The Maxwellians is a book by Bruce J. Hunt, published in 1991 by Cornell University Press. It chronicles the development of electromagnetic theory in the years after the publication of A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism by James Clerk Maxwell. The book reveals letters and publications, particularly by George Francis Fitzgerald, Oliver Lodge, and Oliver Heaviside.
The book has nine chapters; some chapter sections have titles as follows:
FitzGerald and Maxwell’s Theory
FitzGerald and the Dublin School, Maxwell’s Theory, Reflection and Refraction, FitzGerald’s Accomplishment.
FitzGerald, Lodge, and Electromagnetic Waves
Oliver Lodge, Maxwell and Electromagnetic Waves, Lodge and Electromagnetic Light, FitzGerald and the Impossibility, Undetected Waves.
Heaviside the Telegrapher
Oliver Heaviside, Cable Empire, Newcastle, Cables and Field Theory, Heaviside on Propagation.
Ether Models and the Vortex Sponge
Models, Wheels and Bands, Charging Displacement, We Find Ourselves in a Factory, Vortex Sponge, Mathematical Machinery.
Maxwell Redressed
Energy Paths, Model Research, When Electricity Goes from Place to Place, Heaviside’s Equations.
Waves on Wires
Beams of Dark Light, Loading and the Distortionless Circuit, Suppression, Campaigning for Recognition, Lightning.
Bath, 1888
Hertz’s Waves, Reception, Murder of Ψ, Hertz Electromagnetic Wave Announced, Practice vs Theory.
The Maxwellian Heyday
Origins of the FitzGerald Contraction, What is Maxwell’s Theory ?
The Advent of the Electron
Joseph Larmor and the Rotational Ether, Inventing Electrons, Larmor’s Force, Assimilating Electrons, Conclusion.
Epilogue
FitzGerald’s Death, Age 49, February 22, 1901.
Appendix
From Maxwell’s Equations to Maxwell's Equations.
Abbreviations, Bibliography (10 pages), Index (6 pages).
J.L. Bromberg (1993) Technology and Culture 34(1): 186,7
David Cahan (June 1993) American Historical Review: 98(3): 861–3 (Reviewed with Daniel Siegel (1991) Innovations in Maxwell’s Electromagnetic Theory: Vortices, Displacement current, and Light)
Oliver Darigol (1993) Revue Histoire d’Sciences 46:305
C.W.F. Everitt Science 259:537
P.M. Harman (March 1993) British Journal for the History of Science 26(1):117,8 :
D.W. Jordan (1993) Isis 84(3):595
Daniel Siegel (1992) Physics Today "clear, cogent, and interesting, with a good balance between coverage of personalities and their interactions and that of technical issues."
Andrew Warwick (1992) Review: The Maxwellians in Nature357:291,2
Daipak L. Sengupta and Tapan K. Sarkar (2003) Maxwell, Hertz, The Maxwellians, and the early history of electromagnetic waves, in IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters.
