxwell's theory of
>electromagnetism into its modern form. Jed Buchwald has also described
the
>important role FitzGerald played in the development of the electron
theory
>of matter.
>
>FitzGerald's correspondence, however, is not only essential for
>understanding the development of electromagnetic theory and other areas
of
>physical science, it also opens a window on science and technology in
>fin-de-siecle Dublin. FitzGerald's life saw the introduction of
electricity
>to Trinity College Dublin, the first automobiles to arrive in Ireland,
the
>first X-ray photographs, early experiments on flight and wireless
>telegraphy, the rise of technical education, the professionalization of
>physics and the attempt to reconcile the new sciences with religion.
This
>was also a period of growing Irish nationalism and increasingly bitter
>debates about Irish education. FitzGerald was active in all of these
areas,
>and his letters will be of use to scientists and historians with a wide
>variety of interests.

- --
Carol Ann Wald
UCLA Department of English
wald@humnet.ucla.edu
310.453.6682

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Date: 25 Jul 2001 18:30:41 -0700
From: Noel Gough 
Subject: Re: Fwd: volunteers for research work

I am on leave from Deakin University until 31 July 2001 and might not be
in a position to reply to your email until after that date. Students in
MEd units EXR780 and ECC703 should contact Geoff Shacklock  during my
absence.

Noel Gough