Includes bibliographical references (p. 465-478) and index.

1. Introduction: Heinrich Hertz, Maker of Effects -- pt. 1. In Helmholtz's Laboratory. 2. Forms of Electrodynamics. 3. Realizing Potentials in the Laboratory -- pt. 2. Information Direct from Nature. 4. A Budding Career. 5. Devices for Induction. 6. Hertz's Early Exploration of Helmholtz's Concepts -- pt. 3. Berlin's Golden Boy. 7. Rotating Spheres. 8. Elastic Interactions. 9. Specific Powers in the Laboratory. 10. The Cathode Ray as a Vehicle for Success -- pt. 4. Studying Books. 11. Frustration. 12. Hertz's Argument. 13. Assumption X -- pt. 5. Electric Waves. 14. A Novel Device. 15. How the Resonator Became an Electric Probe. 16. Electric Propagation Produced. 17. Electric Waves Manipulated. 18. Conclusion: Restraint and Reconstruction -- App. 1. Waveguides and Radiators in Maxwellian Electrodynamics -- App. 2. Helmholtz's Derivation of the Forces from a Potential -- App. 3. Helmholtz's Energy Argument -- App. 4. Polarization Currents and Experiment.

App. 5. Convection in Helmholtz's Electrodynamics -- App. 6. Instability in the Fechner-Weber Theory -- App. 7. Hertz's First Use of the General Helmholtz Equations -- App. 8. Hertz on the Induction of Polarization by Motion -- App. 9. Hertz on Relatively Moving, Charged Conductors -- App. 10. Elastic Bodies Pressed Together -- App. 11. Evaporation's Theoretical Limits -- App. 12. Hertz's Model for Geissler-Tube Discharge -- App. 13. Propagation in Helmholtz's Electrodynamics -- App. 14. Forces in Hertz's Early Experiments -- App. 15. Hertz's Quasi Field Theory for Narrow Cylindrical Wires -- App. 16. Considerations regarding the Possible Background to Helmholtz's New Physics -- App. 17. Poincare and Bertrand -- App. 18. Difficulties with Charge and Polarization.

This book is an attempt to reconstitute the tacit knowledge--the shared, unwritten assumptions, values, and understandings--that shapes the work of science. Jed Z. Buchwald uses as his focus the social and intellectual world of nineteenth-century German physics. Drawing on the lab notes, published papers, and unpublished manuscripts of Heinrich Hertz, Buchwald recreates Hertz's 1887 invention of a device that produced electromagnetic waves in wires. The invention itself was serendipitous and the device was quickly transformed, but Hertz's early experiments led to major innovations in electrodyna.

Description based on print version record.