A. Volta and the strange History of Electromagnetism

Antonino Drago
Dept. of Physical Sciences
Univ. "Federico II", Napoli


Volta's experiments apparently constituted a breakthrough in the philosophy which in his time dominated the theory of electricity: he puts an electrical perpetual motion as a crucial question for theoretical physics.

Abstract

Volta's experiments apparently constituted a breakthrough in the philosophy which in his time dominated the theory of electricity: he puts an electrical perpetual motion as a crucial question for theoretical physics.
Common historical interpretations compare his works with Newtonian mechanics; yet, more than this one, an alternative formulation, L. Carnot's one, influenced the birth of electromagnetism. The two formulations of mechanics represent a very alternative. Under this light, Volta's experiments play the role of an intellectual shock, destabilizing Newtonian paradigm in electricity theory since he puts decisive questions about the relationships between this theory and Newton's mechanics. Volta elicited - although indirectly - a new course of theoretical electricity, which then included an essential conflict. In fact, subsequently, the accomplished electromagnetic theory was the first theory dethronizing Newtoninan mechanics from its monopoly position on theoretical physics. Moreover, I question the usual historical account on the end of the development of electromagnetic theory; Maxwell's theory was not a complete theory, rather the discovery of Lorentz' transformations ended the construction of this theory.

Then, I present an interpretation of what constitute the foundations of a scientific theory. Through this new interpretation - which relies on objective facts, subjective notions and two basic options - I qualify the role played by electromagnetism in the whole history of physics. A new notion of incommensurability is applied, which gives reason why inside the development of theoretical physics the case-study of electromagnetism constitutes a hard subject, and yet a very interesting one.


Info

Drago A.: A. Volta and the strange History of Electromagnetism, in E. Giannetto (ed.): Proceedings Volta Bicentenary Conference, Pavia, 1999, in press