Ten Beautiful Experiments

THE TEN MOST
B E A U T I F U L
E X P E R I ME N T S
G E O R G E J O H N S O N
U. S. A. $ 2 2 . 9 5
CANADA $ 2 5 . 9 5
FROM t he acclaimed New York Times science
writer George Johnson, an irresistible book on
t he ten most fascinating experi ment s in the
history of sci encemoment s when a curi ous
soul posed a particularly el oquent quest i on
to nat ure and received a crisp, unambi guous
reply.
Johnson takes us to those t i mes when the
world seemed filled wi t h myst eri ous forces,
when scientists were dazzled by light, by elec-
tricity, and by the beat i ng of the heart s they laid
bare on the dissecting table.
We see Galileo singing to mar k t i me as
he measures t he pull of gravity, and Newt on
carefully inserting a needle behi nd his eye to
learn how light causes vi brat i ons in the retina.
William Harvey ties a t our ni quet ar ound his
ar m and watches his arteries t hr ob above
and his veins bulge below, provi ng t hat bl ood
circulates. Luigi Galvani sparks electrical cur-
rents in dissected frog legs, wonder i ng at the
twitching muscle fibers, and Ivan Pavlov makes
his now- f amous dogs salivate at ascendi ng
chord progressions.
For all of t hem, diligence was rewarded.
In an instant, confusi on was swept aside and
somet hi ng new about nat ure leaped i nt o view.
In bri ngi ng us these stories, Johnson restores
some of the r omance to science, r emi ndi ng us
of t he existential excitement of a single soul
staring down the unknown.
T HE TEN MOS T
BEAUTI FUL
EXPERI MENTS
A L S O BY G E O R G E J O H N S O N
Miss Leavitt's Stars: The Untold Story of the Woman
Who Discovered How to Measure the Universe
A Shortcut Through Time: The Path to the Quantum Computer
Strange Beauty: Murray Gell-Mann and
the Revolution in Twentieth-Century Physics
Fire in the Mind: Science, Faith, and the Search for Order
In the Palaces of Memory:
How We Build the Worlds Inside Our Heads
Machinery of the Mind:
Inside the New Science of Artificial Intelligence
Architects of Fear:
Conspiracy Theories and Paranoia in American Politics
T HE TEN MOS T
BEAUTI FUL
EXPERI MENTS
George Johnson
A L F R E D A. K N O P F N E W YORK 2 0 0 8
T H I S I S A B O R Z O I B O O K
P U B L I S H E D BY A L F R E D A . K N O P F
Copyright 2008 by George Johnson
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a
division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random
House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
www.aaknopf.com
Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of
Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Johnson, George, [datel
The ten most beautiful experiments / by George Johnson.1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978- 1- 4000- 4101- 5
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. ScienceExperiments. I. Title.
Q182. 3. J65 2 0 0 8
507. 8DC22 2OO7O27839
Manufactured in the United States of America
First Edition
When Albert Einstein was an old man and sat down t o
wri t e a shor t vol ume of aut obi ographi cal not es
"somet hi ng like my own obi t uar y"he r emember ed
t he day his fat her showed hi m a compass. Tur ni ng
it this way and t hat , t he boy wat ched in wonder as
t he needl e poi nt ed insistently nor t h. "I can still
r emember or at least believe I can r e me mbe r
t hat this experi ence made a deep and lasting i mpres-
si on upon me," Einstein wrot e. "Somet hi ng deeply
hi dden had to be behi nd things."
C O N T E N T S
Prologue ix
1. Galileo: The Way Things Really Move 3
2. William Harvey: Mysteries of the Heart 17
3. Isaac Newton: What a Color Is 31
4. Antoinc-Laurcnt Lavoisier: The Farmer's
Daughter 45
5. Luigi Galvani: Animal Electricity 60
6. Michael Faraday: Something Deeply Hidden 75
7. James Joule: How the World Works 88
8. A. A. Michelson: Lost in Space 104
9. Ivan Pavlov: Measuring the Immeasurable 121
10. Robert Millikan: In the Borderland 138
Afterword: The Eleventh Most Beautiful
Experiment 157
Notes and Bibliography 159
Acknowledgments 179
Index 181
P R O L O G U E
O
N A CLEAR wi nt er mor ni ng several years ago, I drove
up t he hill to St. John' s College to play wi t h electrons.
I'd recently met t he presi dent of t he school, whi ch is nestled
in t he spl endi d isolation of t he Sant a Fe foothills, and was
i mpressed to learn t hat t he st udent s, as par t of t hei r st udi es
in t he humani t i es, were expected t o reenact t he f amous
exper i ment of 1909 in whi ch Robert Millikan isolated and
measured these f undament al particles, showi ng t hem to be
bits of electricity.
St. John' s, like its sister college in Annapol i s, pur sues a
classical cur r i cul um, wi t h physics st art i ng ar ound 600 BC
wi t h t he Presocratic phi l osophers. That was when Thal es of
Mi l et us made t he first stab at a Gr and Uni fi ed Theor y:
"Everyt hi ng is made of water." Today he woul d probabl y be
wor ki ng on superst ri ngs.
Thal es had also not i ced t hat a rock called magnet i t e,
f ound in t he provi nce of Magnesi a, exerted an invisible pull
on met al and t hat r ubbi ng a piece of amber, a subst ance
t he Greeks called elektron, gave it a myst eri ous charge: it
at t ract ed pieces of st raw and chaff. Mor e t han t wo t housand
years later William Gilbert, Queen Elizabeth I's physician,
not ed t hat glass r ubbed wi t h silk became "amber i zed"
electrified (he was t he first t o use t he t er m) and t hat ot her
mat er i al s coul d also be enl i vened t hi s way. Fri ct i on, Gil-
ber t specul at ed, heat ed some ki nd of wat ery humor giving
i x
Prologue
rise to a sticky, vapor ous "effl uvi um" of charge. A French
chemi st , Charl es-Francoi s de Ci st ernay Dufay, went on to
discover t hat r ubbed amber repelled objects that r ubbed glass
at t ract ed. Electricity, he concl uded, must come in t wo f or ms:
"resi nous" and "vitreous. " Somet hi ng deeply hi dden lay be-
hi nd things. Millikan f ound a way to get a grip.
I FOUND t he physics lab in t he basement of a t wo-st ory
Territorial-style bui l di ng f r ont ed by a l ong whi t e veranda
and sur r ounded by pines. Class was not in session, and t he
shades had been pul l ed, t he lights t ur ned low. At t he far side
of t he r oom, t he l aborat ory director, Hans von Briesen, was
assembl i ng el ect roni c component s on a wooden l aborat ory
table. One of t he cust oms at St. John' s is t hat st udent s and
teachers (t ut ors, t hey are called) address one anot her wi t h
honor i f i csMr . von Briesen, Mr. J ohns onmaki ng hallway
conversat i ons sound a little like t he New York Times.
The idea of Millikan' s exper i ment , Mr. von Briesen
expl ai ned, was to use a per f ume at omi zer to spray mi nuscul e
dropl et s of oil i nt o a space bet ween t wo met al plates, one
charged resinously and t he ot her vitreously. Rubbed by the
air, some of t he drops, like Thales' s amber, woul d become
electrified. By varyi ng t he voltage across t he two plates, a
dropl et coul d be made to move up and down, or wi t h just t he
ri ght t ouch to hover suspended in mi dai r.
From t he mass of t he dropl et and t he a mount of voltage
requi red to count eract its fall, you can det er mi ne its charge.
Measure enough dropl et s and you can see whet her charge,
like a fluid, comes in any a mount what soever or, like pocket
change, onl y in discrete quant i t i es. If t he latter is t rue t hen
x
Prologue
the smallest a mount woul d be t he el ement ar y uni t of
el ect ri ci t yt he charge of t he el ect ron.
When t he set up was compl et e and t he r oom dar kened t he
experi ment began. After several trial r uns Mr. von Briesen
invited me to take a look. Gazi ng i nt o t he chamber t hr ough a
magni f yi ng eyepiecea little t el escopeI saw t he dropl et s.
Il l umi nat ed f r om behi nd, t hey shone like a constellation or
galaxy. Millikan himself had descri bed t hem this way: "The
appearance of this dr op is t hat of a bri l l i ant star."
SCIENCE in t he t went y-fi rst cent ur y has become i ndus-
trialized. The exper i ment s so oft en celebrated in t he
newspaper ssequenci ng t he genome, provi ng t he existence
of the t op quar k, discovering a new pl anet by analyzing t he
wobbl e of a di st ant st arcost mi l l i ons of dollars. They gen-
erate terabytes of dat a to be analyzed by super comput er s:
calculating factories spewi ng so much heat t hat t hey are
equi pped wi t h cool i ng stacks t hat cons ume t he energy of
small t owns. The exper i ment s are carri ed out by research
t eams t hat have grown to t he size of cor por at i ons.
But until very recently t he most ear t hshaki ng science
came f r om i ndi vi dual pairs of hands. Fr om a single mi nd
conf r ont i ng t he unknown. The great exper i ment s t hat mar k
t he edges of our under st andi ng were most of t en per f or med
by one or t wo scientists and usually on a t abl et op. Comput a-
t i on, if t here was any, was carried out on paper or later wi t h a
slide rule.
These exper i ment s were desi gned and conduct ed wi t h
such st rai ght forward elegance t hat t hey deserve t o be called
beaut i ful . Thi s is beaut y in t he classical senset he logical
xi
Prologue
simplicity of t he apparat us, like t he logical simplicity of t he
analysis, seems as pur e and inevitable as t he lines of a Greek
statue. Conf usi on and ambi gui t y are moment ar i l y swept
aside and somet hi ng new about nat ur e leaps i nt o view.
As a science writer, I have most oft en been at t ract ed to airy
edifices like quant um mechani cs or general relativity, whi ch
seek to capt ur e reality wi t h a few court l y laws. For a sign of
just how abst ract this quest has become, one need look no
f ur t her t han superst ri ng theory, whi ch posits t hat mat t er is
ultimately generat ed by mat hemat i cal sni ppet s vi brat i ng in
t endi mensi onal space. Thi s is fasci nat i ng stuff, but so rar-
efied and conf usi ngso far over my, or maybe anyone' s,
headt hat I began to feel a need for basics.
The magazi ne Physics World once conduct ed a survey ask-
ing its readers what t hey consi dered t he most beaut i ful of all
experi ment s. Fr om t he results, a roster was compi l ed of the
t op t en, all predi ct abl y wi t hi n t he real m of physics. But what ,
I wonder ed, if one were to cast t he net wider? I deci ded to
make my own list.
The quest i on was where to begi n. Wi t h Thales r ubbi ng
amber t o create static electricity? That lacked t he ki nd of ele-
gance I was l ooki ng for. There were no cont rol s, no system-
atic at t empt to see what materials, under what condi t i ons,
coul d be charged this way. As Gilbert went on to show, t here
was not hi ng uni que about amber. Wi t h Thal es experi ment al
science had not yet begun.
How about Pyt hagoras, anot her of t he Presocratics, who
discovered t hat t he musi cal not es sounded by a pl ucked
st ri ng cor r espond to precise mat hemat i cal ratios? If t he
whol e st ri ng sounds a perfect C, t hr ee- f our t hs of t he st ri ng
will sound an F and t wo-t hi rds a G. Pi nch t he st ri ng in half
and it will sound a C again, an octave higher. All is number ,
xi i
Prologue
Pyt hagoras decl ar edanot her Gr and Uni fi ed Theory. He
shoul d have st opped while he was ahead. Fire, he went on to
speculate, is made of t went y- f our ri ght -angl e triangles, sur-
r ounded by f our equilaterals, whi ch are made in t ur n of six
triangles. Air is composed of fort y-ei ght triangles, wat er of
one hundr ed and twenty. Exper i ment gave way t o mysticism.
Anot her candi dat e mi ght have been Archi medes. The
dubi ous legend about his j umpi ng f r om a bat ht ub shout i ng
"Eureka," havi ng discovered t he physical law of buoyancy,
trivializes t he gr andeur of his accompl i shment . Hi s treatise
On Floating Bodies is consi dered a mast erpi ece of mat hemat -
ical reasoni ng, and not j ust because of its deri vat i on of
Archi medes' s pri nci pl e (a body submer ged in a fluid is acted
upon by an upwar d force equal in magni t ude to t he wei ght of
t he fluid displaced). He also figured out , f r om first pri nci pl es,
how a cone- shaped obj ect called a parabol oi d woul d float if
i mmer sed in water. (Icebergs are roughl y parabol oi d and
behave pret t y much as Archi medes said.)
His greatness, however, lay mor e in reasoni ng t han in
experi ment . Anot her great t heori st . What I was l ooki ng for
were t hose rare moment s when, usi ng t he mat eri al s at hand,
a cur i ous soul figured out a way to pose a quest i on to t he
universe and persisted unt i l it replied. Ideally t he appar at us
itself woul d be a t hi ng of beauty, wi t h pol i shed wood, brass,
shi ni ng black eboni t e. Mor e i mpor t ant woul d be t he beaut y
of t he design and t he execut i on, t he cleanness of t he lines of
t hought .
For t hat I had to j ump f r om anci ent Greece all t he way to
t he sevent eent h cent ury, when a ma n named Galileo coaxed
out a f undament al law of mot i on. From t here, I proceeded
step by step, visiting ni ne mor e st ops on t he scientific trail,
eventually meet i ng up again wi t h Millikan and his tiny stars.
xi i i
Prologue
Likelier t han not , anyone who reads this book coul d come
up wi t h a di fferent list. "Shoul dn' t you j ust call it Ten Beauti-
ful Experiments?" a fri end obj ect ed. Probabl y so. But I hope
t hat t here is art in t he arbi t rari ness, bot h in my selection of
the experi ment s and in what I have chosen to tell about each
one. Thi s is not a book about great discoveries, t he serendi p-
i t ous surpri ses like Galileo' s spying of satellites circling
Jupiter or Charles Darwi n' s observat i ons about finches.
Those were not the ki nd of deliberate, cont rol l ed i nt erroga-
t i ons of reality t hat I want ed to explore. Nor is this i nt ended
as a collection of mi ni at ur e scientific bi ogr aphi est her e are
already pl ent y of good ones. Some lives, like t hose of
Ant oi ne- Laur ent Lavoisier and Albert Mi chel son, diverted
mc wi t h t hei r st range details. Ot hers, like Galileo' s and New-
ton' s, have been told t oo many t i mes before. I' ve tried to
sketch each scientist wi t h a charcoal wash. I want t he experi-
ment , not t he experi ment er, to be t he prot agoni st .
To keep t he stories as crisp as possible, I' ve spent little ink
t ryi ng to parcel out credits, fighting t he hi st ori ans' fights.
James Joule' s surpri si ng discovery about energy and heat was
ant i ci pat ed by Robert Mayer, but it was Joule who di d t he
beaut i ful exper i ment . I like what Lord Kelvin had t o say
about that: "Quest i ons of personal priority, however i nt er-
esting t hey may be to t he persons concerned, sink i nt o
insignificance in t he prospect of any gain of deeper insight
i nt o t he secrets of nat ure. "
xi v
T HE TEN MOS T
BEAUTI FUL
EXPERI MENTS
C H A P T E R 1
Galileo
The Way Things Really Move
Galileo Galilei, by Ottavio I.eoni
It is very unpleasant and annoyi ng to see men, who claim
to be peers of anyone in a certain field of study, take for
granted certain conclusions which later are quickly and
easily shown by anot her to be false.
Salviati, in Galileo, Two New Sciences
W
HEN you t hr ow a rock, catch a ball, or j ump j ust har d
enough to clear a hurdl e, t he older, unconsci ous part
of t he brai n, t he cerebel l um, reveals an effortless grasp of t he
f undament al laws of mot i on. Force equals mass t i mes
acceleration. Every action results in an equal and opposi t e
3
T HE TEN MOS T BEAUTI F UL E XP E RI ME NT S
reaction. But this i ngrai ned physics is sealed off f r om t he
newer, upper br ai nt he cer ebr um, seat of intelligence and
self-awareness. One can leap as gracefully as a cat but be just
as powerless to explain t he inverse square law of gravity.
Aristotle, in t he f our t h cent ur y BC, made the first ambi -
t i ous at t empt to articulate t he rules of mot i on. An object falls
in pr opor t i on to its wei ght t he heavier a rock, t he sooner it
will reach t he gr ound. For ot her ki nds of movement ( push-
ing a book across a table or a plow across a field), a force
must be const ant l y applied. The har der you push, t he faster
t he obj ect will go. Stop pushi ng and it will come to a halt.
It all sounds emi nent l y sensible and obvi ous and, of
course, is exactly wrong.
What if you placc the book on a sheet of ice and give it a
gentle shove? It will keep movi ng l ong aft er t he i mpet us is
removed. (Asked why an ar r ow keeps goi ng after it leaves t he
bowst ri ng, t he Aristotelians said t hat it was pushed al ong by
t he i ncomi ng rush of air.) Now we know t hat somet hi ng set
in mot i on stays in mot i on unt i l st opped by somet hi ng else,
or wor n down by fri ct i on. And a one- pound weight and a
five-pound weight, dr opped at t he same moment , will fall
side by side to t he gr ound. Galileo showed it was so.
It's entirely predi ct abl e t hat t he great debunker of
Ari st ot l ecel ebrat ed in a play by Bertolt Brecht, an opera by
Philip Glass, and a pop song by the Indi go Gi rl swoul d
come in for his own debunki ng. It is doubt f ul , hi st ori ans tell
us, t hat Galileo dr opped t wo weights f r om t he Leaning Tower
of Pisa. Nor do t hey believe t hat he hit on his insight about
pendul ums t hat each swi ng is of equal dur at i onwhi l e
wat chi ng a cert ai n chandel i er in t he cat hedral of Pisa and
t i mi ng it wi t h his heart beat .
His credentials as a cosmol ogi st have also di mmed under
4
Galileo
scrutiny. Galileo was t he most el oquent advocat e of Coper ni -
cus's sun-cent ered solar syst emhi s Dialogue Concerning
the Two Chief World Systems is t he first great piece of popul ar
science wr i t i ngbut he never accepted Kepler' s crucial
insight: t hat t he pl anet s move in ellipses. The orbi t s, Galileo
assumed, had to be perfect circles. Here he was fol l owi ng
Aristotle, who procl ai med t hat while mot i on on Eart h (in
t he "subl unar " real m) must have a begi nni ng and an end,
celestial mot i on is necessarily circular.
For t hat to be t r ue and mat ch what was happeni ng in
the sky, t he pl anet s woul d have to move not j ust in circles
but in circles wi t hi n circlesthe same old epicycles t hat
had weighed down Ptolemy' s geocent ri c universe. Galileo
br ushed off t he pr obl em. Most di sappoi nt i ng of all, he pr ob-
ably di d not , as legend has it, follow his forced apol ogy to t he
Inqui si t ors of Rome by mut t er i ng under his breat h, Eppur si
muove, "And yet it moves." He was no mar t yr . Knowi ng he
had been beat en, he retired to t he sol i t ude of Arcetri to lick
his wounds.
Galileo' s st rongest claim t o greatness lies in wor k he did
l ong before his t roubl es wi t h t he Vatican. He was st udyi ng
not hi ng so gr and as stars or pl anet s but t he movement of
simple, munda ne obj ect sa subject far mor e perpl exi ng
t han anyone had i magi ned.
Whet her or not the research actually began at t he Tower of
Pisa hardl y mat t ers. He descri bed a similar exper i ment in his
ot her mast erpi ece, Discourses Concerning Two New Sciences,
compl et ed dur i ng his final years of exile. Like t he earlier
wor k it is cast as a l ong conversat i on among t hree Italian
nobl emenSal vi at i , Sagredo, and Si mpl i ci owho are try-
ing to under st and how the worl d works.
Salviati is t he st and- i n for Galileo, and on t he first day of
5
THE TEN MOS T BEAUTI F UL E XP E RI ME NT S
the gat heri ng he insists t hat , dr opped si mul t aneousl y, a can-
nonbal l wei ghi ng 100 pounds and a musket ball wei ghi ng
1 pound will hit t he gr ound at al most t he same t i me. In an
experi ment , he concedes, t he heavier one di d in fact l and
"t wo finger-breadths" sooner, but Salviati recognized t hat
ot her factors, like air resistance, muddi ed t he results. The
i mpor t ant poi nt was t hat t he i mpact s were almost in uni son:
when the cannonbal l hit t he gr ound, t he musket ball had not
traveled j ust '/too t he di st ancea single cubi t as c ommon
sense woul d have predi ct ed. "Now you woul d not hi de
behi nd these t wo fingers t he ni net y- ni ne cubi t s of Aristotle,"
he chi ded, "nor woul d you ment i on my small error and at t he
same t i me pass over in silence his very large one." All ot her
things bei ng equal, t he speed at whi ch an obj ect falls is i nde-
pendent of its weight.
A har der quest i on was what happened bet ween the t i me a
ball was released and the t i me it st ruck t he gr ound. It woul d
pick up speed al ong t he wayeverybody knew t hat . But
how? Was t here a large spur t of mot i on at t he begi nni ng, or a
lot of little spur t s cont i nui ng all t he way down?
Wi t h not hi ng like t i me-l apse phot ogr aphy or electronic
sensors to clock a falling body, all you coul d do was speculate.
What Galileo needed was an equi val ent experi ment , one in
whi ch t he fall woul d be slower and easier to observe: a ball
rolling down a smoot h, gentle pl ane. What was t r ue for its
mot i on shoul d be t rue for a steeper i ncl i neand for t he steep-
est: st rai ght down. He had f ound a way to ask t he quest i on.
The year was probabl y 1604. Three decades later he, or
rat her Salviati, descri bed t he t hr ust of t he experi ment :
A piece of wooden moul di ng or scantling, about 12
cubi t s long, half a cubit wide, and t hree finger-breadths
6
Galileo
thick, was taken. On its edge was cut a channel a little
mor e t han one finger in br eadt h. Havi ng made this
groove very straight, smoot h, and pol i shed, and havi ng
lined it wi t h par chment , also as s moot h and polished as
possible, we rolled al ong it a har d, smoot h, and very
r ound br onze ball.
A scant l i ng is a piece of wood, and a Fl orent i ne cubi t was
t went y inches, so we can i magi ne Galileo wi t h a t went y- f oot -
long boar d, ten inches wide, pr oppi ng it up at an angle.
Havi ng placed this boar d in a sl opi ng posi t i on, by lift-
ing one end some one or t wo cubi t s above t he ot her, we
rolled t he ball, as I was j ust saying, al ong t he channel ,
not i ng, in a manner presently to be descri bed, t he t i me
An early-nineteenth-century demonstration of the inclined
plane experiment. The rolling ball causes the bells to ring.
Drawing by Alison Kent
7
THE TEN MOST BEAUTI F UL E XP E RI ME NT S
requi red to make t he descent. We repeated this experi-
ment mor e t han once in order to measure the t i me wi t h
an accuracy such t hat t he devi at i on bet ween two obser-
vat i ons never exceeded one- t ent h of a pul se-beat .
Once t hey had perfected t he t echni que, Salviati went on to
explain, t hey t i med how l ong it t ook t he ball to traverse one-
f our t h of t he track, t hen t wo-t hi rds, t hen t hr ee- f our t hs. They
repeated t he experi ment wi t h t he boar d set at di fferent
slopes100 measur ement s in all. These were taken wi t h a
si mpl e device called a wat er clock, essentially an hourgl ass
t hat parcels out seconds wi t h liquid instead of sand:
Wc empl oyed a large vessel of wat er placed in an ele-
vated posi t i on. To t he bot t om of this vessel was sol-
dered a pi pe of small di amet er giving a t hi n jet of water,
whi ch we collected in a small glass dur i ng t he t i me of
each descent , whet her for t he whol e length of t he chan-
nel or for a part of its length. The wat er t hus collected
was wei ghed, aft er each descent, on a very accurat e bal-
ance. The differences and rat i os of these weights gave
us t he di fferences and rat i os of t he times, and this
wi t h such accuracy t hat al t hough t he operat i on was
repeat ed many, many t i mes, t here was no appreciable
di screpancy in t he results.
The weight of t he wat er was equi val ent to t he passage of
t i me. Ingeni ous. But maybe, some moder n hi st ori ans have
concl uded, a little t oo good to be t rue. Reading Galileo' s
words some t hree cent uri es later, Al exandre Koyre, a profes-
sor at t he Sor bonne, could barely cont ai n his scorn:
8
Galileo
A br onze ball rolling in a "smoot h and pol i shed"
wooden groove! A vessel of wat er wi t h a small hol e
t hr ough whi ch it r uns out and whi ch one collects in a
small glass in or der t o weigh it aft erwards and t hus
measure t he t i mes of d e s c e n t . . . What an accumul a-
tion of sources of error and inexactitude! It is obvi ous
t hat t he Galilean exper i ment s are compl et el y wort hl ess.
Koyr suspected t hat t here had been no exper i ment t hat
Galileo was usi ng an i magi nar y demonst r at i on wi t h rolling
balls as a pedagogical device, an illustration of a law of
physics t hat he had figured out mat hemat i cal l y, t hr ough pur e
deduct i on, t he ol d-fashi oned way. Galileo, it seemed, had
been debunked again.
Koyr was wri t i ng in 1953. Twent y years later Stillman
Drake, one of t he l eadi ng expert s on Galilean science, was
sl eut hi ng among the manuscr i pt s in t he Biblioteca Nazi onal e
Cent ral e in Florence when he came across some unpubl i shed
pagesent ri es f r om Galileo' s own not ebook.
Galileo was somet hi ng of a pack rat, and when his not e-
books were publ i shed ar ound t he t ur n of t he t went i et h cen-
tury, t he editor, Ant oni o Favaro, had left out some pages t hat
appeared to be no mor e t han scribbles, a mess of calculations
and di agrams t hat di dn' t make sense. The pages were appar -
ently out of order, wi t h little clue as to when t hey had been
wri t t en or what their aut hor was wor ki ng on.
Drake was researching a new English t ransl at i on of Two
New Sciences. For t hree mont hs at t he begi nni ng of 1972, he
sat in Florence goi ng t hr ough 160 pages of t he seventy-
second vol ume of Galileo' s papers, compar i ng wat er mar ks
and styles of handwr i t i ng, rest ori ng t he pages to what
9
A page from Galileo's notebook
seemed a sensible order. Among t he earliest were what
appeared to be dat a f r om t he exper i ment of 1604, when
Galileo was in Padua.
From t he j ot t i ngs, Drake re-created t he cent uri es-ol d
exper i ment , and wi t h j ust a little license, we can i magi ne
what was goi ng t hr ough Galileo' s mi nd. He releases t he ball
at t he t op of t he wooden incline not i ng t hat in t he first few
moment s , it travels a di st ance of 33 punti, or poi nt s. (Galileo
was usi ng a rul er mar ked i nt o sixty equal uni t s, and a poi nt ,
Drake deduced, was j ust shy of one millimeter. ) After an
equal a mount of t i me has passed, t he ball, pi cki ng up speed,
covers a total of 130 punti, and by t he end of t he t hi rd i nt er-
val, 298 punti. Then 526,824,1,192,1,620 . . . faster and faster.
These were real dat a. For t he final distance, when t he ball
woul d have been movi ng at t op speed, Galileo had originally
wri t t en 2,123 punti, scrat chi ng it out and correct i ng it to
10
Galileo
2,104. By s ome of his fi gures, he put a pl us or a mi nus sign,
apparent l y i ndi cat i ng when hi s meas ur ement s seemed hi gh
or low.
The uni t s of t i me he was usi ng don' t mat t er . We mi ght as
well call t hem ticks. The i mpor t ant t hi ng is t hat each i nt erval
be t he same:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ticks (time)
33 130 298 526 824 1,192 1,620 2,104 punti (accumulated
distance)
At first no pat t er n leaps f or t h. Wi t h each tick t he ball cov-
ers mor e gr ound, but by what rule? Galileo st ar t ed pl ayi ng
wi t h t he number s . Maybe t he speed i ncreased accor di ng t o
s ome ar i t hmet i cal progressi on. What about al t er nat i ng odd
number s : 1, 5, 9, 13,17, 2 1 . . . ? On t he second tick t he ball
woul d move five t i mes faster t han on t he first tick, coveri ng
5 x 33 or 165 punti. Too hi gh but maybe wi t hi n t he r ange of
exper i ment al error. The di st ance covered on tick t hr ee woul d
be ni ne t i mes great er: 33 x 9 = 297 punti. Ri ght on t he mar k!
And on t he f our t h tick 13 x 33 = 429. Too low. Then 17 x 33 =
561, t oo hi gh. And 21 x 33 = 693, way t oo l o w. . . . Dr ake coul d
see on t he manus cr i pt page wher e Galileo scrat ched out t he
numbe r s t o t ry agai n.
On t he first tick t he ball had covered 33 punti, t hen 130.
What if you di vi de t he number s? 130/33 = 3.9. The di st ance
had i ncreased al most f our t i mes. Wi t h t he t hi r d tick, t he
i ncrease was 298/33, slightly mor e t han ni ne t i mes t he initial
di st ance. Then 15.9, 25.0, 36.1, 49.1, 63.8. He r ounde d t he
number s and wr ot e t hem, usi ng a di f f er ent i nk and pen, in a
col umn: 4,9,16,25,36,49,64.
He had f ound t he key: al l owi ng f or a bi t of error, t he dis-
11
t ance covered increased wi t h the square of the time. Wi t h a
l onger boar d, one could confi dent l y predi ct t hat on the next
tick t he fact or woul d be 81 (9
2
) and t hen 100,121,144,169
That Galileo' s number s were not exact testified to t he reality
of t he exper i ment . That t hey were as close as t hey were testi-
fied to his skill as an experi ment er.
In these calculations t he distances are cumul at i ve: by t he
f our t h tick t he ball has traversed a total of sixteen t i mes t he
di st ance it covered at t he end of t he first tick. But how far
does it travel dur i ng each separat e interval, bet ween ticks
t hree and f our compar ed wi t h ticks t wo and three? The
answer can be backed out wi t h ari t hmet i c.
It is t he nat ur e of squares t hat t hey are t he sums of t he odd
number s t hat precede t hem: 4 = 1 +3; 9 = 1 + 3 +5; 16 = 1 + 3 +
5 + 7. Implicit in t he t i mes-square law is t hat t he distances
bet ween ticks must increase accordi ng to t he progressi on of
odd number s. Galileo' s dat a show how this works.
1
2 3
4 5
ticks (time)
33
130 298 526 824 . . . punti (accumulated distance)
130-33
298-130 526-298 824-526
97
168 228 298 punti (distance traveled in an
interval)
97/33 168/33
228/33 298/33
2.9
5-1
6.9
9.0 ratio of distances
Tick by tick t he ball travels t hree t i mes t he distance, t hen
five times, t hen seven, t hen ni ne. In fact Galileo coul d have
st art ed wi t h t he odd- number progressi on and derived t he
t i mes-squared rel at i onshi p. However he di d it, t he result was
a f undament al new law. The steeper t he slope, t he faster t he
12
Galileo
ball woul d roll, but always accordi ng t o t he same r ul e
which woul d pr esumabl y hol d if t he sl ope was ni net y
degrees, st rai ght down.
At t he ot her ext reme, a sl ope of zero degrees, t here woul d
be no acceleration. Once t he ball, traveling down t he incline,
reached t he flat tabletop, it woul d begi n movi ng at a uni f or m
speedforever if t he pl ane was i nfi ni t e and fri ct i on di dn' t
interfere. And if t he movi ng ball reached t he edge of t he table
and dr opped off? On t he t r i umphant f our t h day of Two New
Sciences, Galileo provi des t he answer: t he unhur r i ed hor i -
zontal mot i on and t he downwar dl y accelerated vertical
mot i on combi ne to yield t he familiar parabol i c shape of a
projectile.
There was still t he quest i on of how Galileo di d such pre-
cise t i mi ng, wor ki ng wi t h intervals of less t han a second.
Using a fl owerpot as a wat er clock, a Cornel l University grad-
uate st udent , Thomas B. Settle, rolled billiard balls down a
two-by-six pi ne pl ank and, once he had t uned his reflexes,
demonst r at ed t he validity of t he t i mes-squared law. But bot h
he and Drake doubt ed t hat s omeone st art i ng f r om i gnorance
could have discovered t he rel at i onshi p wi t h so cr ude an
apparat us. Galileo' s t echni que, Drake pr oposed, was mor e
brilliant and surpri si ng.
It woul dn' t have been necessary, he realized, for Galileo to
clock t i me t he moder n wayi n seconds, half seconds, or any
ot her convent i onal measure. All t hat was needed was a way
to divide t i me i nt o equal por t i ons, and this, Drake recog-
nized, is a talent t hat comes nat ural l y t o any good musi ci an.
"The conduct or of an orchest ra, movi ng his bat on,
divides t i me evenly wi t h great precision over l ong peri ods
wi t hout t hi nki ng of seconds or any ot her st andar d unit, "
Drake wrot e. "He mai nt ai ns a cert ai n even beat accordi ng t o
13
an i nt ernal r hyt hm, and he can divide t hat beat in half again
and again wi t h an accuracy rivaling t hat of any mechani cal
i nst r ument . " The same goes for t he musi ci ans and even for
t he audi ence. "If t he cymbalist in t he orchest ra were to miss
his ent r y by a tiny fract i on of a second, say by a 64th not e in
t he musi c, everyone woul d notice it, not j ust t he conduct or. "
So, Drake speculates, this is what Galileo di d: before t he
ball rolled down t he incline, he established a r hyt hm by
si ngi ng a si mpl e t une. Drake tried t he exper i ment wi t h
"Onwar d Chri st i an Soldiers," at about t wo beats per second.
Releasing t he ball at t he t op of t he incline, he used chalk t o
mar k its posi t i on at each upbeat .
ONwar d CHRISt i an SO-ol -DIER-rs MARCHi ng AS
to . . .
Like Drake, Galileo probabl y hadn' t caught t hem all on
t he first r un, but after several at t empt s he woul d have
mar ked off t he t rack in approxi mat el y hal f-second intervals,
not i ng wi t h some satisfaction t hat t he spaci ng became pr o-
gressively great ert hat t he ball, in a lawful manner , rolled
faster and faster down t he hill.
The next step was to tie a piece of cat gut at each chalk
mar k, like t he movabl e frets on t he neck of a lute, an i nst ru-
ment Galileo knew how to play. Drake used r ubber bands.
Rolling t he ball again and again, he listened as it st ruck t he
frets, adj ust i ng t hei r pl acement unt i l t he r hyt hm of the click-
ing was as uni f or m as a met r onome' s and in t i me wi t h t he
mar ch. When he was done, t he frets showed precisely how far
t he ball had traveled dur i ng equal intervals of t i me. All t hat
was left was t o measure t he spaci ng wi t h a ruler.
14
Galileo
Once Galileo had established his law, Drake believed, he
showed it to ot hers in an easier, less precise manner : by
marki ng t he t rack bef or ehand1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 49, 64and
t hen using a wat er clock to conf i r m t he t i mi ng. But t hat was
a demonst r at i on, not an exper i ment .
Why di dn' t he wri t e about his original met hod? The best
Drake coul d suggest is t hat Galileo was afrai d of s oundi ng
silly. "Even i n his day, it woul d have been foolish t o write, 'I
tested this law by si ngi ng a song while a ball was rolling down
a plane, and it proved qui t e exact.' " It wasn' t l ong before he
had picked up his telescope and moved on t o ot her t hi ngs.
Today, mor e t han t hree hundr ed years after his deat h, vis-
itors to t he Museo di Storia della Scienza, t he hi st ory of sci-
ence mus eum in Florence, can see one of t he wi t hered fingers
t hat picked up t he met al ball each t i me it reached t he bot t om
of the incline, r et ur ni ng it to t he t op for anot her ride. It was
Galileo's finger
15
removed by an admi rer, al ong wi t h a t oot h, t he fifth l umbar
vert ebra, and a coupl e of ot her fingers, when Galileo' s body
was exhumed, a cent ur y aft er his deat h, to be moved to a bet -
ter buri al site. Preserved in a rel i quary like t he bone of a
saint, t he long, t hi n finger has been mount ed so t hat it poi nt s
upward, as t hough beckoni ng to t he sky.
16
C H A P T E R 2
William Harvey
Mysteries of the Heart
William Harvey, by Willem van Bemmel
But what remai ns to be said upon the quant i t y and source
of the blood which t hus passes is of a character so novel
and unheard-of that I not only fear i nj ury to myself f r om
the envy of a few, but I tremble lest I have manki nd at
large for my enemies, so much dot h wont and cust om
become a second nat ure. Doct ri ne once sown strikes deep
its root, and respect for ant i qui t y influences all men. Still
the die is cast, and my trust is in my love of t rut h and the
candour of cultivated mi nds.
William Harvey
17
T H E T E N M O S T B E A U T I F U L E X P E R I M E N T S
T
HE CHICK embr yo lying in a cont ai ner of tepid water
l ooked like a little cl oud. Its shell had been carefully
peeled away, and inside t here t hr obbed a mi nuscul e hear t a
red dot no bigger t han a pi npoi nt t hat di sappeared and
reappeared wi t h every beat. Years later, in 1628, a London
physician named William Harvey descri bed t he phenom-
enon: "Betwixt t he visible and invisible, bet wi xt bei ng and
not bei ng, as it were, it gave by its pulses a ki nd of repre-
sent at i on of t he commencement of life."
Probabl y no one had ever st udi ed so many di fferent ki nds
of hear t sdog heart s, pig heart s, t he heart s of frogs, t oads,
snakes, fishes, snails, and crabs. A cert ai n ki nd of s hr i mp
f ound in t he ocean and in t he river Thames had a t r anspar -
ent body, and Harvey and his fri ends woul d wat ch its heart
gyrate "as t hough it had been seen t hr ough a window. "
Somet i mes he woul d remove a creature' s heart altogether,
feeling t he slowing r hyt hm as it beat its last beats in his hand.
Observat i on by observat i on, Harvey was per suadi ng
hi msel f and hardl y anybody el set hat t he great Galen,
physician to gladiators and Roman emper or s, was wr ong.
Galen had wri t t en, in t he second cent ur y AD, t hat t here were
t wo ki nds of bl ood carri ed by what amount ed to t wo di ffer-
ent vascular systems. A vegetative fluid, t he elixir of nour i sh-
ment and gr owt h, was made in t he liver and coursed t hr ough
t he body' s web of bl ui sh-col ored veins. At t he same t i me, a
bri ght red vital fluid traveled t hr ough anot her net wor kt he
heart and art eri esact i vat i ng t he muscles and st i mul at -
ing mot i on. (In the brai n s ome of this vital fluid was t ur ned
i nt o an ethereal essence t hat flowed t hr ough t he nerves.) All
t he fluids were i mbued wi t h invisible pneuma, spirits t hat
18
Harvey
entered t hr ough t he l ungs wi t h each breat h before passi ng
into the heart t hr ough a thick t ube called t he pul monar y
vein. One t housand f our hundr ed years later, this is what st u-
dent s were still bei ng t aught in medi cal school.
Harvey' s i ndoct r i nat i on had probabl y begun at Ca m-
bridge, where in 1593 he ent ered Gonville and Cai us College
at t he age of sixteen. The school' s namesake, Dr. John Cai us,
a commi t t ed Galenist, had arranged for a royal chart er gr ant -
ing t he school t wo executed cri mi nal s each year for dissec-
tion and study. Al ong wi t h his lessons on rhet ori c, classics,
and philosophy, Harvey had glimpses of huma n anat omy.
The subject must have pi qued his interest. From Cambr i dge
he went on to t he University of Padua, t he most prest i gi ous
medical school in Europe.
Prot ect ed by t he republ i c of Venice, t he university felt
freer t han most t o challenge Vatican dogma. At t he t i me of
Harvey' s arrival, Galileo was t eachi ng there, as was Hi er ony-
mus Fabricius, t he greatest of Europe' s anat omi st s. Each
Oct ober on Saint Luke' s Day (t he corpses lasted l onger in t he
cooler weat her), t he medi cal lectures began wi t h a hi gh mass,
after whi ch st udent s woul d perch in t he tiered balconies of
the anat omy t heat er to wat ch as Fabricius and his assistants,
scalpels in hand, gave a gr and t our of t he huma n interior.
After receiving his doct or' s degree in 1602, Harvey re-
t ur ned to London, where he mar r i ed t he daught er of Lan-
celot Browne, t he royal physician. Appoi nt ed to a posi t i on at
Saint Bart hol omew' s, t he city' s oldest hospital, he established
a practice whose pat i ent s woul d i ncl ude Sir Francis Bacon,
King James I, and James' s successor, Charl es I.
Though Harvey was shor t in st at ure and physically uni m-
posing, his intense, dar k eyes and raven hair must have made
a f or mi dabl e i mpressi on. The English wri t er John Aubrey
19
descri bed hi m as cont empl at i ve but choleric ( "He was wont
to say t hat man was but a great mi schi evous Baboon") and in
t he habi t of weari ng a dagger. That was t he fashi on, Aubrey
acknowl edged. "But this Dr. woul d be to apt t o dr aw- out his
dagger upon every slight occasion."
T H E A N A T O MY T H E A T R E O F F AB R I C I US
Semidingrnmmatic view, after Tomasini
20
Harvey
Harvey' s mi nd was like a scalpel. Whet her he was maki ng
his r ounds at t he hospi t al or l ect uri ng over a cadaver at t he
College of Physicians, no detail of huma n anat omy was small
enough to escape his eye. When an or gan di ffered f r om what
Galenic wi sdom prescri bed, Harvey woul d di pl omat i cal l y
suggest t hat bodi es must have changed since Galen' s day. Pri-
vately he was piecing t oget her a very di fferent story.
He st art ed wi t h si mpl e creatures, finding t o his di smay t hat
their heart s fl ut t ered so rapi dl y t hat he coul d barely make
sense of t he mot i ons. He knew t here were t wo di fferent ki nds
of beats: t he systole, when t he heart cont ract ed, and t he dias-
tole, when it expanded. But when he viewed t he process in
vivo, it seemed i mpossi bl e t o di st i ngui sh one f r om the ot her.
For I coul d nei t her rightly perceive at first when t he
systole and when t he diastole t ook place, nor when and
where di l at at i on and cont r act i on occurred, by reason
of t he rapi di t y of t he mot i on, whi ch in many ani mal s is
accompl i shed in t he t wi nkl i ng of an eye, comi ng and
going like a flash of l i ght ni ng, so t hat t he systole pre-
sent ed itself to me now f r om this poi nt , now f r om t hat ,
t he diastole t he same. And t hen everyt hi ng was
reversed, t he mot i ons occurri ng, as it seemed, vari ousl y
and confusedl y together. My mi nd was t herefore greatly
unset t l ed, nor di d I know what I shoul d myself con-
clude, nor what believe f r om ot hers. I was not surpri sed
t hat Andreas Laurent i us shoul d have wri t t en t hat t he
mot i on of t he hear t was as perpl exi ng as t he flux and
reflux of Euri pus had appeared to Aristotle.
Laurent i us was a Renaissance physician, and t he Euri pus
was a strait al ong t he Aegean coast of Greece where t he tides
21
T HE T E N MOS T B E A U T I F U L E X P E R I ME N T S
move in and out seven t i mes a day. Legend had it t hat Aris-
totle, dej ect ed by his failure to under st and these rhyt hms,
dr owned himself there.
If Harvey was to do bet t er wi t h the tides of t he heart , he
woul d need to observe t he phe nome non at a slower pace,
as Galileo di d wi t h his accelerating balls. In t he "colder
ani mal s"t he amphi bi ans, fish, reptiles, crust aceans, and
mol l uskst he heart beat mor e leisurely. These si mpl e heart s
pr esumabl y worked accordi ng to t he same pri nci pl es as
t hose of mammal s and men. In one exper i ment aft er anot her
Harvey t uned his i nt ui t i ons for t he mor e difficult cases to
come. For t here were ci rcumst ances, he was soon to learn, in
whi ch even t he met abol i sm of a war m- bl ooded ani mal slows
t o a crawl: dur i ng t he final mi nut es of life when, weakened by
vivisection, t he poor creature' s heart beat s become sparser
and sparser unt i l finally it gives up t he ghost or pneuma, or
what ever had been keepi ng it alive.
THOUGH di fferent in pur pose and f unct i on, t he t wo circula-
t ory systems of Gal en came wi t hi n mi l l i met ers of each ot her
in t he heart . Carri ed by t he super i or and i nferi or vena cava,
t he bluish bl oodconst ant l y generat ed by t he l i verfl owed
i nt o and out of t he heart ' s r i ght - hand chambers. On t he left
side, sealed off by a t hi ck wall called t he sept um, t he red art e-
rial bl ood flowed. Vessels also led to t he lungs, whi ch served
to cool t he bl ood and to carry pneumaai r i nt o t he heart .
It was t here t hat t he pneuma vitalized t he venous bl ood, a
tiny a mount of whi ch seeped across t he sept um t hr ough
invisible pores and i nt o t he arterial duct wor k.
Some of this pi ct ure had already been called i nt o ques-
2 2
Harvey
tion. The Flemish physician Vesalius, in Concerning the Fab-
ric of the Human Body, first publ i shed in 1543 (t he same year
as Coperni cus' s t heor y of hel i ocent ri sm), deni ed t hat bl ood
could trickle across t he heart ' s di vi di ng wall. As hard as he
looked he coul dn' t find even t he tiniest pores. He was ri ght
for t he wr ong reason. We know now t hat bodily tissues are
riddled wi t h mi croscopi c openi ngs. It was Harvey who put
the mat t er t o rest: carefully cut t i ng open an ox' s heart , he
pour ed water i nt o t he right side and not ed t hat none made
its way to t he left.
Galen' s followers also t aught t hat t he t wo ki nds of
bl oodvenous and ar t er i al moved like t he tides, back and
fort h t hr ough t he t wo systems. The vessels, ani mat ed by t he
vital spirit, expanded all at once, sucki ng up bl ood. When
they cont ract ed, t he bl ood flowed t he ot her way. The heart
just went al ong for t he ride, expandi ng and cont ract i ng like a
bellows.
But t hat is not what Harvey was observi ng. When t he
heart cont ract ed, on t he systolic beat, like a hand bunchi ng
up i nt o a fist, it became paler, as t hough bl ood was bei ng
squeezed out . When it expanded, on t he diastole, it grew red
again, as bl ood flowed back in. Even mor e telling, when he
put his finger on an artery, he coul d feel it expand at t he same
t i me t he heart cont ract ed. The heart , it seemed, was dri vi ng
the system. Galen had it backward. The push of cont r act i on,
not t he pull of expansi on, moved t he bl ood. Cut an art ery on
a living ma mma l and bl ood came spur t i ng out , "abundant l y,
i mpet uousl y, and as if it were propel l ed by a syringe."
If t he heart was a pump, Harvey reasoned, he shoul d be
able to learn how it worked. Anat omi st s already knew t hat it
was divided i nt o f our chambers. On t op were t he left and
23
T HE TEN MOS T B E A U T I F U L E X P E R I ME N T S
right auricles, bel ow t hem t he left and right ventricles. One
day dur i ng a dissection Harvey placed a finger on a left ven-
tricle. It expanded, filling wi t h bl ood, j ust as t he auricle above
it cont ract ed. Then, an i nst ant later, t he ventricle itself con-
t ract ed, pushi ng bl ood out of t he chamber and i nt o t he
arteries. The same mot i ons occurred on t he ri ght side. Again
Gal en was wr ong. Blood was pumpe d not f r om right t o left
but f r om t op to bot t om: "These t wo mot i ons, one of t he ven-
tricles, t he ot her of t he auricles, take place consecutively,"
Harvey wrot e, "but in such a manner t hat t here is a ki nd of
har mony or r hyt hm preserved bet ween t hem, t he t wo con-
cur r i ng in such wise t hat but one mot i on is apparent . "
He compar ed the movement to a machi ne' s: "One wheel
Anterior jxipillurij mwcle
Cross section of a human heart f r om Gray's Anatomy
Left auricula
ilenibranenis
septum
peclinati
Papillary
ihvmUS
Inferior
iviia atva Aorlic valve
24
Harvey
gives mot i on to anot her, yet all t he wheels seem to move
simultaneously." He knew t hat some of his readers mi ght
be of f ended by this mechani cal descri pt i on. But t hat was not
his i nt ent i on. "Whet her or not t he heart , besides propel l i ng
the bl ood, giving it mot i on locally, and di st ri but i ng it to
the body, adds anyt hi ng else to i t heat , spirit, per f ect i on
must be i nqui red i nt o by-and-by, and deci ded on ot her
grounds. " He suspect ed t hat t here was mor e t o t he body t han
physical processes, t hat t he hear t was "t he sun of t he mi cr o-
cosm" and bl ood a spiritual subst ance, "t he i nst r ument of
heaven." But t hat di dn' t mean its mot i ons coul d not be st ud-
ied systematically.
The words quot ed here are f r om Harvey' s mast er wor k, On
the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals. Though a bit
repetitious, t he shor t book, publ i shed in 1628 aft er t wo
decades of research, still makes for a good read. Wi t h t he
tenacity of a prosecut or argui ng a case, Harvey marshal s his
evidence one step at a t i me. We can i magi ne hi m in t he
cour t r oom, wavi ng his ceremoni al dagger and addressi ng a
jury.
First he asks t he audi ence to consi der t he arterial system.
It was now clear f r om his exper i ment s t hat t he pur pose of
t he left side of t he heart was to p u mp bl ood i nt o t he arteries,
which carried it t oward t he ext remi t i es of the body. It was
also clear t hat unlike t he tides this was a one-way flow: t here
were valves bet ween t he left ventricle and t he aort a t hat pre-
vent ed bl ood f r om sloshing back t he ot her way.
Consi der next t he venous system. It had l ong been known
t hat veins in t he legs and ar ms cont ai ned t hei r own bui l t -i n
valves. Harvey' s t eacher in Padua, t he great anat omi st Fabri -
cius, had discovered t hese ostiola, or "little doors, " but
25
t hought t hey served onl y to slow t he bl ood and prevent gorg-
ing. Harvey f ound the t r ut h by i nsert i ng a l ong pr obe i nt o a
vessel and pushi ng it in t he di rect i on leading away f r om t he
heart . The mot i on was resisted. But it slipped t hr ough easily
when t hr ust the ot her way. The veins were one-way avenues.
Arterial bl ood was pushed out f r om the heart to t he body.
Venous bl ood flowed f r om t he body back to t he heart .
Finally consi der how t he venous bl ood mi ght get f r om t he
right chamber s, where it was received, to t he left. Harvey had
already established t hat t he flow was not t hr ough t he sep-
t um. That left onl y one possible pat ht he pul monar y art ery
connect i ng t he right ventricle t o t he lungs. It was not air t hat
flowed down t he vessel but bl ood t hat flowed up t he ot her
way. Di ffusi ng somehow t hr ough the l ungs' spongy tissues,
t he fluid exited t hr ough t he pul monar y vein, whi ch led to t he
left auricle of t he heart . The concl usi on was inescapable: t he
ri ght side of t he heart pumpe d bl ood t hr ough t he lungs,
t he left side pumpe d bl ood t hr ough t he body.
Harvey wasn' t t he first t o t hi nk of this. In the previ ous
cent ury, a Spani sh t heol ogi an and physician, Michael Serve-
tus, had specul at ed about t he pul monar y circulation in a
religious tract: "Just as by air God makes r uddy the bl ood, so
does Chri st cause t he Spirit to glow." (Hi s anat omi cal argu-
ment s were part of an attack on the Trinity, and he was ulti-
mat el y bur ne dby Prot est ant sat t he stake.) Picking up
on t he t heme, Realdus Col umbus, an assistant to Vesalius,
not ed t hat t he fluid r et ur ni ng f r om t he l ungs was bri ght red,
suggest i ng t hat vitalization occurred t here and not in t he
heart . It was left for Harvey to ask t he crucial quest i on: If t he
ri ght side of t he heart pumps bl ood t hr ough t he lungs and
i nt o t he heart ' s left side, and if t he left side t hen pumps it out
i nt o t he a r t e r i e s . . . t hen what happens to all t he arterial
2 6
Harvey
blood when it reaches its dest i nat i on, and where does t he
endless suppl y of venous bl ood come from?
The Galenists had an answer: bot h ki nds of bl ood were
constantly created f r om the ingestion of food and depl et ed in
the growt h and l ocomot i on of t he body. Harvey deci ded to
do the mat h. From his dissections he had f ound t hat t he left
ventricle is capabl e of hol di ng t wo ounces or mor e of bl ood,
only a por t i on of whi chsay, half an ouncei s expelled on
each beat. In j ust one t housand heart beat s (fifteen mi nut es
for an average person) t hat woul d come to al most f our gal-
lons, far mor e bl ood t han was present in t he entire body.
Reckoning by wei ght instead of vol ume, t he heart woul d
pump well over a t on of bl ood a day. That woul d requi re a lot
of eating. And exercise.
So came t he radical hypothesis: when bl ood pumpe d by
the left side of t he heart reached t he very ends of t he arteries,
it was picked up by t he veins and r et ur ned to t he ri ght side
of t he heart . Blood, in ot her words, moved in a circle. It
circulated.
He clinched his case wi t h a beaut i ful exper i ment .
If a live snake be laid open, t he heart will be seen pul sat -
ing quietly, distinctly, for mor e t han an hour , movi ng
like a wor m, cont ract i ng in its l ongi t udi nal di mensi ons
(for it is of an obl ong shape), and propel l i ng its con-
tents. It becomes of a paler col our in t he systole, of a
deeper t i nt in t he diastole.
Using a forceps or t humb and finger, pi nch t he mai n vein,
t he vena cava, j ust before it ent ers t he heart . The space down-
st ream f r om the obst r uct i on quickly empt i es of bl ood. The
heart grows paler and smaller, beat i ng mor e slowly, "so t hat it
27
seems at length as if it were about to die." Release t he gri p
and the heart refills wi t h bl ood and spri ngs back to life.
Next pi nch or tie off t he mai n art ery just after it leaves t he
heart . The space upst r eam f r om t he obst r uct i on is seen to
become "i nordi nat el y di st ended, to assume a deep pur pl e or
even livid colour, and at length to be so much oppressed wi t h
bl ood t hat you will believe it about to be choked. " Again,
when t he blockage is removed t he heart r et ur ns to nor mal .
Case closed, or so it shoul d have been.
It woul d be left for ot hers to show wi t h a mi croscope t he
tiny capillaries t hat , in t he body' s extremities, connect ed t he
arteries to t he veins, and to explain t he osmot i c process t hat
carri ed t he bl ood across t he divide. Meanwhi l e Harvey
offered doubt er s a means of conf i r mi ng his t heor y for t hem-
selves. Place a tight bandage on your upper ar m. Above t he
bandage, on t he side t oward t he heart , t he art ery will t hr ob
and swell. Below it, t oward t he hand, t here will be no t hr ob-
bing. At t he same t i me t he veins in t he lower ar m will fill wi t h
t r apped bl ood, as t he ones above become flaccid. Loosen t he
bandage slightly, so t hat it is j ust tight enough to block off t he
veins but not t he arteries. Then feel t he mad rush of bl ood
back to your hand.
Still, hardl y anyone believed hi m. Years later, he was still
def endi ng his t heor y against "det ract ors, mumme r s , and
wri t ers defiled wi t h abuse." They hounded hi m like barki ng
dogs, he l ament ed, "but care can be t aken t hat t hey do not
bite or i nocul at e their mad humour s , or wi t h t hei r dogs'
teeth gnaw t he bones and f oundat i ons of t rut h. "
In 1642, when t he English civil war broke out , Harvey, wi t h
his royal connect i ons, f ound himself on t he losing side. His
home was ransacked and most of his scientific papers
28
fig- 4
Blood vessels, from Harvey's Motion of the Heart
destroyed. He survived t he t ur moi l , unl i ke his king, and died
fifteen years later, a wealthy man. "But he oft en sayd, That of
all t he losses he sustained, " his fri end Aubrey r emember ed,
"no greife was so cruci fyi ng to hi m as t he losse of these
papers, whi ch for love or money he coul d never retrieve or
obtaine. "
30
C H A P T E R 3
Isaac Newton
What a Color Is
Isaac Newton,
by Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1689
The t rut h is, the Science of Nat ure has been already t oo
long made only a work of the Brain and the Fancy: It is
now high time that it shoul d ret urn to the plainness and
soundness of Observations on material and obvious
things.
Rober t Hooke, Micrographia
31
A
s YOU ent er t he t omb of Isaac Newt on, your gaze is
swept upwar d by t he vast curved spaces of t he vaulted
mar bl e ceiling and t he massive suppor t i ng col umns t hat
keep it f r om succumbi ng to gravity. Wei ghi ng just as heavily
is t he silence, br oken onl y by t he echo of your foot st eps
ascendi ng t he stairs t oward t he scientist' s ur n.
It will be t hen t hat you not i ce t he light beam. Ent eri ng
t hr ough a tiny hole, per haps t went y feet above t he floor, it
shoot s down at an angle and ricochets off a mi r r or mount ed
on an or nat e st and. Fr om t here it travels across t he r oom,
t hr ough a pr i sm, and is t r ans f or med i nt o t he familiar arpeg-
gio t hat mani fest s itself in nat ure: red, orange, yellow, green,
blue, indigo, and violet.
Thi s pant heon exists onl y in a pai nt i ng, An Allegorical
Monument to Sir Isaac Newton, compl et ed by t he Venetian
artist Gi ovanni Battista Pi t t oni in 1729, not l ong after New-
t on di ed. (He is actually bur i ed in West mi nst er Abbey.) It
was somet hi ng of a depar t ur e for Pi t t oni , who is bet t er
known f or religious and myt hol ogi cal t hemes ( The Holy
Family, The Sacrifice ofPolyxena). But it was also unusual in
anot her way.
Newt on woul d become known to t he ages (al ong wi t h
Leibniz) for his i nvent i on of cal cul ust he "met hod of
f l uxi ons"whi ch made sense of a concept t hat had el uded
Galileo: how an accelerating obj ect becomes infinitesimally
faster dur i ng each of an i nfi ni t y of infinitesimal moment s of
t i me. In his later t r i umph, t he Principia Mathematica, he
descri bed t he mot i ons of t he heavens and showed t hat t he
same gravity t hat causes an appl e t o fall hol ds the pl anet s
ar ound t he sun. But Pi t t oni ' s pai nt i ng was celebrating some-
32
An Allegorical Monument to Sir Isaac Newton,
by Giovanni Battista Pittoni
t hi ng di f f er ent not Newt on t he t heori st , giver of laws, but
Newt on t he experi ment er.
He was barely out of school, havi ng gr aduat ed f r om Tri n-
ity College, Cambr i dge, in 1665, when t he Great Plague
forced an exodus to t he count rysi de. Trapped at t he family
f ar m in Wool st hor pe, he closeted himself in his study, wor k-
ing out some ideas about mat hemat i cs and mot i on and con-
t empl at i ng t he peculiarities of col or and light.
Plato and some of t he Presocratics believed t hat light
beams emanat ed f r om t he eyes, sweepi ng t he worl d like
searchlights. Aristotle, who rejected t hat idea, t aught t hat
colors are a mi xt ur e of light and darkness. Yellow, aft er all, is
nearly whi t e, and bl ue is al most black. By Newt on' s t i me a
clearer pi ct ure was emergi ng, and phi l osophers were devel-
opi ng a precise science of optics.
When light strikes a mi rror, t hey had l earned, t he angle of
i nci dence equals t he angle of reflection. And when it passes
t hr ough a t r anspar ent medi um and back i nt o t he air, it is
bent or r ef r act edt hat is why your leg l ooks broken when
you step i nt o a pool of water. The degree of t he refract i on
could be predi ct ed by somet hi ng t hat became known as
Snell's law. Whi l e investigating rai nbows, Ren Descartes, t he
French phi l osopher and scientist, had gazed i nt o a giant
dr opl et a glass sphere filled wi t h wat er and st udi ed t he
colors inside, so much like t hose t hat appeared when soap
bubbl es, flakes of mica, fish scales, and insect wi ngs s hi mmer
in t he sunl i ght . In 1637, in an essay called Dioptrics, he t ri ed
to account for t he origin of color, specul at i ng t hat it was pr o-
duced by spi nni ng globules of aet her t he faster t he rot a-
t i on, t he redder t he light.
But no one really knew. Somehow pur e whi t e light
became st ai ned in its collisions wi t h mat t er when it
34
Newton
bounced off a colored obj ect or passed t hr ough a t i nt ed liq-
uid or piece of glass. A generat i on aft er Descartes t hree of
Europe' s greatest sci ent i st sChri st i aan Huygens, Robert
Boyle, and Robert Hookewer e still put t i ng f or t h theories.
None of t hem had any reason to know about Isaac Newt on.
Hooke, in particular, woul d come to wish he had never heard
Newt on' s name.
A st ooped troll of a man, Hooke was so well known for his
elegant mani pul at i ons of nat ur e t hat he served as t he first
curat or of experi ment s for t he Royal Society of London,
which was begi nni ng its emergence as a power house of t he
scientific revol ut i on. One of the first great mi croscopi st s,
Hooke pr oduced met i cul ous dr awi ngsa flea and a louse
magni fi ed i nt o monst er s, mol ds as ext ravagant as flowers in
Viewed under a microscope, "a small white spot of
hairy mould." From Robert Hooke, Micrographia
35
a tropical rain f or est t hat filled t he pages of his celebrated
book Micrographia. Focusi ng his lenses on a piece of cork, he
expl ored t he l abyri nt h of empt y chamber s and was t he first
to call t hem cells. An i ngeni ous inventor, he desi gned an air
p u mp and assisted Boyle in discovering t he inverse rel at i on-
shi p bet ween t he vol ume and pressure of a gas, Boyle's law.
There is a Hooke' s law as well, precisely descri bi ng the nat ur e
of elasticity: the a mount a solid obj ect can be st ret ched is
pr opor t i onal to t he force t hat is appl i ed. Or as Hooke himself
put it, "ceiiinosssttuv," whi ch unscr ambl es i nt o Ut tensio sic
vis, "As t he ext ensi on, so t he force." (To establish pri ori t y and
avoid intellectual pr oper t y t heft , he first publ i shed the law as
a Latin anagr am. )
Hooke was certain he had also figured out color and light.
Whi t e was f undament al , and colors were aberrat i ons: "Blue is
an i mpressi on on t he Retina of an obl i que and confus' d pulse
of light, whose weakest part precedes, and whose st rongest
follows," he obscurely wrot e. Red was t he opposi t ea mi s-
shapen pul se "whose st rongest par t precedes, and whose
weakest follows." Red and bl ue could be mi xed and diluted to
f or m mongr el hues. Huygens and Boyle had t hei r own t heo-
ries, but t hey all came down to t he same bedr ockcol or as
st ai ned light.
STARTING f r om scratch, Newt on carefully reviewed what
ot hers before hi m had f ound and added some observat i ons
of his own. A piece of gold leaf, t hi n enough to be al most
t ransparent , reflects yellow light. But hol d it "twixt your eye
& a candle," he not ed, and t he light passi ng t hr ough is bl ue.
The opposi t e effect coul d be had f r om a wood called lignum
nephriticum, sold by druggists as a ki dney t r eat ment . When it
36
Newton
was sliced i nt o t hi n pieces and i nfused in wat er "t he l i quor
(looked on in a cleare violl) reflects blew rays & t r ansmi t s
yellow ones." The same was t rue for cert ai n pieces of flat
glass: t hey "appeare of one col our when looked upon & of
anot her col our when l ooked t hrough. " But these were aber-
rations. "Generally bodys whi ch appeare of any col our to t he
eye, appeare of t he same col our in all positions. "
Shut away f r om t he plague, he st udi ed t he worl d wi t h t he
eyes of a bl i nd man suddenl y able to see. Dar k or t ransl ucent
substances gr ound i nt o a powder or shaved wi t h a kni fe
become lighter in appear ancef or t he mangl i ng creates a
"mul t i t ude of reflecting surface" t hat di dn' t exist before. By
cont rast subst ances soaked in wat er become darker, "f or t he
water fills up t he reflecting pores."
He also played wi t h plates of glass, mount i ng a flat lens
sandwichlike against one wi t h a gentle spherical curve. Shi n-
ing a light beam at t he surface he behel d a mesmer i zi ng pat -
t ern of col orful swirls. Newt on' s rings. "Accordingly as t he
glasses are pressed mor e or lesse t oget her t he col oured circles
doe become greater or less. & as t hey are pressed mor e &
mor e t oget her new circles doe arrive in t he midst. " Taking t he
appar at us i nt o a dar k r oom he exposed it to a bl ue ray emi t -
ted by a pr i sm. Thi s t i me he saw a monochr omat i c target of
dark and light circles. Red light pr oduced a similar pat t er n.
Hooke had already descri bed t he phenomenoni nt er f er -
A lens sandwich used to show Newton's rings
37
THE TEN MOS T B E AUT I F UL E XP E RI ME NT S
encei n Micrographia, but Newt on pl umbed its dept hs and
made it his own.
As his interests grew i nt o an obsession, he even experi-
ment ed wi t h his own eyes, t aki ng a t hi n, bl unt pr obea
bodki n, he called i t and carefully i nsert i ng it "bet wi xt my
eye & t he bone as neare t o t he Backside of my eye as I could."
Pressing and r ubbi ng t he i nst r ument against his eyeball, he
saw "severall whi t e darke & col oured circles." When he
repeat ed t he exper i ment in daylight, wi t h his eyes al most
closed, "Ther e appeared a greate br oade blewish darke circle"
wi t h a smaller, lighter spot inside. If he pressed hard enough,
wi t hi n t hat spot was anot her little circle of blue. Per f or mi ng
t he exper i ment in darkness pr oduced a di fferent effect: "t he
circle apeared of a Reddish light" s ur r oundi ng an i nner circle
of "darki sh blew."
Somet i mes as he poked ar ound in his eye socket he per-
ceived still finer di st i nct i ons: a target of col orful rings "f r om
t he cent er greene, blew, purpl e, darke purpl e, blew, greene,
yellow, red like fl ame, yellow, greene, blew, br oade purpl e,
darke." St ari ng at t he sun or its reflection, he not i ced t hat t he
aft eri mage was red, "but if I went i nt o a dar k r oome t he
Phant asma was blew."
From physics he occasionally det our ed i nt o anat omy.
From each eye, he l earned in his readings, t he visual vi bra-
t i ons traveled t hr ough t he opt i c nerves"a vast mul t i t ud of
these sl ender pi pes"and i nt o t he brai n. Dissecting t he tis-
sues ar ound an eyean ani mal ' s, t hank God, not his own
he t ri ed to det er mi ne t he nat ur e of t he subst ance t hat carried
t he imagery. "Water is t oo grosse for such subtile i mpres-
sions," he concl uded. A bet t er possibility seemed to be t he
"ani mal spirits" said by t he Galenists to bl ow t hr ough t he
ner vous system. Newt on rul ed t hat out wi t h an experi ment :
38
Newton
yj^isr , y*" fn^Sil- flw., fc) ftcfni-
ty i. V- -I +> Hi
eurvJ^^- K
r, , - . W W T L . r , -t , . c-^rau v>vvi_
U&r, jf- h rvd*
r
u f ^ , / Z c v / ' j
^ / r ^ v M U V
V V-i^chy /
?
H
A
r- w
1
Vvty*. ' i
1 >> r
y* *Y*-f SdH* *
' 'V'S ^t ' ^ r
L
' jHJ . y
e e w / o ^ f c cCrX i
u
tliai ^lAr- ee^ Pf.L v
Newton's experiment with his own eye: a page from his notebooks
n
"t hough I tyed a peice of t he opt i ck nerve at one end &
war med it in t he mi ddl e t o see if any aery subst ance by t hat
meanes woul d disclose it selfe in bubbl es at t he ot her end, I
could not spy t he least bubbl e; a little moi st ur e onl y & t he
mar r ow it selfe squeezed out. "
39
If t hat is where it all had endedwai t i ng for t he spirits of
vision to come bubbl i ng f r om t he opt i c t ubul esNewt on
mi ght have r emai ned just anot her sevent eent h-cent ury
geni us conf used and tantalized by light. But somet i me in t he
mi dst of his investigations he became captivated by a curi os-
ity involving pri sms. Dr aw a line, half bl ue and half a "good
deepe red," on a black piece of paper and t he pr i sm will make
it appear skewed: "broken in t wo twixt t he colours." The
same t hi ng happened wi t h bl ue and red t hreads. One was
offset f r om t he ot her. But why were t he colors treated di ffer-
ently by t he glass?
One day, his curiosity aroused, he cut a small circular hol e
a quar t er - i nch across in his wi ndow shut t er. Hol di ng a pr i sm
in t he nar r ow pat h of the sunbeam, he cast a spect r um on t he
far wall of t he darkened r oom.
"It was at first a very pleasing di vert i sement to view t he
vivid & intense colours," he report ed: blues fadi ng i nt o
greens t hen yellows i nt o oranges and reds. But far mor e sig-
ni fi cant t han t he familiar appear ance of a spect r um was its
4 0
Newton
shape. It was not circular like t he hol e in t he shut t er or t he
image of t he sun, but obl ong: t hi rt een and one- f our t h inches
long, t wo and five-eighths inches wide. It was "a di spr opor -
tion soe ext ravagant t hat it excited me t o a mor e t hen ordi -
nary curiosity of exami ni ng f r om whence it mi ght proceed. "
Somet hi ng was causi ng t he colors t o fan out this way.
Newt on doubt ed t hat t he effect coul d be an artifact, s ome
obscure confl uence of accidental effects. But t he possibility
had to be rul ed out . He tried hol di ng t he pr i sm in di fferent
posi t i ons so t hat t he light traveled "t hr ough part s of t he
glasse of divers thicknesses." He cut holes in t he shade of
"divers bignesses." He t ri ed put t i ng t he pr i sm out si de t he
wi ndow, so t he sunl i ght hi t it bef or e passi ng t hr ough t he
hole. None of t hat mat t ered. "The fashi on of t he col ours was
in all these cases t he same. "
Havi ng refract ed sunl i ght wi t h one pr i sm, he f ound t hat
he coul d pass t he colors t hr ough a second pr i sm and t hey
woul d recombi ne. The second pr i sm undi d what t he first
had done, leaving a colorless circle of light on t he wall. The
colors were not added by t he pr i sm. They had been in t he
light beam all along.
It was a mul t i t ude of such exper i ment s t hat led hi m to his
surpri si ng concl usi on. By t he t i me he was ready for what he
woul d call his Experimentum Crucis ( bor r owi ng the t er m
f r om Hooke) , he probabl y knew what he woul d find. But t hat
barely det ract s f r om t he dr ama. As before, t he light beam
f r om t he wi ndow passed t hr ough a pr i sm and crossed t he
r oom, but this t i me it cast its spect r um on a wooden boar d.
Thr ough one end of t he boar d Newt on had drilled a hole,
and by hol di ng his pr i sm j ust so, he coul d make t he colors
pass t hr ough t he openi ng one by one. Fr om t here t hey
ent ered a second pr i sm before leaving an i mage on t he wall.
4 i
What he saw t hat day changed forever how we t hi nk about
light. St art i ng at t he red end of t he spect r um and progressi ng
t oward t he blue, each color was bent a little mor ean el abo-
rat i on of t he effect hi nt ed at by t he col ored t hreads: "bl ew
rays suffer a greater refract i on t han red ones." That was t he
reason for t he obl ong. If all colors were bent equally t he spec-
t r um woul d be a r oundi sh blob. But light, as Newt on put it,
"consists of rayes di fferent l y refrangible. "
Refrangi bl e means r ef r act abl ebot h words come f r om
t he same Latin r oot and Newt on had discovered not hi ng
less t han what a color is: a ray of light pret ernat ural l y dis-
posed to bend a certain way. "To t he same degree of refrangi -
bility ever bel ongs t he same colour, & to t he same col our ever
bel ongs t he same degree of refrangibility," he wrot e. Col or is
refrangibility.
And t here was mor e. Once a col or was separat ed f r om t he
rest, it coul d not be f ur t her altered, no mat t er how har d he
t ri ed. "I have refract ed it wi t h Prismes, & reflected it wi t h
bodi es whi ch in day light were of ot her col ours; I have i nt er-
cept ed it wi t h t he col oured film of air i nt ercedi ng t wo com-
pressed plates of Glasse, t r ansmi t t ed it t hr ough col oured
medi ums & t hr ough medi ums i rradi at ed wi t h ot her sort of
rayes, & diversly t er mi nat ed it, & yet coul d not pr oduce any
new col our out of it. It woul d by cont r act i ng or di l at i ng
become mor e bri sk or faint, & by t he losse of many rayes in
some cases very obscure & dark, but I coul d never see it
changed in Specie."
If a ray was composed of mor e t han one col or or angi sh
yellow, yellowish greeni t coul d be split once again by a
pri sm, but at some poi nt you woul d reach the bot t om, t he
f undament al component s of light. "Col our s are not qualifi-
4 2
Newton
cations of light derived f r om refract i ons or reflections of nat -
urall bodi es as ' tis generally beleived, but originall & connat e
properties. "
It was whi t e light t hat was t he mongrel , not j ust anot her
color but a combi nat i on of t hem all, a "het erogeneous mi x-
t ure of di fferent l y refrangi bl e rayes." As t he sun shi nes on t he
worl d, it is not bri ngi ng out t he red in an apple, t he green in
a leaf. The appl e and t he leaf are br i ngi ng t he colors out of
the sunl i ght .
Descartes had also believed t hat colors were not i nher ent
in objects, but rat her mani fest at i ons of how t hey affected
light. Now Newt on knew why. The worl d is col orful because
it consists of bodi es "vari ousl y qualified to reflect one sort of
light in greater pl ent y t han anot her. "
IN EARLY Sept ember 1666, t he Great Fire destroyed much of
London, killing t he rats and hast eni ng t he end of t he plague.
Setting aside optics and ot her scientific pursui t s, Robert
Hooke worked wi t h Chr i st opher Wren to rebui l d t he city.
Newt on moved back to Cambr i dge, where he rose t o t he
posi t i on of Lucasian professor of mat hemat i cs and l ect ured
on color and light. A reflecting telescope he i nvent ed, six
inches l ong and mor e power f ul t han a convent i onal tele-
scope ten t i mes its size, i mpressed t he member s of t he Royal
Society, and in 1672, six years after his experi ment s, t hey pub-
lished his paper "New Theor y About Light and Col ors" in
t he society' s Philosophical Transactions.
Bur ni ng wi t h jealousy, Hooke tried to discredit t he
upst art , setting off a feud t hat woul d last as l ong as bot h men
were alive. Hooke declared t hat he had already per f or med all
43
these exper i ment s himself, and t hat t he results coul d be
expl ai ned j ust as well by his own theory. (Later he woul d
claim t hat Newt on' s Principia was plagiarized f r om hi m. )
Ot her scientists, like Huygens, also raised obj ect i ons in
di spat ches to t he j our nal , and Newt on count er ed his nay-
sayers wi t h a mi xt ur e of disbelief and scorn. The merciless
dissection of new ideas woul d become a nor mal part of sci-
ence. But Newt on, an intensely pri vat e man, felt violated. He
became especially agitated by a gr oup of English Jesuits who
insisted t hat t hey could not replicate his Experimentum Cru-
ets and t hat t he spreadi ng out of t he spect r um was an artifact
caused by a "bri ght cloud. " The carpi ng cont i nued unt i l 1678,
when in exasperat i on he ret reat ed i nt o seclusion. He was
thirty-five. Ther e was so much still to be done.
44
C H A P T E R 4
Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier
The Farmer' s Daughter
Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier
I magi ne what it means t o under st and what gives a leaf its
color! What makes a f l ame bur n.
Ma r i e Anne Lavoisier in t he play Oxygen, by Carl
Djerassi and Roald Hof f ma nn
O
UTSI DE t he Louvr e i n t he Jar di n de l ' I nf ant e o n an
a ut umn day in 1772, Parisians strolling al ong t he Seine
mi ght have not i ced a st range cont r apt i on: a wooden pl at -
f or m on six wheels, like a flatbed wagon, on t op of whi ch was
mount ed an assembly of enor mous pieces of glass. The t wo
45
largest l ensesei ght feet in r adi ushad been sandwi ched
i nt o a single powerful magni fi er t hat capt ured t he solar rays,
beami ng t hem t hr ough a second, smaller lens and ont o a
table. St andi ng on deck, scientists in wigs and dar k glasses
were per f or mi ng an exper i ment , while assistants, like mi d-
shi pmen, cranked gears and adj ust ed t he rigging, fol l owi ng
t he sun across t he sky.
One of t he men who had booked t i me on t he machi ne
t he particle accelerator of its daywas Ant oi ne-Laurent
Lavoisier. He was t ryi ng to find out what happens when you
i nci nerat e di amonds.
It had l ong been known t hat di amonds bur n (we now
know t hat t hey are made of car bon) , and local jewelers had
asked t he French Academy of Science to investigate whet her
this posed a risk. Lavoisier himself was mor e interested in
anot her quest i on: t he chemi cal nat ur e of combust i on. The
Lavoisier
beauty of t he "bur ni ng glass" was t hat it coul d focus sunl i ght
ont o a spot inside a closed cont ai ner, heat i ng what ever had
been placed inside. The f umes f r om t he j ar coul d t hen be
channeled t hr ough a t ube i nt o a flask of water, gurgl i ng up to
form a bubbl e to be dr awn off and analyzed.
The exper i ment was a failure: t he i nt ense heat kept crack-
ing t he glass. But t here were ot her i t ems on Lavoisier' s
agenda. What he had pr oposed t o t he Academy of Science
was a pr ogr am to st udy "t he air cont ai ned in mat t er " and
how it mi ght be related t o t he t r ue nat ur e of fire.
ALTHOUGH Newt on had put physics on a st rai ght er pat h,
he hadn' t been much hel p wi t h chemi st ry, whi ch was still in
the thrall of alchemy. "Camphi r e dissolved in well
defl egmed spirit of ni t er will make a colourlesse sol ut i on, "
he had wri t t en. "But if it bee cast i nt o good Oyle of Vitriol &
shaken i nt o it as it dissolves, t he l i quor will bee first yellow
& t hen of a deepe reddi sh colour." In page aft er page of this
cookbook chemi st ry, t here was little talk of measur ement or
quant i fi cat i on: "Put t i ng spirit of salt to fresh uri n the t wo
l i quors readily & quietly mix," he not ed, while "if t he same
spirit be dr opped upon digested ur i n t here will present l y
ensue a hissing & ebul l i t i on, & t he volatile & acid salts will
after a while coagulate i nt o a t hi rd subst ance, somewhat
of t he nat ur e of Sal armoni ac. And whereas t he syr up of Vi o-
lets is but diluted by bei ng dissolved in a little fresh ur i n, a
few dr ops of f er ment ed uri n presently t ur ns it i nt o a deep
green."
That , at least, was prot ochemi st ry. Much of alchemy,
i ncl udi ng Newt on' s own, sounds t o moder n ears like magi c.
In one of his not ebooks, he had dut i ful l y copi ed passages
47
f r om an al chemi st named George Starkey, who called himself
Philalethes.
"In [Sat urn] is hid an i mmor t al soul," t he passage began.
Sat ur n usually meant l eadeach el ement resonat ed wi t h a
pl anet but here it apparent l y refers to a silvery met al called
ant i mony. The "i mmor t al soul " is t he gas emi t t ed when t he
ore is exposed to an i nt ense flame. "To Sat urn Mars wi t h
bonds of love is t i ed"i r on is added to ant i mony" who
is by hi m devour d of mi ght y force whose spirit divides sat-
ur ns body & f r om bot h combi ned flow a wondr ous bri ght
wat er in whi ch ye Sun dot h set & loos its light." The sun
is metallic gold, and here it is i mmer sed in mercury,
commonl y called quicksilver. "Venus a most shi ni ng star is
embr act ' d by [Mars]." Venus was copper. Now it t oo was
added to t he mi x. The metallurgical recipe is apparent l y a
descri pt i on of t he early stages of pr oduci ng t he l ong-sought
"phi l osopher' s stone," capable of t r ansmut i ng baser el ement s
i nt o gold.
Lavoisier and his peers had moved beyond such mystical
i ncant at i ons, but chemi st s still commonl y accepted t he
alchemical not i on t hat mat t er was governed by t hree pri nci -
ples: mer cur y (whi ch made t hi ngs l i qui d), salt (whi ch made
t hem solid), and sul fur (which made t hem bur n) . The sul-
f ur ous spirit, also called terra pingua ("fat " or "oily" eart h)
was a special source of fasci nat i on. Early in t he 1700s, a Ger-
man chemi st , Georg Ernst Stahl, r enamed it phl ogi st on f r om
t he Greek root , phlog, referri ng t o fire.
The reason t hi ngs bur ned was t hat t hey were rich in phl o-
giston, and as t hey were consumed t hey released this fire st uff
i nt o t he air. Set a piece of wood afl ame and it woul d st op
bur ni ng onl y when its phl ogi st on was spent , leaving behi nd a
pile of ash. Wood, it logically followed, was made of phl ogi s-
4 8
Lavoisier
ton and ash. Likewise, heat i ng a met al under an i nt ense
flame, a process called cal ci nat i on, left a whitish bri t t l e sub-
stance, or calx. Metal was t hus composed of phl ogi st on and
calx. Rusting was anot her f or m of this slow combust i on, as
was respi rat i onreact i ons caused when phl ogi st on is given
up to t he air.
The process also worked t he ot her way ar ound. Calx, it
was recognized, resembl ed t he cr ude ores mi ned f r om t he
gr ound, whi ch were refi ned or reduced"revivified"by
heat i ng t hem next to a piece of charcoal. The charcoal emi t -
ted phl ogi st on, whi ch combi ned wi t h t he calx to recover t he
l ust rous met al .
Ther e was not hi ng necessarily wr ong wi t h i nvoki ng a
hypothetical ent i t y t hat coul d not be measur ed but onl y
inferred. In our own t i me, cosmol ogi st s pr opose t hat an
intangible "dark mat t er " must exist to keep t he galaxies f r om
spi nni ng apart f r om t hei r own cent ri fugal forces, and t hat an
ant i gravi t at i onal "dark energy" propel s t he cosmological
expansi on.
Wi t h phl ogi st on, scientists had a consi st ent expl anat i on
for combust i on, cal ci nat i on, reduct i on, and even respi rat i on.
Chemi st r y suddenl y made sense.
There was however a pr obl em: t he calx left behi nd aft er
calcination weighed mor e t han t he ori gi nal met al . How
could removi ng phl ogi st on leave somet hi ng heavier? Like
dark energy a quar t er of a mi l l enni um later, phl ogi st on was,
in t he words of t he French phi l osopher Condor cet , "i mpel l ed
by forces t hat give it a di rect i on cont r ar y to t hat of gravity."
Put t i ng it mor e poetically, one chemi st declared t hat phl ogi s-
t on "gave wi ngs to eart hl y molecules. "
Lavoisier t oo had l earned t o t hi nk of phl ogi st on as one of
t he pri nci pal i ngredi ent s of mat t er. But ar ound t he t i me of
49
his experi ment s with di amonds he was begi nni ng to wonder :
How could somet hi ng weigh less t han zero?
Hi s MOTHER had died when he was a boy, leaving an i nher-
itance large enough for hi m to buy i nt o a profi t abl e ent er-
prise called t he Ferme Gnrale, or General Farm. The
French gover nment cont ract ed wi t h this pri vat e consor t i um
of busi nessmen t o collect certain taxes, giving t he "farmers, "
like Lavoisier, a cut. Though his dut i es t ook t i me away f r om
research, he made enough money to equi p himself wi t h one
of t he best l aborat ori es in Europe. One of his early experi-
ment s, in 1769, investigated t he commonl y held belief t hat
water could t ur n i nt o eart h.
The evidence seemed persuasive: water evaporat i ng in a
pan leaves behi nd a solid residue. Lavoisier cut to t he heart of
t he mat t er wi t h a glass distilling flask called a pelican. Round
and fat at t he base wi t h a small upper chamber, t he vessel was
out fi t t ed wi t h two curvi ng t ubes (shaped a bit like pelican
A pelican flask. John French, The Art of Distillation (London, 1651)
5 0
Lavoisier
beaks) t hat r et ur ned condensed vapors to t he bot t om. To t he
alchemists, t he pelican symbol i zed t he sacrificial bl ood of
Christ, and a pelican flask was said to have t r ansf or mat i ve
powers. Mor e to t he poi nt , water boiled in a pelican woul d
cont i nual l y evaporat e and recondense wi t hout anyt hi ng
solid, liquid, or gasleaving t he system.
After distilling pur e water for a hundr ed days, Lavoisier
f ound t hat a residue had i ndeed accumul at ed. But he sus-
pected where it had come f r om. Wei ghi ng t he empt y pelican,
he conf i r med t hat it was lighter t han before. When he dri ed
and weighed t he leftover debris, it mat ched closely enough to
convince hi m t hat it had come f r om t he glass.
Two years later, in 1771, Lavoisier, who was t hen t went y-
eight, mar r i ed Mari e Anne Pierrette Paulze, t he t hi rt een-
Marie Anne Pierrette Paulze
51
year-old daught er of anot her tax farmer. (She was pleased
enough wi t h t he ar r angement : her ot her sui t or was fifty years
old. ) Fascinated by her husband' s research, Mari e Anne
l earned chemi st ry at his side, recordi ng notes, t ransl at i ng
English scientific literature i nt o French, and pr oduci ng t he
met i cul ous drawi ngs for a series of exper i ment s crowned by
one so beaut i ful that-like a phi l osopher' s st onei t t rans-
f or med al chemy i nt o chemi st ry.
THE CHEMISTS of Lavoisier' s generat i on had already dis-
covered t hat t here were, as the Engl i shman Joseph Priestley
put it, "di fferent ki nds of air." Mephi t i c ( meani ng noxi ous),
or "fixed air," woul d ext i ngui sh a fl ame and suffocat e a
mouse. It also t ur ned l i mewat er (calcium hydroxi de in mod-
ern t erms) cloudy, f or mi ng a whi t e preci pi t at e (calcium car-
bonat e) . But pl ant s thrived in t he gas and slowly made it
breat habl e again.
Ther e was anot her suffocat i ng gas left behi nd when a
candl e was bur ned in a covered jar. It did not preci pi t at e
l i mewat er, and since it was evi dent l y related t o combus -
t i on was called "phlogisticated" ai r or azote, f r om t he Greek
word for "lifeless." Most myst eri ous of all was a volatile gas
emi t t ed when i ron filings were dissolved in dilute sul furi c
acid. It was so combust i bl e t hat it was named "i nf l ammabl e
air." A bal l oon filled wi t h it woul d float hi gh above t he
gr ound.
The quest i on was whet her these new airs were el ement s
or, as Priestley believed, modi f i cat i ons of "nor mal " air, pr o-
duced by addi ng or subt ract i ng phl ogi st on.
Careful l y keepi ng his skepticism in check, Lavoisier
repeat ed some of his colleagues' work. He conf i r med t hat
52
Lavoisier
bur ni ng phos phor us to make phosphor i c acid or sul fur to
make sul furi c acid i ndeed left t he subst ances heavi er t he
same t hi ng t hat happened when you calcined metals. But
what was causi ng t he change? He t hought he knew t he
answer. Using a bur ni ng glass to heat tin t hat had been sealed
inside a flask, he f ound t hat t he ent i re appar at us weighed t he
same before and after. Slowly openi ng t he vessel he heard air
whistle in, and onl y t hen was t here a gain in wei ght . Maybe
things bur ned not because t hey emi t t ed phl ogi st on but
because t hey absorbed some ki nd of air.
Burni ng litharge in a j ar with a magni fyi ng glass.
Drawi ng by Mari e Anne Lavoisier
53
If so, t hen reduci ng a subst ancesmel t i ng an ore back
i nt o a pur e met al shoul d force t he air back out again. He
measur ed out a calx of lead called litharge and placed it,
al ong wi t h a piece of charcoal, on an island pedestal in a
basin of water. Then he inverted a bell jar on top. Heat i ng t he
calx wi t h a magni fyi ng glass, he coul d see f r om t he displace-
ment of t he water t hat a gas was comi ng out . Careful l y wi t h-
dr awi ng it f r om t he jar, he f ound t hat it ext i ngui shed fl ames
and preci pi t at ed limewater. Fixed air appeared to be a pr od-
uct of reduct i on, but was t here mor e to t he st ory t han that?
The answer t ur ned out to lie in a reddi sh subst ance called
mercurius calcinatus, or calx of mercury, sold by Parisian
apot hecari es as a t r eat ment for syphilis. Wi t h a price of
eighteen livres and up per ounce about $1,000 in today' s
cur r encyexper i ment i ng wi t h mercurius calcinatus was
al most as ext ravagant as bur ni ng di amonds. Like all calxes, it
coul d be pr oduced by heat i ng the pur e met al over an intense
flame. But when heat ed f ur t her it changed, against all expec-
t at i ons, back i nt o quicksilver. In ot her words, mercurius calci-
natus coul d be reduced wi t hout the presence of charcoal. But
what t hen was suppl yi ng the phl ogi st on? In 1774, Lavoisier
and some colleagues f r om t he French Academy conf i r med
t hat calx of mer cur y coul d i ndeed be reduced "wi t hout addi -
tion," losing about one-t wel ft h of its wei ght .
Priestley was also exper i ment i ng wi t h t he st uff, heat i ng it
wi t h a magni f yi ng glass and collecting t he fumes. "What sur-
pri sed me mor e t han I can well express," he woul d later
report , "was t hat a candl e bur ned in this air wi t h a r emar k-
ably vi gorous fl ame I was utterly at a loss how to account
for it." Aft er finding t hat a l aborat ory mouse thrived on t he
gas, he t ri ed breat hi ng it himself. "I fancied t hat my breast
54
Lavoisier
felt peculiarly light and easy for some t i me aft erwards. Wh o
can tell but t hat , in t i me, this pur e air may become a f ashi on-
able article in luxury. Hi t hert o, onl y t wo mice and myself
have had t he privilege of br eat hi ng it."
A gas in whi ch t he fires of combust i on and respi rat i on
fl ouri shed must be a part i cul arl y good absor ber of phl ogi s-
t on, so Priestley named it "dephl ogi st i cat ed ai r"ai r in its
very purest f or m. He was not t he onl y one t hi nki ng al ong
this line. In Sweden, an apot hecar y named Carl Wi l hel m
Scheele was st udyi ng t he propert i es of what he referred t o as
"fire air."
By now Lavoisier was calling t he gas expelled by r educi ng
mercurius calcinatus "emi nent l y breat habl e" or "vital" air,
and like Priestley he t hought it was or di nar y air in its pri st i ne
f or m. But he had r un across a compl i cat i on. When he t ri ed
reduci ng mer cur y calx wi t h char coal t he ol d-fashi oned
wayi t released t he same gas he had obt ai ned f r om litharge:
one t hat ext i ngui shed candles and preci pi t at ed limewater.
Why woul d reduci ng mer cur y calx wi t hout charcoal pr oduce
vital air while reduci ng it wi t h charcoal pr oduced suffocat i ng
fixed air?
There was one way to find out . He t ook f r om his shelves a
flask called a mat rass, r ound on t he bot t om wi t h a l ong
skinny neck, whi ch he heat ed and bent so t hat it curved
down and t hen up again.
If t he flask in his exper i ment of 1769 resembl ed a pelican,
this one looked mor e like a fl ami ngo. He pour ed f our ounces
of pur e mer cur y i nt o t he r ound bot t om chamber (A on t he
di agram) and set it on a f ur nace wi t h t he neck di ppi ng down
i nt o an open t r ough, also filled wi t h mercury, and t hen up
i nt o a bell jar. Thi s woul d serve as a gauge t o measur e how
55
Heating mercury in a "flamingo flask."
Drawing by Marie Anne Lavoisier
much air was consumed dur i ng t he exper i ment . After mar k-
ing t he level (L L) wi t h a paper label, he lit t he f ur nace and
br ought t he liquid met al in chamber A al most to a boil.
On t he first day not hi ng much happened. Small amount s
of quicksilver evaporat ed and condensed al ong t he wall of
t he mat rass, combi ni ng i nt o bl obs heavy enough t o slide
back down to t he bot t om. But on t he second day tiny red
spot s st art ed to appear on t he surface of t he mer cur yt he
calx. For t he next few days t he reddi sh crust increased in size
unt i l it coul d grow no larger. On t he twelfth day Lavoisier
st opped t he experi ment and t ook some measur ement s.
By now t he mer cur y in t he bell jar had risen above t he
mar k, displacing some of t he air t hat had been absorbed by
t he calx. Adj ust i ng for t emper at ur e and pressure changes in
the lab, Lavoisier calculated t hat t he air had been depl et ed by
about one-si xt h of its vol ume, f r om fifty cubi c inches to
bet ween f or t y- t wo and fort y-t hree. It had also changed in
nat ure. When a mouse was put inside a cont ai ner of this left-
56
Lavoisier
over air, it struggled for breat h, and "when a t aper was
pl unged i nt o it, it was ext i ngui shed as if it had been
i mmer sed i nt o water." But since t he gas di d not preci pi t at e
limewater it had to be azote rat her t han fixed air.
But what had t he bur ni ng mer cur y t aken f r om t he air?
Ski mmi ng off t he red crust t hat had f or med on t he met al ,
Lavoisier heat ed it in a ret ort unt i l it t ur ned back i nt o pur e
quicksilver, emi t t i ng seven or eight cubi c inches of gas
approxi mat el y t he same a mount t hat had been absor bed
dur i ng cal ci nat i on. Exposed t o this gas a t aper bur ned "wi t h
a dazzling spl endor " and charcoal, rat her t han smol deri ng,
"t hrew out such a brilliant light t hat t he eyes coul d hardl y
endur e it."
It was a pivotal moment . Bur ni ng mer cur y absor bed vital
air f r om t he at mospher e, leaving behi nd azote. Reduci ng
mer cur y released t he vital air again. He had separat ed t he
two mai n component s of t he at mospher e.
In a denouement he r ecombi ned eight part s of his vital
air wi t h f or t y- t wo part s of t he azote and showed t hat it had
the characteristics of or di nar y air. Analysis and synthesis:
"Here is t he most compl et e ki nd of proof t hat can be at t ai ned
in chemistry, t he decomposi t i on of air followed by its r ecom-
position. "
Lavoisier read t he results to t he Academy of Science in
1777. Ther e was no phl ogi st on. Bur ni ng and cal ci nat i on were
caused when a subst ance t ook in vital ai roxygen he woul d
call it because of its role in t he f or mat i on of acids. ( Ox y in
Greek means sharp. ) When t he oxygen is depl et ed f r om
the air by bur ni ng, t he unbr eat habl e azote left behi nd is
ni t rogen.
As for t he gas t hat peopl e had been calling fixed air, it was
57
pr oduced when t he oxygen emi t t ed dur i ng reduct i on com-
bi ned wi t h somet hi ng in t he charcoal, pr oduci ng what we
now call car bon dioxide.
FOR YEARS Lavoisier' s colleagues, part i cul arl y Priestley,
gr umbl ed t hat he had grabbed credit for wor k t hey had also
done. Priestley had di ned wi t h t he Lavoisiers, telling t hem
about his dephl ogi st i cat ed air, and Scheele, t he Swedish
apot hecary, had sent Lavoisier a letter descri bi ng his work.
But all t he while t hey cont i nued to t hi nk of oxygen as air
devoi d of phl ogi st on.
In t hei r play Oxygen, whi ch premi ered in 2001, t wo
chemi st s, Carl Djerassi and Roald Hof f mann, i magi ne the
t hree scientists s ummone d to St ockhol m by t he ki ng of Swe-
den t o decide who shoul d be revered as t he t rue discoverer.
Scheele was the first to extract t he gas and Priestley t he first
to publ i sh wor d of its existence, but onl y Lavoisier under -
st ood what he had f ound.
He had also seen t hr ough to somet hi ng deeper: t he law of
conservat i on of mass. In a chemi cal react i on, mat t er t he
bur ni ng mercury, t he altered ai rchanges f or m. But mass is
nei t her created nor destroyed. The same amount goi ng i nt o
t he t ransact i on must come out t he ot her end. The ledgers
must balance, a t ax collector woul d say.
In 1794, dur i ng t he Reign of Terror, Lavoisier and Mari e
Anne' s fat her were convicted al ong wi t h ot her tax f ar mer s as
enemi es of t he state and br ought by wagon t o t he Place de la
Revol ut i on, where a wooden pl at f or m had been erected,
every bit as i mposi ng as t he one on whi ch Lavoisier had once
bur ned di amonds. In place of t he giant lenses was anot her
exampl e of French technology, t he guillotine.
58
Lavoisier
A st ory ri cochet i ng t hr ough t he Int ernet a while ago
insisted t hat before his execut i on Lavoisier arranged to per-
f or m one final experi ment . The guillotine had been pr o-
mot ed in France as a part i cul arl y huma ne f or m of execut i on,
manuf act ur i ng i nst ant aneous and painless deat h. Here was a
chance to find out . The mome nt he felt t he bl ade t ouch his
neck Lavoisier woul d begi n bl i nki ng his eyes as many t i mes
as he coul d. An assistant st andi ng in t he crowd woul d count
the blinks. The st ory is probabl y not t rue. But it sounds like
just t he ki nd of t hi ng Lavoisier mi ght have done.
59
C H A P T E R 5
Luigi Galvani
Animal Electricity
Luigi Galvani
For it is easy in exper i ment at i on t o be deceived, and t o
t hi nk one has seen and discovered what we desire t o see
and discover.
Lui gi Galvani
M
IDWAY t hr ough t he ei ght eent h cent ury, when
electricity was all t he rage, an amat eur scientist st ood
before t he Royal Society in London and descri bed what
mi ght be called Symmer' s law: opposi t e-col ored socks at t ract
while like-colored socks repel. To keep his feet comf or t abl e
in winter, t he speaker, a gover nment clerk named Robert
6 0
Galvani
Symmer, was accust omed to weari ng t wo layers of stockings.
In the mor ni ng he woul d pull whi t e silk socks over a black
wool en pair. In t he af t er noon he woul d reverse t hem. Dur i ng
the t ransi t i on, t he t wo di fferent mat eri al s crackled and
bristled wi t h opposi t e charges, and Symmer, who became
known as t he barefoot phi l osopher, woul d sit back in his
chair marvel i ng at t he results.
"When this exper i ment is per f or med wi t h two black st ock-
ings in one hand, and two whi t e in t he other," he report ed, "it
exhibits a very curi ous spectacle: The repul si on of t hose of t he
same colour, and t he at t ract i on of t hose of di fferent col ours,
t hrows t hem i nt o an agitation t hat is not unent ert ai ni ng. "
Thi s was t he height of t he r omant i c era in electrical
research, wi t h scientists debat i ng whet her electricity was a
vapor, a fluid, or, as Benj ami n Frankl i n specul at ed, "subt l e
particles." Cr anki ng t he wheels of t hei r static-electricity
generat orsgreat spi nni ng disks and globes t hat were
r ubbed to pr oduce a chargesci ent i st -ent ert ai ners (t hey
were called "electricians") sent shock waves traveling hand by
hand t hr ough huma n chains. Suspend a man in a chai r wi t h
silk ropes (to keep hi m f r om bei ng gr ounded) and his head
could be made to glow like t he gold leaf aura ar ound t he
i mage of a saint. A young woman, picked f r om t he audi ence
and given a charge, woul d electrify her sui t or wi t h an unf or -
gettable kiss. Positive, meet negative.
Ghost l y as it seemed, electricity was tangible enough to
store in a jar. Wr apped inside and out wi t h t wo pieces of foil
connect ed to opposi t e poles of a fri ct i on generat or, t he vessel
t ook on a chargenegat i ve on one side of t he glass and pos-
itive on t he ot her t hat lingered l ong after t he wires were
removed. Touchi ng bot h sides of this pri mi t i ve capacitor,
called a Leyden jar, was like bei ng st ung by an eel.
61
Symmer' s socks. From a treatise by Jean-Antoine Nollet,
a French abbd and physicist
Empi ri cal fact t angl ed wi t h fant asy as scientists deliber-
ated over report s of l i ght ni ng spont aneousl y causi ng cripples
to walk or pl ant s t o grow faster. Specul at i ng t hat electricity
was pr oduced in t he br ai nf r om t he conversi on of phlogis-
t onJoseph Priestley went on to pr opose t hat it was respon-
6 2
Galvani
An ei ght eent h-cent ury static electricity machi ne and
Benj ami n Franklin' s drawi ng of two Leyden jars
sible for muscul ar mot i on . . . as well as for t he iridescent
sheen of parakeet feat hers and t he light "said to proceed f r om
some ani mal s" when t hey stalked t hei r prey at ni ght , and
even f r om peopl e "of a part i cul ar t emper ament , and espe-
cially on some ext r aor di nar y occasions."
Ot her s t hought some ki nd of "nerveo-el ect ri cal " fluid was
pr oduced in t he body by fri ct i on. It was a st art l i ng idea. Like
63
T H E T E N MO S T B E A U T I F U L E X P E R I M E N T S
Symmer' s socks, nerves and bones woul d r ub against mus-
cles, generat i ng t he life force, electricity.
ON AN April eveni ng in 1786, mor e t han a quar t er cent ur y
after Symmer' s discovery, Luigi Galvani, a mi ddl e-aged pr o-
fessor of anat omy, walked to a t errace at t he Palazzo Zam-
boni near his home in Bologna, carryi ng a roll of met al wire
and t he legs of a frog prepared, as he oft en put it, "in t he
usual manner ": severed at t he spinal cord wi t h t he sciatic (or
crural ) nerves dangl i ng out .
As cl ouds gat hered to t he sout h, he posi t i oned t he head-
less speci men on a table and connect ed it t o a clothesline of
wire, whi ch he had st r ung overhead. Then he waited for an
electrical st or m, observi ng t hat t he legs t wi t ched in response
to l i ght ni ng as t hough war ni ng of t he comi ng t hunder .
TABLE I!
Muscular contractions caused by lightning. From Galvani's
De Viribus Electricitatis in Motu Musculari Commentarius
6 4
Galvani
Over t he years Galvani had pr oduced similar effects in his
laboratory, st i mul at i ng frog nerves wi t h electricity cranked
f r om a generat or or di scharged f r om a Leyden jar. The
demonst r at i on above t he Palazzo Zamboni conf i r med for
hi m t hat "nat ur al " electricity pr oduced t he same physiologi-
cal reaction as "artificial" electricity. One way or anot her , it
made muscl es move.
There was one exper i ment , however, t hat he was finding
harder to i nt erpret . Several years earlier one of his assistants
had happened to t ouch a scalpel to a frog' s exposed nerve j ust
as a second assistant, wor ki ng nearby wi t h a generat or, cre-
ated a small spark. No wires r an f r om t he machi ne to t he dis-
sected ani mal , but its legs cont ract ed violently, as if in a
seizure. Galvani had been investigating t he phe nome non
ever since.
Early on he established t hat t he response wasn' t caused
si mpl y by i rri t at i on f r om t he scalpel. Maki ng sure t he gener-
TABLF. I
Static electricity and frogs' legs
65
at or was idle, he pressed against t he nerve wi t h a met al blade.
No mat t er how insistently he pr obed, t he muscl es lay
mot i onl ess. The effect clearly appeared to be electrical.
Ot her experi ment s showed t hat an i ron cylinder woul d
pick up t he spark and make t he legs twitch, but not a glass
rod. Somet i mes, however, even a met al scalpel failed to pro-
voke a response. Galvani quickly realized t hat these failures
occurred when he held t he i nst r ument by its bone handl e
wi t hout t ouchi ng t he rivets or t he blade. Somehow t he
exper i ment er himself seemed to be par t of t he reaction. To
test this hypot hesi s, he placed t he met al cylinder by itself on
t he table so t hat it t ouched t he nerve, and t hen cranked t he
generat or. The leg lay still.
Step by step, he el i mi nat ed t he variables. If he connect ed
t he nerve t o a l ong met al wire instead of a shor t cylinder, a
di st ant spark did make t he legs j ump. The si t uat i on was
becomi ng a bit clearer. Scientists already knew t hat electricity
could exert its i nfl uence across a distance: t he hairs on a
huma n neck bristled when a l i ght ni ng bol t st ruck nearby.
Cr anki ng t he generat or caused a t ensi on t o bui l d in t he ai r
an "electrical at mosphere. " The hol der of t he scalpel and t he
scalpel itself served as a ki nd of ant ennaa l i ght ni ng r od
di schargi ng itself t hr ough t he frog.
But maybe, Galvani suspect ed, somet hi ng even st ranger
was happeni ng. If t he frog was merel y reacting to artificial
electricity t ransmi t t ed t hr ough t he air, t he intensity of t he
t wi t chi ng shoul d depend on t he proxi mi t y of t he spark.
At t achi ng a met al hook to a frog' s spinal cord and t he hook
to a length of wire, he repeat ed t he exper i ment at vari ous dis-
tances, pl aci ng t he frog as far as 150 feet away f r om t he gener-
ator. The reaction was as vi gorous as evereven when the
legs were shielded inside a tin cylinder or isolated in a
66
Galvani
vacuum chamber. One vari at i on after anot her seemed to
poi nt to what Galvani had instinctively come to believe:
that t he electricity pr oduced by t he machi ne was not t he
pr i mar y cause of t he j umpi ng. It was no mor e t han a trig-
ger, exciting a nat ural l y occur r i ng "ani mal electricity" t hat
flowed t hr ough t he nerves.
Galvani knew how easy it was for an experi ment er t o fool
himself, to see what he want ed to see. Warily he circled his
prey. Early in Sept ember, several mont hs after t he experi -
ment at t he Palazzo Zamboni , he t ook several of his t r un-
cated frogs and hung t hem by met al hooks f r om an i ron
railing on his balcony. Thi s t i me t here was no l i ght ni ng, no
generat ors sparki ng, and yet t he legs t wi t ched anyway.
The electricity coul d not be ori gi nat i ng inside t he met al ,
he reasoned. A single conduct or t he hook and rai l
cannot hol d a charge. To create a pot ent i al , negative and
positive must be kept carefully apart , as in a Leyden jar.
Har der t o di scount was t he possibility t hat at mospher i c elec-
tricity had somehow "crept i nt o t he ani mal and accumu-
lated," r ushi ng out when t he hook made cont act wi t h t he rail.
The sky t hat day was clear, but Galvani want ed to rul e out t he
possibility.
Wi t h one hand he picked up a frog, dangl i ng it by its
i mpl ant ed hook so t hat t he feet t ouched t he t op of a silver
box. Hol di ng a piece of met al in his ot her hand, he t ouched it
to the same shiny surface, compl et i ng a circuit and causi ng
t he frog to j ump. The same t hi ng happened when he held t he
frog by t he t orso so t hat bot h t he hook and one of t he feet
br ushed against t he flat conduct or : "At t he very mome nt t he
foot t ouched t he surface, all t he leg muscl es cont ract ed, lift-
ing t he leg." When t he foot fell back t o the surface, it con-
t ract ed again . . . and again, the frog hoppi ng and hoppi ng
67
unt i l its energy was spent . What could this be but ani mal
electricity?
In 1791, Galvani publ i shed his findings as De Viribus
Electricitatis in Motu Musculari Commentarius (Commentary
on the Effect of Electricity on Muscular Motion), proposi ng
t hat t he frog' s muscl e was like a Leyden jar, st ori ng and dis-
chargi ng some ki nd of organi c electricity. After carefully
descri bi ng his experi ment s and analyzing t he results, he
allowed himself to speculate. In peopl e, he pr oposed, an
excess of electricity mi ght cause fidgeting, fl ushi ng, or in ex-
t r eme si t uat i ons epileptic seizures. Vent uri ng briefly out si de
his own area of expertise, he suggested t hat l i ght ni ng and
eart hquakes mi ght somehow be related: "But let t here be
a limit t o conj ect ures!" In t i me he hoped to investigate
whet her electricity was involved in all manner of bodi l y
f unct i ons: "on circulation of t he bl ood and secretion of t he
humor s , these t hi ngs we will publ i sh as soon as possible in
anot her comment ar y, when we have f ound a little mor e
leisure."
AT FIRST Al essandro Volta, one of Europe' s greatest electri-
cians, was i mpressed by Galvani' s discovery, decl ari ng t hat
t he exper i ment s had placed ani mal electricity "among t he
demonst r at ed t rut hs. " Then he politely proceeded to dis-
mant l e t he t heor y piece by piece.
Taking as his subject an ent i re frog, he tried t ouchi ng its
back wi t h a st ri p of met al and its leg wi t h a coin or a key.
Then he closed t he arc by bri ngi ng t he t ops of t he t wo probes
together. The result was "t he same convulsions, spasms and
j erks" t hat Galvani had r epor t edbut onl y if he used t wo
di fferent ki nds of metals.
68
Galvani
Galvani had report ed in his own exper i ment s t hat a
"bimetallic arc" seemed t o ampl i fy t he cont ract i ons, but he
consi dered this no mor e t han a di vert i ng detail. At first Volta
was similarly inclined, pr oposi ng t hat t he combi nat i on of
metals somehow encouraged t he flow of t he frog' s own elec-
tricity as it rushed t hr ough t he compl et ed circuit. But t hen
he t ook a closer look.
After exposi ng a sciatic nerve, he at t ached t wo tiny met al
clips, like collars, leaving a slight gap in bet ween. One clip
was tin and t he ot her was silver. The mome nt he closed t he
ci r cui t t ouchi ng the clips t oget her or bri dgi ng t hem wi t h a
wi r et he l i mb convulsed. He pr oduced a similar effect wi t h
tin and brass. The conduct i ng arc, Volta was comi ng to
believe, was not just a qui escent connect i on di schargi ng or
even accelerating ani mal electricity. It was the actual source
of the energy. When t he frog' s leg t wi t ched, it was act i ng like
t he needle of a very sensitive met er. What it was i ndi cat i ng
was t he presence of a newly discovered phenomenon:
bimetallic electricity. "Galvani' s t heor y and expl anat i ons . . .
are largely disqualified, " Volta wrot e to a colleague, "and the
entire edifice is in danger of collapsing."
When Galvani' s frog danced on t he lid of a silver box, it
was merel y reacting to electrical shocks. Volta's concl usi on
was as gent l emanl y as it was cruel: "If t hat is how t hi ngs are,
what is left of the ani mal Electricity cl ai med by Galvani, and
seemingly demonst r at ed by his very fine experi ment s?"
GA LVA N I was qui ck to rise t o t he challenge. It was t r ue t hat
brass hooks had been used to hang frog legs f r om an i ron
rail. But t he arc did not have to be bimetallic: he report ed
similar results wi t h i ron hooks. Ret ur ni ng to t he l aborat ory,
6 9
he and his suppor t er s showed t hat t hey coul d elicit convul -
si ons by si mul t aneousl y t ouchi ng muscl e and nerve wi t h two
pieces of metal t hat were obvi ousl y identical.
Volta was ready wi t h an answer. A piece of met al may
seem to be homogeneous, but inevitably t here woul d be
i mpur i t i esi mper cept i bl e di fferences t hat woul d generat e
electricity.
So t he Galvanists went back to t he lab, devising i ngeni ous
demonst r at i ons in whi ch t he conduct i ng arc consisted of a
glass vessel filled wi t h unadul t er at ed mercury. A dissected
muscl e was floated on t he surface, wi t h its spinal cord sus-
pended f r om a silk t hread. The t hread was lowered so t hat
t he nerve t ouched t he mercury, andzapt he muscl e
t wi t chcd.
Impuri t i es, Volta insisted. If t he muscl e moved t here had
to be dissimilarities in t he met al a circular ar gument t hat
was i mpossi bl e to refut e.
They were at a st andoff. For one man, t he frog generat ed
electricity t hat flowed t hr ough t he metallic arc. For t he ot her,
t he metallic arc generat ed electricity t hat flowed t hr ough t he
frog.
THE ONLY recourse for t he Galvanists was t o get t he met al
out of t he loop. One experi ment er showed t hat a piece of
car bon served j ust as well: "Why t hen ascribe to t he di fferent
power of metals, effects whi ch can be pr oduced by bodi es
whi ch certainly have not hi ng of t he metallic quality?" Volta
insisted t hat the exper i ment proved not hi ng since car bon
was, aft er all, a conduct or.
Anot her experi ment er showed t hat he could pr oduce t he
galvanic response si mpl y by t ouchi ng t he frog' s muscl e wi t h
7 o
Galvani
one of his hands and t he ani mal ' s severed nerve wi t h t he
other. "Each t i me I t ouch it, t he frog jerks, leaps, and, I ' m
t empt ed to say, escapes me." The concl usi on seemed obvi ous:
"met al s are not t he mot or s of el ect r i ci t y. . . . They possess no
secret, magi c virtue. "
In what seemed t he most persuasive exper i ment yet, Gal-
vani el i mi nat ed external conduct or s entirely, gently mani pu-
lating a dissected frog so t hat t he dangl i ng sciatic nerve came
directly i nt o cont act wi t h t he muscl e cont rol l i ng t he leg. It
i mmedi at el y gave a kick. Wher e did t he electricity come f r om
but t he ani mal itself?
A conf i dent Galvani mocked Volta wi t h his own words:
"But if t hat is how t hi ngs arei f such electricity is i ndeed
wholly specific to t he ani mal , and not c ommon and
ext ri nsi cwhat will become of t he opi ni on of Si gnor Volta?"
It si mpl y had to be modi fi ed. By now Volta was comi ng to
t hi nk of t he muscl e, t he nerve, t he experi ment er' s hands, and
even t he frog itself as weak "second-class" conduct or s.
Galvani' s experi ment wi t hout
external conduct ors
71
Whet her nerve was t ouched to muscl e or silver to brass, t he
effect was t he same: dissimilar conduct or s pr oduced what he
now was calling cont act electricity.
In Galvani' s earlier exper i ment s a pair of first-class con-
duct or smet al scalpels, brass hooks, silver box l i dswere
separat ed by a moi st second-cl ass conduct or, t he frog. He
mi ght j ust as well have used wet car dboar d or, as Volta went
on to show, a huma n t ongue. Put a silver coin on t op and a
copper one on t he bot t om and you coul d taste electricity.
The exper i ment s involving a single met al were as readily
expl ai ned. One first-class conduct or f or med an arc bet ween
two second-class conduct ors: t he nerve and t he muscl e.
Finally you coul d make an arc entirely f r om mushy second-
class conduct ors: a hand and a frog. Or gani c or i norgani ci t
di dn' t mat t er, as l ong as t he dissimilarity was there.
WE KNOW now t hat bot h men were right. They each proved
it wi t h a beaut i ful experi ment .
First Volta. Taking several dozen disks, half made of cop-
per and half of zinc, he stacked t hem one on t op of anot her,
al t ernat i ng met al s and separat i ng t hem wi t h r ound card-
boar d spacers t hat had been di pped in salty water. If he made
t he stack hi gh enough he could give himself a mi l d shock. He
coul d also use silver and tin, or replace t he car dboar d wi t h
little cups of salt water, chai ned t oget her wi t h bimetallic
electrodes.
He had invented t he battery. The title of his paper, pub-
lished in 1800, seemed to say it all: On the Electricity Excited
by the Mere Contact of Conducting Substances of Different
Kinds. Galvani' s frog was not hi ng but a moi st separat or in a
voltaic pile.
72
Galvani
Volta's electrical pile. From his 1800 manuscri pt
But no, for Galvani' s cr owni ng exper i ment was as elegant
as Volta's. He prepared anot her of his frogs "in t he usual
manner, " wi t h t he pr i mar y nerve of each leg sticking out .
In t he earlier exper i ment he had t ouched nerve directly to
muscl e. Thi s t i me, usi ng a small glass rod, he nudged one
nerve against the ot her: t wo identical conduct or s, and t he
result was a muscul ar cont r act i on, one t hat did not occur
if he si mpl y i rri t at ed the second nerve wi t h t he piece of
73
glass. "Now what dissimilarity coul d be called in to explain
the cont ract i ons, " he asked, "since t he cont act is f or med
bet ween t he nerves alone?" The effect coul d have been pro-
duced, he insisted, onl y "by a circuit of electricity i nherent in
the animal. "
Though nei t her man coul d qui t e see it, t hei r experi ment s
compl ement ed each other, for t hey were danci ng ar ound a
single t r ut h. Nat ural , artificial, ani mal el ect ri ci t y is elec-
tricity. Volta di dn' t appreci at e t hat what he was observi ng
wi t h his "cont act electricity" was a chemi cal reaction (he
actually t hought his bat t ery was a source of perpet ual
mot i on) , and Galvani cl ung to t he idea t hat t here was some-
t hi ng i nherent l y di fferent about biological electricity.
It woul d be years before physiologists laid out the details
of what Galvani, egged on by Volta, had gl i mpsed wi t h his
frogs: how, in an organi sm, each mi croscopi c cell acts like a
little battery, wi t h membr anes behavi ng like car dboar d spac-
ers and charged i ons playing t he role of zinc and copper
coins. What results is a st andoff bet ween positive and nega-
tive, t he el ect romot i ve force called voltage. When a muscl e
moves or a finger feels t he surface of a st one, a current flows
t hr ough t he ner vous system. There is no ethereal "vital
force." Life is electrochemistry.
74
C H A P T E R 6
Michael Faraday
Something Deeply Hidden
Michael Faraday
I shall never look at the lightning flashes wi t hout recalling
his delight in a beautiful st orm. How he would stand at
the wi ndow for hours watching the effects and enjoying
the scene; while we knew his mi nd was full of lofty
thoughts, sometimes of the great Creator, and sometimes
of the laws by which He sees meet to govern the earth.
Margaret Reid, Michael Faraday' s niece
Spark.The brilliant star of light produced by t he dis-
charge of a voltaic battery is known to all as the most
beautiful light that man can produce by art.
Mi chael Faraday, Experimental Researches in Electricity
75
E
v e r y b o d y knew Ada Lovelace was t roubl e. The
daught er of t he poet Byron, she had been bor n wi t h a wild
streak t hat her mot her tried to suppress by occupyi ng t he
girl' s mi nd wi t h mat hemat i cs. The t herapy wasn' t entirely
successful she tried to r un off wi t h one of her t ut ors. She was
caught , t amed, and mar r i ed to a nobl eman, but she preferred
t he company of scientists. The i nvent or Charles Babbage
was par t of her coterie. He called her his "Enchant ress of
Number s. " She called herself t he "Bride of Science." She was
obsessed wi t h new ideas: phrenol ogy, mesmer i sm, a "calculus
of t he ner vous system." In 1844, when she was t went y-ei ght ,
she st ruck up a fl i rt at i ous cor r espondence wi t h Engl and' s
greatest experi ment er, Michael Faraday, pr oposi ng t hat she
be his muse and "ladye-fairy."
I will be t he beaut i ful phant om, gl owi ng in col our &
el oquence, when you so order me. But I will now be
a little qui et br own bi rd at your side, and gently let you
teach me how to know & aid you. But my wand is yours
at pleasure, & i nt o your hands I deliver it for your use.
It is har d to tell f r om his careful replies what Faraday
t hought of her gushi ngs, under scor ed wi t h stabs of ink. He
was fifty-three years old, mar r i ed, a pi ous Chri st i an, and in
recovery f r om what woul d nowadays be called a ner vous
br eakdown. Most of his great work was behi nd hi mt he
exper i ment s drawi ng t oget her electricity and magnet i sm.
Maybe it was Ada' s flattery t hat pushed hi m to go one step
f ur t her and show, in an elegant demonst r at i on, t hat electro-
magnet i sm itself is i nt i mat el y connect ed wi t h light.
7 6
Faraday
Lady Ada Lovelace
They had come f r om di fferent worl ds. The son of a black-
smi t h and a bookbi nder ' s apprent i ce, Faraday had per suaded
t he great English chemi st Humphr y Davy t o take hi m on as a
secretary and assistant. The dut i es at first i ncl uded servi ng as
Davy' s valet, traveling wi t h hi m t o Europe, and meet i ng t he
likes of Volta and Andr - Mar i e Amper e. Hi red by t he Royal
Inst i t ut i on in London, Faraday embar ked on a career doi ng
t he yeoman' s wor k of science: analyzing clays for t he Wedg-
wood chi na makers and gunpowder for t he East Indi a Com-
pany, st udyi ng i ndust ri al processes at met al f oundr i es i n
Wales. When he was about t he age of his young cor r espon-
dent , an i nsurance company had asked hi m t o report on t he
77
fl ammabi l i t y of whale oil, and t he British Admi ral t y on the
best ways of dr yi ng meat . It was ar ound t hat t i me, in late
1820, t hat Davy came to hi m wi t h exciting news f r om a Dan-
ish scientist, Hans Chri st i an Oerst ed.
Oerst ed had made a voltaic bat t ery by filling t went y ves-
sels wi t h dilute acid and l i nki ng t hem in series wi t h pieces of
copper and zinc. Then he connect ed one pol e of t he appar a-
t us to a l ong wire and placed it over a compass, parallel to t he
needle. The mome nt he t ouched t he ot her end of t he wire to
t he opposi t e side of t he battery, the compass needl e swung
west. If he placed t he wire beneat h t he compass, t he needle
swung east.
Over comi ng their disbelief, Davy and Faraday r ushed to
repeat t he demonst r at i on, while Ampfere, wor ki ng in Paris,
showed t hat parallel wires carryi ng current s in t he same
di rect i on at t ract ed each ot her like magnet s. If one of t he cur-
rents was reversed, t he wires moved apart .
So clear a connect i on bet ween magnet i sm and electricity
was surpri si ng enough. What was ast oni shi ng was t hat a
force coul d move in circles instead of st rai ght lines. ("Vertig-
i nous electricity," one scientist called it.) Not hi ng in Newt on-
ian mechani cs had predi ct ed this. Faraday went on to show
78
Faraday
that wi t h a cr ude appar at us usi ng mer cur y and a cork he
could make an electrified wire revolve ar ound a magnet or a
magnet ar ound an electrified wire. He had invented t he elec-
tric mot or. If he shaped a wire i nt o a l oop and at t ached it t o a
battery, it became a weak magnet . If he wound t he wire i nt o a
spiral, t he magnet i c force was even stronger, concent r at ed
inside t he center of t he coil.
Wi t h a few deft experi ment s, he had moved t o t he fore-
front of Eur opean science. And t hat is where he left t hi ngs for
a while. The next decade was domi nat ed by t he met al l urgy
of steel and copper, t he manuf act ur e of gl assmor e er r ands
of t he Indust ri al Age. In a letter to Amper e, he l ament ed
how many of his days were "unf or t unat el y occupi ed in very
common place empl oyment " instead of t he research he
loved. He f ound some t i me for mor e i magi nat i ve pursui t s,
st udyi ng t he undul at i ng pat t erns, or "crispations, " t hat
appeared when he spread a t hi n layer of sand or powder
across t he surface of a met al plate and vi brat ed its edge wi t h a
violin bow. A second plate of powder placed nearby woul d
From Faraday's diary, a wire
rotating around a magnet
79
vi brat e in sympat hy. He also experi ment ed wi t h liquids.
"Mer cur y on tin plate bei ng vi brat ed in sunshi ne gave very
beaut i ful effects of reflection," he report ed, soundi ng a bit
like Newt on. "Ink and water vi brat ed in sunshi ne looked
ext remel y beautiful. " It was not unt i l 1831 t hat he finally re-
t ur ned to his coils and batteries.
By t hen t he English electrician William St urgeon had
wound bare wire ar ound a varni shed iron core to make an
el ect romagnet st rong enough t o hol d mor e t han its own
weight. Using insulated wire, t he Ameri can Joseph Henr y
made an el ect romagnet t hat woul d suppor t mor e t han a t on.
One s umme r day Faraday deci ded to see what woul d happen
if he put t wo separat e coils in close proximity. He asked the
shop at t he Royal Inst i t ut i on to forge a ri ng-shaped iron
f r ame seven-ei ght hs of an inch thick and six inches in di am-
eter. Ar ound one side he wr apped sevent y-t wo feet of copper
wire, i nsul at ed wi t h t wi ne and calico. Thi s he called coil A.
On t he ot her side of t he ring, wi t h about sixty feet of wire, he
wound coil B.
There was no direct connect i on bet ween one coil and t he
Faraday's drawings
of an induction ring
80
Faraday
other. Yet when he t ouched t he wires of t he first coil t o t he
poles of a battery, a gal vanomet er at t ached to t he second coil
twitched and oscillated before settling back to its original
position. Di sconnect i ng t he bat t ery made t he needl e move
again. Thi nki ng, perhaps, of t he cri spat i ons in his acoust i c
experi ment s, he envi si oned a "wave of electricity" pr oduced
in the pr i mar y coil traveling t hr ough t he ri ng and s omehow
begetting a cur r ent in t he second coil. He had discovered
el ect romagnet i c i nduct i on and cracked open a wi ndow ont o
a new worl d.
Movi ng a bar magnet back and f or t h inside a hol l ow coil
also generat ed a cur r ent in t he wire. Oerst ed had convert ed
electricity i nt o magnet i sm, and now Faraday had convert ed
magnet i sm i nt o el ect ri ci t yproduci ng t he first cr ude elec-
trical dynamo, t he mechani cal inverse of t he mot or he had
devised ten years before. Electricity coul d be used t o pr oduce
mot i on, and mot i on t o pr oduce electricity. Deep beneat h t he
surface of reality, as Einstein woul d later say, somet hi ng lay
hi dden. The j ob of t he scientist was to coax it out .
The closer Faraday l ooked, t he mor e he under st ood. He
had not i ced t hat over t i me, t he copper electrodes in his
voltaic cells slowly become t ai nt ed wi t h zinc oxide, whi l e t he
zinc electrodes became coated wi t h copper. The flow of elec-
tricity f r om t he bat t ery' s t wo poles must be accompani ed by
an i nt ernal movement of at oms. Not onl y was this t he basis
for a pr omi si ng i ndust ri al processcopper-cl addi ng or sil-
verplating a piece of metal: t he phe nome non also poi nt ed
toward anot her deep connect i on. A bat t ery was a crucible for
t ur ni ng one ki nd of ener gychemi cal i nt o anot her ki nd:
electrical. The process also worked t he ot her way. When t wo
electrified wires, positive and negative, were i mmer sed in a
81
slightly salty sol ut i on, hydrogen accumul at ed at one pol e and
oxygen at t he ot her. Electricity was pr oduci ng chemical reac-
tions, and chemi cal reactions were pr oduci ng electricity.
Scientists all over Europe were conf r ont i ng these myst-
eries. Was water made f r om hydrogen and oxygen? Or, as
a Ger man scientist pr oposed, was water el ement al wi t h
oxygen made f r om combi ni ng it wi t h positive electricity
and hydrogen f r om combi ni ng it wi t h negative electricity?
He even t ri ed to revive t he phl ogi st on theory. It was Fara-
day, mor e t han anyone, who cut t hr ough t he confusi on.
Thr oughout t he 1830s he demonst r at ed in one experi ment
after anot her how electricity, magnet i sm, and chemi st ry all
were related. Then, a few years before Ada Lovelace began her
pursui t , he fell i nt o a sl ump.
For a l ong t i me he had compl ai ned of pr obl ems wi t h his
memor y. Now he was receding i nt o a dark depressi on,
unabl e t o concent rat e, sufferi ng f r om dizzy spells. Maybe t he
cause was ment al fat i gueor cumul at i ve poi soni ng f r om all
t he chemi cal s t hat had t ouched his skin. On doct or' s orders
he began t ur ni ng down speaki ng i nvi t at i ons and requests for
i ndust ri al research, confi ni ng himself most l y to wri t i ng and
cont empl at i on. A falling-out wi t h his chur chappar ent l y
over some ki nd of factional di sput eadded to his isolation.
Then came t he barrage of italicized flattery f r om Lady
Lovelace, t empt i ng hi m so st rongl y t hat he felt he had no
recourse but to cut it off: "You drive me to desperat i on by
your invitations," he pl eaded. "I dare not and must not come
and yet find it al most i mpossi bl e t o refuse."
Maybe it is t oo great a reach to say t hat his close encount er
wi t h t he Bride of Science was a t ur ni ng poi nt , but it was
ar ound this t i me t hat t he cl ouds began t o lift. Faraday, a
8 2
Faraday
3ur nt - out case, r et ur ned t o his l abor at or y t o take up a ques-
tion t hat had been gnawi ng at hi m f or years. It was clear now
that electricity and magnet i s m were t i ght l y related. But coul d
there also be a connect i on bet ween electricity and light?
As scientific advi ser t o Tri ni t y House, an or gani zat i on
chartered in 1514 by Henr y VIII "so t hat t hey mi ght regul at e
the pi l ot age of shi ps in t he King' s st reams, " Faraday had
worked t o i mpr ove t he power f ul Ar gand oil l amps used in
the l i ght houses al ong t he English and Welsh coasts. In late
August 1845, he fired up one of t he beacons in his l abor at or y
and pr epar ed t he way f or what woul d become his most beau-
:iful exper i ment .
As light travels it vi brat es t ransversel yat ri ght angl es t o
its di rect i on of mot i on. But if it is reflected f r om a flat surface
ar passed t hr ough cert ai n crystals like t our mal i ne, it be-
comes pol ari zed, its osci l l at i ons conf i ned t o a single pl ane.
If you l ooked at one of t hese beams t hr ough a second
pol ari zi ng crystal whi l e r ot at i ng it t hr ough 360 degrees, t he
image woul d go f r om light t o dar k t o light agai n as t he filters
moved in and out of sync.
The quest i on Faraday now posed was whet her an el ect ri -
cal cur r ent coul d twist a light beam, maki ng its pl ane of
vi brat i on rot at e. Filling a l ong t r ough wi t h a mi l dl y conduct -
ing sol ut i on, he pl aced pl at i num el ect rodes at each end and
connect ed t hem t o a five-cell bat t ery. The set up was si mi l ar
to what one mi ght use t o decompos e wat er i nt o its con-
st i t uent gases or t o copper pl at e a s poon. He lit t he Ar gand
l amp and reflected its light off a glass pl at e, causi ng it t o
become pol ari zed. Then he passed t he beam t hr ough t he
s ame sol ut i on wher e electricity was f l owi ng and rechecked
t he pol ar i zat i on usi ng a devi ce called a Nicol pr i sm.
83
Not hi ng happened: t he di rect i on of vi brat i on was
unchanged. He tried t he exper i ment wi t h cont i nuous cur -
rents, wi t h i nt ermi t t ent current s, wi t h cur r ent s passed
t hr ough vari ous sol ut i ons, but t here was no perceivable
effect. He t ri ed shi ni ng t he light beam parallel t o t he electri-
cal flow instead of across it. Still no shift in pol ari zat i on.
Specul at i ng t hat his batteries were not st rong enough, he
t ri ed again wi t h a static electricity generat or, chargi ng a plate
of glass and shi ni ng t he light beam t hr ough it every whi ch
way. Still not hi ng.
It was t hen t hat he deci ded to t ry magnet i sm. Retrieving
8 4
Faraday
i
y
The polarization experiment. A square of glass (left) is placed
against the opposing poles, north and south, of an electromagnet.
A polarized light beam passing through the glass is rotated
by the electromagnetic field. From Faraday's diary
f r om his stockpile a heavy piece of optical glass about t wo
inches square and half an i nch thick, he mount ed it next to
t he poles of a powerful el ect romagnet . He arranged t he l amp
and pol ari zi ng surface so t hat hori zont al light waves passed
t hr ough t he length of t he glass. Looki ng t hr ough the Nicol
pr i sm, he rot at ed it unt i l t he beam was ext i ngui shed. Then
he swi t ched on t he cur r ent . The i mage of t he fl ame suddenl y
reappeared. He t ur ned t he magnet off and t he fl ame di sap-
peared again. The magnet i c field was maki ng t he light beam
t ur n.
All his previ ous wor k wi t h magnet i sm and electricity was
comi ng to a climax. Wi t h t he exhi l arat i on t hat comes f r om
total absor pt i on, he t hr ew himself i nt o his research. "At pres-
ent I have scarcely a mome nt t o spare for any t hi ng but
work, " he wrot e t o a colleague. "I happen t o have discovered a
direct relation bet ween magnet i sm & light also Electricity &
85
THE TEN MOST B E AUT I F UL E XP E RI ME NT S
l i ght and the field it opens is so large & I t hi nk rich t hat I
nat ural l y wish t o look at it first I actually have no t i me to
tell you what t he t hi ng i sf or I now see no one & do not hi ng
but j ust work. "
The al i gnment of the magnet i c field, Faraday l earned, was
par amount . Not hi ng happened when he placed a nor t h mag-
netic pole on one side of t he glass and a sout h pol e on t he
ot her. Nor was t here any effect when he exposed t he t wo
sides of t he glass t o similar poles, or when t he same poles
were lined up on t he same side. "BUT," he wrot e in his di ary
(like Ada Lovelace on adrenal i ne, he under l i ned t he wor d
t hree t i mes), "when cont r ar y magnet i c poles were on t he
same side, t here was an effect pr oduced on t he pol ari zed r ay
and t hus magnet i c force and light were proved to have rela-
t i on t o each other."
He conf i r med t hat a power f ul per manent magnet woul d
also rot at e t he beam and t hat ot her t r anspar ent mat eri al s
could be used in place of glass. Some worked bet t er t han ot h-
ers, but in every case t he degree of rot at i on depended on t he
st rengt h of t he magnet i c field. And if t he pol ari t y of t he field
was reversed, t he light beam t ur ned t he ot her way. The final
t hread had been pulled i nt o t he tapestry. Electricity was
ent wi ned wi t h magnet i sm and magnet i sm wi t h light.
It was left for James Clerk Maxwell, t wo decades later, t o
show wi t h his f amous equat i ons t hat light is el ect romagnet -
ism. Wi t h barely a pause Faraday tried to push t he uni fi ca-
t i on furt her, at t empt i ng to connect gravity wi t h magnet i sm,
a quest t hat el uded hi m and Einstein and every scientist
since. "ALL THI S IS A DREAM, " he wr ot e in his diary.
"Not hi ng is t oo wonder f ul to be t rue, if it be consistent wi t h
t he laws of nat ure, and in such t hi ngs as these, exper i ment is
t he best test of such consistency."
86
Faraday
Thr oughout all this, Ada was still in his mi nd. "You see
what you doever as you like wi t h me," he wrot e t o her in
1851, six years aft er he had begged her t o go away. "You say
write & I wr i t eand I wish I had t he st rengt h and had rest
enough for a great deal more. " The next year she di ed of cer-
vical cancer. She was thirty-six. Faraday outlived her by fif-
teen years.
87
C H A P T E R 7
James Joule
How the World Works
James Prescott Joule
You will therefore be surprised to hear that until very
recently the universal opi ni on has been that living force
could be absolutely and irrevocably destroyed at any one' s
opt i on. Thus, when a weight falls to the ground, it has
been generally supposed that its living force is absolutely
annihilated, and that the labour which may have been
expended in raising it to the elevation f r om which it fell
has been entirely t hrown away and wasted, wi t hout the
product i on of any per manent effect whatever.
James Joule, lecture in Manchester, 1847
88
Joule
W
E DON' T know what William Thoms on was t hi nki ng
on t hat cl oudy August day in 1847 as he set out on f oot
f r om Chamoni x t oward Saint Gervais, but it probabl y had
somet hi ng to do wi t h physics. A child prodigy, he had
publ i shed his first scientific paper when he was sixteen. Fresh
out of Cambr i dge at t went y-t wo, he was named to t he chair
of nat ural phi l osophy at t he University of Glasgow, and now,
a year later, was t rekki ng in t he French Alps bound for Mont
Blanc. All t he forces of nat ure, Thoms on was comi ng to
believe, must be related (he had been "i nocul at ed wi t h
Faraday fire"), and he may have been t ur ni ng t hat t hought
over in his head as he appr oached t he t ur nof f for t he hi gh
trail over t he Col du Bonhomme and encount er ed t he
familiar face of anot her hiker, James Prescott Joule.
Joule was on his honeymoon (his wife was fol l owi ng
behi nd in a carriage), and he was carryi ng, or so Thoms on
woul d later r emember , a l ong t her momet er wi t h whi ch to
measur e t he t emper at ur e of waterfalls. If Joule was right, t he
water at t he bot t om of a fall must be slightly war mer t han t he
water at t he t op, and this woul d mean t hat t he prevailing t he-
ory of heat, t he one force of nat ur e Thoms on f ound most
puzzling, was i ncorrect . He agreed to meet up wi t h Joule a
few days later at t he "Cascade de Sal l anches"probabl y t he
1,199-foot Ar penaz waterfall, whi ch by Joule' s reckoni ng
shoul d show a t emper at ur e di fference of roughl y one and a
half degrees Fahrenhei t . Ther e was t oo much spray to take an
accurat e readi ng, Thoms on report ed. Dataless, t he t wo men
went t hei r separat e ways.
The st ory is probabl y a little t oo neat . Though he di d meet
Joule on t he trail, Thoms on, t he f ut ur e Lord Kelvin, made no
8 9
T HE TEN MOS T B E AUT I F UL E XP E RI ME NT S
ment i on of t he t her momet er when he wrot e to his fat her a
few days later f r om t he Hospi ce du Gr and- Sai nt - Ber nar d.
Memor i es have a way of becomi ng mus hed together. It seems
likely t hat years later, when Kelvin, by t hen one of t he most
revered scientists in Europe, descri bed t he encount er, he was
confl at i ng it wi t h an earlier event.
Thei r pat hs had first crossed t wo mont hs earlier at a scien-
tific meet i ng in Oxf or d. Accust omed to havi ng his ideas
i gnored, Joule, a sel f-t aught amat eur f r om t he i ndust ri al city
of Manchest er, was delighted when at t he end of his talk this
young man named Thoms on st ood up and made some acut e
observat i ons. Joule was t oo awkward and reserved t o make a
good lecturer, but at least s omeone had been listening.
Thoms on woul d later insist t hat he had r emai ned seated and
asked his quest i ons onl y aft erward. Thi s t i me maybe Joule' s
me mor y was playing tricks, but t he exper i ment he descri bed
had clearly made an i mpressi on.
Lavoisier had l oosened t he gri p of t he fictional phl ogi s-
t on, but before his deat h he i nt r oduced anot her i nvent i on:
caloric, his name for an invisible subst ancea "subt l e
fl ui d"sai d to be t he carri er of heat. The idea seemed sensi-
ble enough. Somet hi ng t hat was hot was dense wi t h caloric,
and because caloric had a t endency t o expand, it woul d nat u-
rally mi gr at e t oward where it was not . Put a met al poker i nt o
a fire, and t he caloric will rise up t he shaft until you can feel
t he war mt h in t he handl e. Thi ngs expanded when t hey were
heat ed because t hey t ook in caloric. Gases got hot t er when
compressed because t he caloric wi t hi n t hem became mor e
concent r at ed, and t hey cool ed as t hey rarefied because t he
caloric spread out .
In a st eam engine, caloric could even be harnessed, like
9 0
Joule
water in a mill, to do work. Concent r at ed in l umps of bur n-
ing coal, caloric flowed i nt o t he boiler, heat ed t he water, and
was carried wi t h t he st eam t hat pushed t he pi st on. When t he
cycle was compl et e t he same amount was expelled i nt o t he
air as exhaust . Like mat t er, caloric coul d be nei t her created
nor destroyed. The universe had been bequeat hed wi t h a
fixed amount t hat was const ant l y bei ng shut t l ed f r om place
to place.
That is why Thoms on had f ound Joule' s present at i on so
unsettling. Joule cl ai med t o show t hat heat coul d be created
at will. At a recept i on later t hat day at t he Radcliffe Camer a,
t he elegantly domed cylindrical annex of t he Bodleian
Library, they discussed t he i mpl i cat i ons. "Joule is, I am sure,
wr ong in many of his ideas," Thoms on wr ot e t o his fat her a
coupl e of days later, "but he seems t o have discovered some
facts of ext r eme i mport ance. " Not l ong aft erward, Joule fol-
lowed up wi t h a letter to his new fri end suggesting how a
rope, a bucket , and a good t her momet er coul d be used to
show t hat heat was generat ed even by falling water.
JOULE was not t he first scientist to challenge t he not i on t hat
heat is an invisible fluid, and here Lavoisier, or rat her his
widow, Mari e Anne, ent ers our st ory one last t i me. She t oo
had spent t i me in pri son, but after Robespierre' s fall had
reclaimed t he Lavoisier estate and was presi di ng again over
a lavish salon f r equent ed by some of Europe' s pr emi er
t hi nkers. One of her guests was Benj ami n Thomps on, an
Ameri can exile who had f ound himself on t he losing side of
t he Revolution and had fled to London, abandoni ng his wi fe
and daught er. He later moved to Bavaria where he acqui red a
9 i
title, Count Rumf or d, and after he met Mari e Anne, in 1801,
was det er mi ned to acqui re her as well. She was lively, ki nd,
and intelligent, he wrot e, and t hough she was, as he delicately
put it, rat her "en bon poi nt " (pleasingly pl ump) , "her per-
sonal f or t une is considerable. "
Arrogant and moody, t he count was no prize himself (his
previ ous br i de had also been a rich wi dow), and he must
have sensed t hat the way to Mari e Anne' s heart was t hr ough
her brai n. He cour t ed her wi t h tales of his scientific feats,
many of whi ch had to do wi t h heat t he i nvent i on of t he
Rumf or d stove, t her mal underwear, a dr i p coffeepot , and
most significantly t he first widely known exper i ment to cast
doubt on t he caloric theory.
Whi l e wor ki ng wi t h t he Bavarian military, Rumf or d had
been i mpressed by how much heat was pr oduced by bor i ng
out the holes of brass cannons. Convent i onal wi sdom held
t hat t he drilling was liberating caloric t hat was t r apped in the
met al , but Rumf or d was dubi ous. He submer ged a cannon in
water and harnessed t wo horses to t ur n t he bit. The water got
hot t er and hot t er until after t wo and a half hour s it came to a
boil "merel y by t he st rengt h of a horse, wi t hout either fire,
light, combust i on, or chemi cal decomposi t i on. "
"It woul d be difficult t o describe t he surpri se and ast on-
i shment expressed in the count enances of t he by-st anders,
on seeing so large a quant i t y of cold wat er heat ed, and act u-
ally made to boil wi t hout any fire," he report ed to t he Royal
Society. He saw no reason to doubt t hat , as l ong as t he horses
lasted, he coul d keep on chur ni ng out mor e heat . If t here was
such a t hi ng as caloric, t he cannon itself seemed t o hol d an
i nexhaust i bl e supply.
Ot her s had come to a similar concl usi on: t hat heat is not a
9 2
Joule
material t hi ng but some ki nd of vis viva ("living force") or
mot i on"a very brisk and vehement agitation of t he part s of
a body," Robert Hooke had wri t t en. The Swiss mat hemat i -
cian Dani el Bernoulli had pr oposed t hat heat was t he vi bra-
tion of invisibly tiny particles of mat t er. But t hat was a dyi ng
theory, and Rumf or d' s exper i ment hadn' t been done wi t h
enough precision to change many mi nds.
After a four-year court shi p, Rumf or d per suaded Mari e
Anne t o be his wife and moved i nt o her mansi on. The mar -
riage di dn' t last. One day, j eal ous of his solitude, he bar r ed
her guests f r om t he house. She retaliated by pour i ng boi l i ng
water, rich in caloric, on his roses. Finally she pai d hi m
300, 000 to 400, 000 francs to go away.
DURI NG THE FIRST decades of t he ni net eent h cent ury,
as experi ment ers like Faraday teased out hi dden electro-
magnet i c connect i ons, t he nat ur e of heat so familiar,
mundane, and power f ul r emai ned st ubbor nl y obscure.
Somehow in its passage t hr ough a st eam engi ne, this myste-
ri ous not hi ng coul d literally move t he eart h. St eam-dri ven
pumps sucked t ons of wat er f r om mi ne shafts, exposi ng
deep veins of coal t hat woul d drive l ocomot i ves, factories,
and mills. St eam shovels excavated lodes of i ron ore f r om
whi ch to forge mor e tools and machi nery. Wi t h a source of
power so abundant and port abl e, a small wat er-dri ven
i ndust ri al economy t hat had spr out ed al ong nor t her n En-
gland' s mi l l st reams began spreadi ng sout hwar d i nt o t he
flatlands. In Manchest er, where Joule was bor n in 1818, t here
were soon st eam engi nes everywhere, bel chi ng smoke and
t ur ni ng wheels. The basic pri nci pl e of these devices was well
93
A late-eighteenth-century steam engine made by James Watt
under s t ooda head of hi gh-pressure st eam pushed a pis-
t on t hat was geared to t ur n a wheel but no one knew what
laws of nat ur e made this possible. It was as t hough, later on,
t he nucl ear reactor had been devel oped t hr ough trial and
er r or wi t hout anyone under st andi ng t he physics.
It seemed clear enough what was happeni ng in t he old
riverside mills. Water flowed rapi dl y at t he t op of a paddl e
wheel, fell downwar d, and emerged at t he bot t om at a slower
pace. Some of its "effort, " or vis viva, was spent t ur ni ng t he
wheel. The greater t he di fference bet ween t he i ncomi ng and
out goi ng velocities, t he mor e power was ext ract ed f r om t he
waterfall.
94
Joule
A water wheel
Engi neers like t he Fr enchman Lazare Car not had st udi ed
how t o make wat er mills as efficient as possible. In 1824 his
son, Sadi Car not , named for a Persian poet , went on to pr o-
pose an analogy: a st eam engi ne is like a paddl e wheel wi t h
t he wat er replaced by caloric "falling" down a gradi ent f r om
hot to cold. He descri bed his t heor y in a treatise, little known
at t he t i me, called Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire.
St eam ent ered t he engi ne at a very hi gh t emper at ur e and
exited at a much lower one. By maxi mi zi ng t he di fference
one coul d squeeze as much wor k f r om t he fuel as physics
allowed. One coul d also r un t he cycle backward: per f or mi ng
wor k to p u mp heat back uphill (what a mode r n refri gerat or
does wi t h t he power it sucks f r om t he wall out l et ).
Carnot ' s analysis mar ked t he begi nni ng of what Kelvin
95
T HE TEN MOST BEAUTI F UL E XP E RI ME NT S
woul d name t her modynami cs, but it left intact t he idea
t hat heat was a subst ancecal or i ct hat , like wat er passing
t hr ough a water wheel, was nei t her created nor destroyed. As
a teenager, Joule probabl y l earned all this f r om his t ut or, John
Dal t on, anot her Manchest er resident, whose chemi st ry ex-
per i ment s had established t he f oundat i on of moder n at omi c
theory. Joule' s father, a pr osper ous brewer, had arranged for
James and his br ot her to st udy privately wi t h t he chemi st .
Qui ckl y becomi ng the eager boy scientist, James shocked his
pl aymat es wi t h Leyden jars and experi ment ed wi t h electric-
ity on a l ame horse and on a servant girl, who received such a
jolt t hat she fai nt ed. By t he t i me he was ni net een, wor ki ng
at t he brewery, he was t i nkeri ng wi t h coils and magnet s, hop-
ing t o i nvent an electric mot or mor e powerful t han a st eam
engi ne yet cheaper to r un.
To power t he device, Joule used voltaic cells in whi ch two
el ect r odesone zinc and one copper wer e i mmer sed in
di l ut e sul f ur i c acid. In a bat t ery like this, t he acid eats away at
t he zi nc releasing an excess of electrons. Connect a mot or
across t he poles and a cur r ent will flow, magnet i zi ng t he coils
t hat make t he r ot or spi n.
Early on, Joule not i ced t hat t he st rengt h of an el ect romag-
net i ncreased as the square of t he cur r ent . By doubl i ng t he
numbe r of batteries, you quadr upl ed t he power. The possi-
bility t hat t he same mi ght be t r ue for an electric mot or must
have seemed as st unni ng as cold fusi on did in t he 1980s. "I
can hardl y doubt t hat el ect ro-magnet i sm will ul t i mat el y be
subst i t ut ed for st eam to propel machi nery, " Joule declared
wi t h t he ent husi asm of a t went y-year-ol d unused t o t he
t roubl es posed by t he mat eri al worl d. "The cost of wor ki ng
t he engi ne may be reduced ad infinitum." Except for mi nor
i mpedi ment s like air resistance and fri ct i on, he believed,
9 6
Joule
"t here seemed to be not hi ng to prevent an enor mous velocity
of rot at i on, and consequent l y an enor mous power."
Reality was not so compl i ant . Joule' s first mot or was
barely power f ul enough to t ur n itself over. He tried di fferent
ar r angement s of coils and batteries, and wr apped di fferent
ki nds of wire ar ound di fferent ki nds of cores, but he cont i n-
ued to r un up against nat ure' s will. The mor e cur r ent you fed
to t he mot or , t he hot t er its coils became. In fact Joule discov-
ered t hat t he heat also increased accordi ng to t he rul e of
squares. If you doubl ed t he number of bat t eri es you quadr u-
pled the heat . It was a losing pr oposi t i on. The har d t r ut h was
t hat you cannot get mor e energy out of a system t han you put
i nt o it. You can onl y convert t he energy i nt o a di fferent f or m.
By 1841, t he lesson had t hor oughl y sunk in. The best st eam
engines in t he worl d coul d sap enough vis viva f r om a pound
of coal to lift 1.5 mi l l i on pounds one foot off t he gr oundor
one pound 1.5 million feet off t he gr ound. A pound of coal,
in ot her words, was doi ng 1.5 mi l l i on f oot - pounds of wor k.
Joule' s best bat t ery-powered mot or coul d extract onl y one-
fifth as much f r om a pound of zinc, and zinc cost sixty to
97
seventy t i mes mor e t han coal. "The compar i son is so very
unfavourabl e, " he l ament ed, "t hat I confess I al most despair
of t he success of el ect ro-magnet i c at t ract i ons as an econom-
ical source of power."
Today, of course, electric mot or s, powered by electricity
f r om t he grid, have suppl ant ed st eam engi nes in factories
ar ound t he worl d. But ul t i mat el y t hei r energy comes f r om
st eam. In a power pl ant , coal or gas is bur ned or ur ani um is
fissioned to boil water, movi ng t he t ur bi nes t hat drive t he
dynamos t hat make electricity.
To A PERSON engaged in t he practical craft of mot or mak-
ing, heat was a nui sance, but Joule was st art i ng to sense a
deeper t r ut h: t hat t here was a f undament al connect i on
bet ween heat and work. A wire shor t ed across t he poles of a
bat t ery will quickly become so hot t hat t he i nsul at i on
smokes. But if you insert a mot or i nt o t he circuit, t he wire
stays cooler: wor k is accompl i shed at t he expense of heat .
The same was t rue if you used t he bat t ery t o electrolyze
water, splitting it i nt o hydrogen and oxygen, or to electro-
plate a spoon.
Maybe caloric was fl owi ng f r om t he battery, al ong wi t h
electricity, but t he bat t ery di dn' t seem to get cool er mor e
evi dence t hat t he heat was not preexisting but generat ed on
t he fly. In 1843 Joule began put t i ng t he hypot hesi s to a test.
The idea was t o place a coil inside an insulated glass t ube
filled wi t h wat er and spin it wi t h a hand crank. Sitting al ong-
side woul d be two power f ul el ect romagnet s salvaged f r om
Joule' s electrical engines. The result was a generat or. The
wires of t he coil were connect ed to a gal vanomet er to mea-
sure how much cur r ent was pr oduced. (To keep t he wires
98
Joule
f r om twisting he devised a clutch made f r om mer cur y sitting
inside t wo semi ci rcul ar grooves.) He woul d measur e t he
t emper at ur e of t he water, steadily t ur n t he cr ank for fifteen
mi nut es, and t hen take t he t emper at ur e again.
It was a very delicate oper at i on. He had to adj ust for
t hi ngs like t he cool i ng effect of t he air and changes in r oom
t emper at ur e. He had t o allow for t he fact t hat t he cur r ent
i nduced in t he spi nni ng coil was not steady but pul sat i ng. He
tried di fferent st rengt hs of magnet s, di fferent number s of
batteries, and when he was done he had per suaded hi msel f
t hat t he spi nni ng made t he wat er slightly warmer. Compar -
ing the readi ngs f r om t he gal vanomet er wi t h t hose f r om t he
t her momet er , he saw a familiar rel at i onshi p: doubl e t he cur -
rent and you get f our t i mes t he heat .
The coil was not connect ed to a battery. So where was t he
caloric comi ng from? The onl y possible source of heat was
t he wor k Joule was doi ng by t ur ni ng t he crank. As in Rum-
ford' s cannon exper i ment , circular mot i on was bei ng con-
verted i nt o a di fferent ki nd of movement t i ny mat eri al
vi brat i ons our fingers feel as heat .
To per suade t he skeptics Joule knew he woul d have t o go a
99
Joule's generator. The electromagnets are not shown.
step furt her. Precisely how many f oot - pounds of work does it
take to pr oduce a given a mount of heat? He redesigned his
ori gi nal apparat us, wi ndi ng t he axle of t he hand crank wi t h
t wo l ong pieces of twine, coiling t hem in opposi t e directions.
Each was sl ung over a pulley and at t ached to a pan t hat held
a weight. As t he weights fell, t he coil woul d spin and generat e
electricity and heat.
After t ryi ng di fferent weights falling f r om di fferent
hei ght s (t o give t hem enough r oom he dug t wo holes in his
garden), he est i mat ed t hat t he mechani cal effort st ored in an
838-pound mass suspended a foot off t he gr ound woul d pro-
duce enough heat to raise a pound of wat er by one degree
Fahrenhei t . Pound for pound, t he t emper at ur e of a waterfall
838 feet hi ghKi ng Edward VIII Falls in Guyana conies
cl oseshoul d be roughl y one degree war mer at t he bot t om
t han at t he top.
In August 1843, he descri bed his results at a scientific con-
ference in Cork, Ireland, but , as he later put it, "t he subj ect
di d not excite much general at t ent i on. " The tangle of di ffer-
ent phenomenael ect ri ci t y, magnet i sm, heat, mot i on
may have obscured t he poi nt of his present at i on, and Joule
Weights and pulleys to turn the generator crank
100
Joule
himself probabl y di dn' t help. He still needed a knockdown
experi ment t hat woul d speak for i t sel fone t hat was si m-
pler, mor e elegant, wi t h cleaner lines.
BY THE T I M E of the Oxf or d meet i ng in 1847, where he met
William Thoms on, Joule had his pr oof in hand. It was late in
the af t er noon so he was asked to keep t he present at i on short .
He had carried his new appar at us down f r om Manchest er
and set it up on a table in t he lecture r oom: a vessel made of
copper clad wi t h tin. The lid, also tin, had a hol e cut dead
center to accommodat e t he shaft of a brass paddl e wheel, and
anot her hol e in whi ch to insert a t her momet er .
Joule explained how he had filled t he vessel wi t h wat er
and rigged up t he weights, strings, and pulleys to make t he
paddl e t ur n. Ar ound t he inside wall of the cont ai ner, brass
baffles resisted t he circular movement of t he water, increas-
ing t he fri ct i on. Placing a 29- pound weight in each pan, he
raised t hem 5.25 feet f r om t he gr ound and let t hem fall. Then
he r ewound t he spi ndl e and let t he wei ght s fall again, repeat -
ing t he pr ocedur e t went y times. All together, t he wor k used
to chur n t he water added up to about 6,090 f oot - pounds:
58 pounds of wei ght raised 105 (20 x 5.25) feet high. He con-
The refined version of Joule's experiment
101
duct ed the exper i ment a total of ni ne times, finding in the
end t hat t he t emper at ur e of t he water had risen by an average
of 0.668 degree.
He figured t hat some of t he force f r om t he falling weights
had been wasted overcomi ng t he fri ct i on of the pulleys and
string. To est i mat e how much, he t ook a roller of t he same
di amet er as the spi ndl e and wound a piece of t he t wi ne once
ar ound it, suspendi ng his weights f r om bot h ends. Gradually
addi ng smaller weights to one side, he f ound t hat it took
about 7.2 ounces (3,150 grai ns) to upset t he bal ance and
cause t he wheel to budge.
Taking this and ot her factors i nt o account , he i mproved
on his earlier calculation: heat i ng one pound of water by one
degree t ook 781.5 f oot - pounds of effort , a figure he woul d
later refine to 772 f oot - pounds. Conversely a one-degree dif-
ference in t emper at ur e had t he pot ent i al i f onl y you could
t ap i t of raising a one- pound weight 772 feet in t he air.
Thi s t i me t here were no coils and bat t eri es to muddy the
message. Heat and wor k were not onl y related but t he same:
t wo di fferent ways in whi ch "effort " or vis vivaenergy, we
now saywas convert ed i nt o mot i on. Work was what
resulted when a force was used to move somet hi ng across a
di st ancea horse pul l i ng a wagon. It was st ruct ured energy
put to product i ve use. Heat , on t he ot her hand, was unpr o-
ductive work, directionless, unst r uct ur ed, energy dissipated
as r andom mi croscopi c vi brat i ons. As at omi c t heory cont i n-
ued to develop, the image woul d become mor e vivid: heat is
t he vi brat i on of at oms.
It was an ext r aor di nar y not i on, j ust barely under st ood:
Joule was expendi ng this st uff called energy when he raised a
weight off t he gr ound, and when t he wei ght fell it was giving
t he energy back. Harnessed t o a generat or, t he work coul d be
1 0 2
Joule
converted i nt o electrical power, whi ch mi ght be used to r un a
mot or and p u mp wat er uphill t o a reservoir, wher e it coul d
flow downwar d and t ur n a wat er wheel, whi ch mi ght be used
to wi nd a gi ant clock spri ng. But at every step of t he way, a
por t i on of t he energy woul d be lost as heat . And if t he wei ght
was si mpl y allowed t o fall wi t h no wor k done, heat is all you
woul d get f r om t he i mpact wi t h t he gr ound and t he resis-
tance of t he air. It was not caloric t hat must always be con-
served but energy.
Once he accepted Joule' s discovery, Thoms on went on to
wor k out t he i mpl i cat i ons. Though heat di dn' t di sappear
f r om t he universe, it gradual l y became degraded, flowing
f r om hot t o cold and never back agai n"i rrecoverabl y lost."
The i mpl i cat i on, he realized, was t hat t he worl d had once
been ext remel y hot and woul d inevitably become colder:
"Wi t hi n a finite peri od of t i me past t he eart h mus t have
been, and wi t hi n a finite per i od of t i me to come t he eart h
must again be, unfi t for t he habi t at i on of man. "
The same was t r ue for t he universe. It began wi t h a bang
and it has been downhi l l ever since. All t hat f r om t ryi ng to
under st and st eam engines.
103
C H A P T E R 8
A. A. Michelson
Lost in Space
Albert A. Michelson
There are no l andmarks in space; one port i on of space is
exactly like every ot her port i on, so that we cannot tell
where we are. We are, as it were, on an unruffl ed sea, wi t h-
out stars, compass, soundi ngs, wi nd, or tide, and we can-
not tell in what direction we are going. We have 110 log
which we can cast out to take a dead reckoning by; we
may comput e our rate of mot i on with respect to the
nei ghbori ng bodies, but we do not know how these bod-
ies may be movi ng in space.
James Clerk Maxwell, Matter and Motion
1 0 4
Michelson
F
OR AN old sailor like Albert Abr aham Mi chel son, what
Maxwell was descri bi ng was a ni ght mar et o be adri ft
on a wi ndl ess ni ght wi t hout a star t o gui de you. Mi chel son
had l earned his physics as a young man in t he U.S. Navy, bot h
at t he Academy in Annapol i s and on t he ocean, pract i ci ng
the art of navi gat i on. You had to forget Coperni cus, t hi nk
like Ptolemy. You and your shi p were at t he center wi t h t he
orbi t i ng stars as your gui de. In reckoni ng your posi t i on, you
woul d take i nt o account t he velocity of your vessel, adj ust i ng
for t he speed and di rect i on of t he wi nd. But as lost and
confused as a young ensi gn mi ght feel, he knew t hat his shi p
was in the crosshairs of some godly eyeprecisely at a
certain l at i t ude and l ongi t ude. Surely t he same must be t r ue
as we sailed t he universe. Ther e had to be s ome ki nd of
st andard, somet hi ng fixed to measur e by.
Or so he hoped. It was 1885 and for t he past several weeks,
Mi chel son himself had been unmoor ed, living at t he Hot el
Nor mandi e in New York City under the care of a pr omi nent
psychiatrist. He' d gone soft in t he head, as his col l aborat or
Edward Morl ey put i t dri ven one moment , depressed t he
next. His wife tried to commi t hi m t o an asyl um. His chil-
dren were scared of hi m. The doct or ul t i mat el y deci ded t hat
t here was not hi ng dangerousl y wr ong. But Mi chel son was
clearly a man obsessedby light and by color, by the way
colliding beams caused t he iridescent s hi mmer of an insect' s
wings. He i magi ned l umi nescent musi c, where t he per-
f or mer woul d sit at a keyboard and play visual not es f r om t he
spect r um, color chords and arpeggios, "r ender i ng all t he fan-
cies, moods, and emot i ons of t he huma n mi nd. "
105
T HE TEN MOS T B E AUT I F UL E XP E RI ME NT S
In November 1885, Mi chel son, in a mani c mode, pre-
pared to r et ur n to his l abor at or y at t he Case School of
Applied Science in Cleveland, onl y to find t hat his posi t i on
had been filled and t hat he woul d have to take a salary cut.
He came home anyway, moved i nt o t he back r oom of a house
where he no l onger felt want ed, and prepared for his greatest
exper i ment usi ng light beams t o clock t he velocity of t he
Eart h against t he backdr op of out er space.
IN TWO New Sciences, Galileo had suggested how one mi ght
test whet her light is i nst ant aneous or moves wi t h a finite
speed. St andi ng on a hi l l t op at ni ght , an experi ment er woul d
flash a bri ght light t oward a di st ant hill, where an assistant,
awaiting t he signal, woul d answer by flashing back. If t here
was no noticeable delay, one coul d concl ude t hat "if not
i nst ant aneous, light is very swift."
No hills on eart h are far enough to really tell, but in the
1670s t he Dani sh ast r onomer Ole Roemer f ound a way to
make t he measur ement across t he solar system. Trai ni ng his
telescope on Jupiter at cert ai n t i mes of t he year, he not i ced
t hat its i nner most moon, Io, seemed to be slowing in its
orbi t . That , Roemer sur mi sed, was because as Jupiter and its
moons moved f ar t her f r om Eart h, t hei r light t ook l onger to
reach us. Taking i nt o account what was known about pl ane-
t ary distances, his observat i ons i mpl i ed a light speed of
about 225,000 ki l omet ers (140,000 miles) per second.
It was a bol d concl usi onKepl er and Descartes had been
sure t hat light moved infinitely f ast t hat was not conf i r med
until half a cent ur y later when an English ast ronomer, James
Bradley, discovered a phenomenon called t he aberrat i on of
starlight. Tracking t he star Ga mma Draconi s, he f ound t hat it
1 0 6
Michelson
A diagram by Roemer of Jupiter (B) eclipsing its moon Io (DC)
as viewed from different points in the Earth's orbit around the sun
wander ed f r om its expected posi t i on, movi ng steadily sout h-
ward f r om Sept ember to March and t hen nor t hwar d again.
After rul i ng out ot her possibilities, he hit on t he expl anat i on:
by the t i me t he starlight reached his telescope, t he Eart h had
shi ft ed posi t i on. Like a duck hunt er l eadi ng wi t h his rifle,
an ast r onomer had to lead wi t h his telescope. Based on
Bradley' s dat a, light traveled at 183,000 miles per second.
In 1849 t he French physicist Ar mand- Hi ppol yt e- Loui s
Fizeau made a mor e direct measur ement wi t h a sophi st i -
cated version of Galileo' s flashing l ant erns. From a house in
t he western subur bs of Paris he proj ect ed a light beam
t oward a mi r r or at op Mont mar t r e, whi ch reflected it back
again. Int erposed in t he pat h was a rapi dl y spi nni ng cog-
wheel wi t h 720 precisely machi ned teeth. When t he rot a-
1 0 7
The Fizeau experiment. Light is projected between the teetli
of a rapidly spinning cogwheel onto a mirror (M),
which sends it back through the wheel again.
t i onal speed was set j ust so, t he light, goi ng and comi ng,
woul d pass t hr ough a gap in t he wheel' s ci rcumference and
appear in Fizeau' s eyepiece as "a l umi nous poi nt like a star."
Spin t he wheel a little faster or slower and t he beam woul d be
eclipsed. Fr om t he length of the light pat h and t he speed of
t he wheel, Fizeau est i mat ed t he velocity of light at about
196,000 miles (315,400 ki l omet ers) per second.
Thi r t een years later, his rival Lon Foucaul t refi ned the
exper i ment , replacing t he cogwheel wi t h a spi nni ng mi r r or
set at an angle. On t he t wo legs of its j ourney, t he ray woul d
strike t he mi r r or at slightly di fferent poi nt s in its rot at i on.
Measuri ng t he tiny di spl acement gave light speed as 185,000
miles (297,700 ki l omet ers) per second.
The Foucault experiment. Light from the source (S)
glances off the spinning mirror (R), then travels through
the lens (L) to a second mirror (M). By the time the beam returns,
the first mirror has moved, causing a slight deflection.
108
Michelson
Mi chel son woul d have l earned all this at t he Naval Acad-
emy in Annapol i s, where he had arrived in 1869 by his own
ci rcui t ous rout e. The oldest son of Polish i mmi gr ant s, he had
moved wi t h his family to Cal i forni a where his fat her opened
a dr y goods store at a gold mi ni ng camp. Later t hey followed
t he silver r ush to Nevada, and aft er hi gh school Al bert
applied to t he Academy. When he failed to get an appoi nt -
ment f r om his congressman, he had t he t emeri t y t o catch a
t rai n to Washi ngt on and persuade Presi dent Ulysses S. Gr ant
to intervene. By 1874 Mi chel son was an ensi gn aboar d t he
USS Worcester, goi ng on t o become an i nst ruct or in physics
and chemi st ry at Annapol i s. It was t here t hat he met Mar -
garet Hemi nway, t he niece of an officer who headed t he
physics depar t ment and t he daught er of a Wall Street t ycoon.
They mar r i ed in 1877, and a year later, wi t h $2,000 f r om
his father-in-law, Mi chel son began pl anni ng his first big
experi ment .
In Foucault' s at t empt to clock a light beam, t he displace-
ment f r om t he spi nni ng mi r r or was less t han a single
mi l l i met ervery difficult to gauge. Mi chel son knew t hat if
he could proj ect t he beam down a much l onger pat h (Fou-
Michelson's drawing of his rotating mirror
1 0 9
cault' s was j ust t went y met ers l ong), t he lag t i me woul d be
t hat much greater. The r et ur ni ng beam woul d hit t he mi r r or
later in its cycle, resulting in a larger deflection and, he
hoped, a bet t er value for t he speed of light.
He began by placing t wo mi rrors, one revolving and one
st at i onary, about 2,000 feet apart al ong t he nor t h seawall of
t he campus. To measure t he separat i on precisely, he used a
steel tape, calibrated against a copy of t he "st andard yard."
Hol di ng t he t ape flat al ong t he pier wi t h lead weights, and
t aki ng pai ns to ensure t hat it was st ret ched at a const ant t en-
sion, he made several readings. Correct i ng for t he effect of
t emper at ur e on expansi on and cont r act i on of t he tape, the
di st ance bet ween t he mi r r or s came out to be 1,986.23 feet.
Everyt hi ng had to be j ust so. To adj ust t he posi t i on of t he
st at i onary mi rror, t he one t hat woul d bounce t he light beam
back down t he l ong course, he used a telescope and a survey-
ing device called a t heodol i t e. To clock t he speed of t he
revolving mi r r or he used an electric t uni ng fork (whi ch he
had met i cul ousl y calibrated against a st andar d t uni ng fork).
A small steel mi r r or was at t ached to one of t he tines, reflect-
ing an i mage of t he spi nni ng apparat us. When the frequency
of vi brat i on coi nci ded wi t h t he speed of rot at i on, t he image
woul d freeze stroboscopically.
Usi ng a st eam- power ed bl ower t o spi n t he mi r r or at 256
revol ut i ons per second and sunl i ght focused t hr ough a lens,
he measur ed t he defl ect i on at t he end of t he light' s j our ney at
133 mi l l i met ers"bei ng about 200 t i mes t hat obt ai ned by
Foucault. " A few calculations yielded a speed of 299,940 kilo-
met ers or 186,380 miles per secondj ust slightly hi gher t han
today' s accepted value of 186,282.397. (So conf i dent are scien-
tists of t hat numbe r t hat t he met er is now defi ned in t er ms of
t he speed of light rat her t han vice versa.)
110
Michelson
"It woul d seem t hat t he scientific worl d of Ameri ca is des-
tined to be ador ned wi t h a new and brilliant name, " t he New
York Times observed, predi ct i ng t hat light woul d soon be
measured "wi t h al most as much accuracy as t he velocity of
an or di nar y projectile."
By t h e t i me Mi chel son was maki ng his mar k wi t h his opt i -
cal speedomet er, scientists t hought t hey had settled t he ques-
tion of whet her light was made of particles or waves. Newt on
had i magi ned light as "gl obul ar bodyes" and even t ri ed to
explain refract i on t hat way. Passing t hr ough a pri sm and reen-
tering t he air, di fferent -col ored particles woul d be given di f-
ferent spins, like "a Tennis-ball st ruck wi t h an obl i que Racket."
Har der to f at hom was t he phe nome non t hat came to be
called Newt on' s rings, t he target of dar k and light bands t hat
appeared when a curved and a flat piece of glass were pressed
together. Graspi ng at straws, Newt on t heori zed t hat t he col-
ors were caused by light particles under goi ng "fits of easy
reflexion and t ransmi ssi on. "
No better t heor y was established unt i l 1801, when Thomas
Young (in his f amous two-slit exper i ment ) showed how t wo
Thomas Young's interference pattern
111
overl appi ng light beams can i nt erfere wi t h each ot her, pro-
duci ng a similar pat t er n. The onl y way to explain this, Young
pr oposed, was wi t h waves. The lighter sections were pro-
duced when t wo wave crests overl apped, t he darker sections
when t he crests were out of phase. Aft er ot her conf i r mi ng
experi ment s, t he wave t heor y came t o be consi dered al most
gospel, but it left a naggi ng quest i on: What was doi ng the
waving?
The answer t hat emer ged was anot her of t hose i mponder -
ables: t he "l umi ni f er ous aether," an i neffabl e somet hi ng t hat
pervaded ever yt hi ngeven t he spaces bet ween at oms. As
rarefied as not hi ngness itself, aet her was said to have t he abil-
ity to vi brat e and t r ansmi t light. Mor e f undament al l y, it
pr omi sed an ant i dot e for t he celestial sailor' s ni ght mar e.
Dr i f t i ng t hr ough space, we cannot fix our posi t i on or veloc-
ity against t he nei ghbor i ng stars, for t he stars are movi ng too.
But everyt hi ng coul d be measur ed against t he aether.
IN 1880, t wo years aft er his cel ebrat ed exper i ment at
Annapol i s, Mi chel son t ook a year' s leave f r om t he navy t o
st udy in Europe. Traveling wi t h his fami l y to Paris, where
Margaret had gone t o fi ni shi ng school , he conferred wi t h
French physicists about a pl an t o measur e t he mot i on of t he
Eart h against t he aet her. If he was ri ght , a light beam sent in
t he same di rect i on t hat t he Ear t h was movi ng ar ound t he sun
shoul d be slowed a little by an aet her wi nd. Provi ng so woul d
be a mat t er of meas ur i ng l i ght speed upwi nd and downwi nd
and compar i ng t he t wo. But t hat posed a pr obl em. Each
beam woul d have t o bounc e off a mi r r or , as in t he Annapol i s
exper i ment , in or der f or t he defl ect i on t o be observed. Any
change in velocity f r om t ravel i ng one way woul d be canceled
112
Michelson
out in t he ot her di rect i on. ( Swi mmi ng upst r eam and t hen
down takes t he same amount of t i me as s wi mmi ng down-
st ream and t hen up. )
But what , he pr oposed, if the beacons were sent out at
right angles, one in t he di rect i on of t he Earth' s orbi t and t he
ot her crossways? Now, as Mi chel son put it, one s wi mmer is
"st ruggl i ng upst r eam and back, while t he ot her, covering t he
same distance, j ust crosses t he river and ret urns. The second
swi mmer will always wi n, if there is any current in the river."
Or in t he case of t he light beams, if t here is an aet her wi nd.
Movi ng on to Berlin later t hat year, he began assembl i ng
his apparat us. The ha ndma de opt i cs were expensive, but
wi t h t he hel p of a colleague back home, Mi chel son got a
grant f r om Al exander Gr aham Bell.
In t he exper i ment , light f r om a l ant ern woul d be focused
ont o a half-silvered mi rror, whi ch woul d split t he beam i nt o
t wo l umi nous "pencils," r unni ng in per pendi cul ar direc-
tions. Traveling al ong t wo finely machi ned brass arms, each a
met er long, t hey woul d ri cochet off mi r r or s and come back
t oget her again. If the beams had moved at di fferent speeds
t hey woul d be slightly out of phase, wi t h t he crests of t hei r
waves not qui t e lining up.
The result woul d be an i nt erference effect like t he one
Thomas Young had described: a pat t er n of dar k and bri ght
lines, or "fringes." Revolve t he i nst r ument ni net y degrees,
changi ng its ori ent at i on to t he aethereal river, and t he fri nges
shoul d move. Taking i nt o account t he speed of t he Eart h
against t he aet her and t he wavelength of t he light, he pre-
dicted a di spl acement of at least one- t ent h of a fri nge, some-
t hi ng he was confi dent he coul d measure.
In so delicate an exper i ment , t he slightest vi brat i on mi ght
t hr ow off t he pat h l engt hs and spoil t he results. ("So ext raor-
113
Michelson's first interferometer,
viewed from the top and from the side
di nari l y sensitive was t he i nst rument , " he later not ed, "t hat
t he st ampi ng of t he pavement about 100 met ers f r om t he
observatory, made t he fringes di sappear entirely!") To keep
t he devi cet he i nt erferomet erst eady he anchor ed it to a
st one pier. To mi ni mi ze t emper at ur e differences, which
mi ght cause t he brass ar ms t o expand or cont ract , he covered
114
Michelson
t hem wi t h paper boxes, and even t ri ed s ur r oundi ng t he
equi pment wi t h mel t i ng ice. The pr ecaut i ons were not
enough. Even aft er mi dni ght , t he bust l e of Berlin ma de it
i mpossi bl e t o t ake a readi ng.
In search of qui et er s ur r oundi ngs , he rel ocat ed t o Pot s-
da m and installed t he equi pment in t he cellar of t he Ast ro-
physical Obser vat or y. At first, as he r ot at ed t he device, he
t hought he saw a subst ant i al f r i nge shi ft . The n he realized he
was acci dent al l y flexing t he brass ar ms. He had t he pi vot
r emade t o t ur n mor e freely and t ri ed agai n.
Day aft er day he measur ed, t ur ni ng hi s i nt er f er omet er t hi s
way and t hat , but he coul d find no mor e t han t he t i ni est
shift'Aoo of a f r i ngeso slight t hat he coul d onl y di smi ss it
as exper i ment al error. By now it was early April, when t he
Eart h moved in t he same di rect i on as t he whol e sol ar syst em,
i ncreasi ng its speed agai nst t he aet her, yet t her e still appear ed
t o be no si gni fi cant effect. Wr i t i ng t o his benef act or , Bell, in
1881, he r epor t ed t he negat i ve result. Mi chel son ma de clear
t hat t hi s shoul dn' t be t aken as di spr ovi ng t he exi st ence of t he
aet her. Ther e had t o be aet her. But maybe, as ot her physicists
had suggest ed, t he backdr op wasn' t ent i rel y fixed. Per haps
s ome of t he aet her in t he vi ci ni t y of Ear t h was bei ng dr agged
al ong in its j our ney ar ound t he sun. Traveling in t he eye of a
hur r i cane t her e woul d be no wi nd. Mi chel son' s conf i dence
was unshakabl e. "I have a very hi gh respect for his abilities,"
Bell woul d later wri t e, addi ng: " t hough I r at her suspect f r om
his ma nne r t hat he has too."
MI CHELSON' S onl y hope was t hat t he aet her dr ag was not
compl et e, t hat enough of t he celestial backdr op stayed put t o
pr ovi de a l andmar k t o measur e by. Thi s possibility had been
115
suggested earlier in t he cent ury by a French scientist,
F r a n c i s Arago, who had tried to measur e t he velocity of
starlight colliding wi t h t he Eart h. Arago assumed, nat ural l y
enough, t hat t he speed woul d vary dependi ng on whet her
t he orbi t i ng planet was appr oachi ng or ret reat i ng f r om t he
light source. He mount ed a pr i sm on t he end of a telescope,
predi ct i ng t hat faster light beams woul d be bent mor e
abrupt l y t han slower ones. He was surpri sed t o find t hat
what ever t he season t he angles were t he same.
Arago concl uded t hat our eyes must be sensitive to onl y a
small range of velocities, t hat t he faster and slower rays were
invisible. But his colleague August i n-Jean Fresnel came up
wi t h a di fferent expl anat i on: while aet her flows effortlessly
t hr ough mat t er' s mol ecul ar cracks, a tiny bit had become
st uck in Arago' s pri sm, carri ed al ong for t he ride. That , he
expl ai ned, woul d negate t he effect Arago was seeking. When
t he Eart h was appr oachi ng a star, its light woul d i ndeed
strike t he pri sm at a hi gher speed. But t hen it woul d be
slowed a compensat i ng amount by t he aet her t r apped inside
t he glass. The effect woul d be t r ue for any t r anspar ent
medi um, Fresnel pr oposed, and woul d depend on its i ndex
of r ef r act i ona measur ement of how much it slows and
bends light. Aether drag woul d t hus be noticeable in wat er
but insignificant in air.
In 1882, after his sabbatical in Europe, Mi chel son left t he
navy and j oi ned t he faculty of t he Case School of Applied
Science in Cleveland, whi ch had j ust opened its doors. Dur -
ing his first year, he measur ed t he speed of light in a vacuum
(al most dead- on at 186,320 miles per second). Then, wi t h a
man he had bef r i ended on a t rai n t ri p to Mont real , he began
t o ret hi nk t he aet her exper i ment .
116
Michelson
Edward Morley, a chemi st at nei ghbor i ng West ern Reserve
University, was as met i cul ous a scientist as Mi chel son. The
t wo men agreed t hat it woul d be pointless to make anot her
at t empt to detect t he Earth' s absol ut e mot i on unless t hey
could first conf i r m Fresnel' s hypot hesi st hat t he celestial
backdr op is fixed in space wi t h only pi nches of aet her
dragged al ong by t r anspar ent objects. So slight an effect
could be adj ust ed for. I mpr ovi ng on an exper i ment Fizeau
had done, t hey pumpe d wat er t hr ough a l oop of t ubi ng and
split a light beam so t hat one pencil moved wi t h t he cur r ent ,
t he ot her against. They ultimately conf i r med t hat t here was
i ndeed a small push and pull by t he water. (Anachroni st i c
aside: t hough t hey t ook this as conf i r mat i on of t he aet her
drag hypot hesi s, t he phe nome non is now explained as an
effect of special relativity.)
It was in t he mi dst of this exper i ment t hat Mi chel son fell
apart . The reasons are obscure. He and his wi fe had been
st uck in a bad marri age. He t hought she talked t oo much at
social gat heri ngs, always t ryi ng to steal t he show. She was
bored wi t h Cleveland, tired of her husband' s late ni ght s at
t he lab, or wherever he was. She compl ai ned t hat he t ook
money f r om t he househol d account to buy scientific equi p-
ment . When Mi chel son left for New York t o be t reat ed, Mor -
ley doubt ed t hat he woul d ever r et ur n to science.
Maybe t hat was wi shful t hi nki ng. (Mi chel son had been
t reat i ng Morl ey as shabbily as anyone. ) Less t han t wo
mont hs later he was back in t he l aborat ory, ready to r esume
t he exper i ment . Ther e was anot her set backi n 1886 a fire
destroyed t he Case School, and Mi chel son had t o move what
was salvaged to West ern. Finally, t he next spri ng, t he t wo
men were ready for what t hey hoped woul d be t he definitive
117
Mi r r or s
The Michelson-Morley experiment. The lower diagram shows
the paths of the two light beams, which were extended by
bouncing them back and forth between sixteen mirrors.
Michelson
test, to det er mi ne, as Morl ey put it, "if light travels wi t h t he
same velocity in all directions. " Like Mi chel son, he assumed
t he answer was no.
Thi s t i me even mor e care was t aken to cushi on t he i nt er-
feromet er against t he slightest vi brat i on. The pieces were
mount ed on a sandst one slab, about five feet square and
f our t een inches thick, whi ch was at t ached t o a wooden buoy,
shaped like a doughnut and fl oat i ng in a cast -i ron t r ough of
mercury. The t r ough itself was set on a concret e bed at op a
bri ck pl at f or m. Four met al mi r r or s were set at each cor ner to
reflect t he light f r om an Argand l amp back and f or t h,
increasing t he pat h l engt hst he one goi ng wi t h t he Eart h
and t he one movi ng acrosst o t hi rt y-si x feet. A wooden
cover prot ect ed t he optical i nst r ument s f r om t he air. After
carefully measur i ng and adj ust i ng t he di st ances bet ween t he
mi r r or sa cal i brat i on so precise t hat it requi red a screw
wi t h 100 t hreads t o t he i ncht hey began t he exper i ment .
Wi t h a push of t he hand, t he i nt erferomet er was set slowly
movi ng, one t ur n every six mi nut es, while Mi chel son walked
alongside. Taking care t o avoid t ouchi ng t he observi ng scope,
he peered t hr ough t he eyepiece at t he i nt erference fringes,
calling out a readi ng t o Morl ey at sixteen st at i ons ar ound t he
dial. Between July 8 and 12 t hey t ook observat i ons bot h at
noon and in t he evening, and f ound no significant di ffer-
ence. The t wo swi mmer s r et ur ned at t he same t i me.
They had i nt ended to take sampl es dur i ng di fferent sea-
sons, to see if Earth' s orbi t al mot i on made a difference, but
t here seemed little poi nt . Fresnel must be wrong: a subst ant i al
a mount of aet her was i ndeed bei ng dragged al ong wi t h t he
pl anet , obscur i ng t he effect. Measur i ng t he absol ut e mot i on
of t he Eart h woul d requi re carryi ng out measur ement s hi gh
above gr ound, maybe even in out er space.
119
Morl ey and anot her colleague, Dayt on Clarence Miller,
cont i nued to l ook for aet her usi ng i nt erferomet ers wi t h even
l onger light pat hs. Miller even cl ai med to have detected t he
airy st uff wi t h an exper i ment at op Mount Wi l son, but he was
apparent l y fooled by t emper at ur e fl uct uat i ons. In 1930
Michelson' s own experi ment s on t he mount ai n reconfi rmed
his ori gi nal results.
It was not what he had want ed. By t hen he had remarri ed,
sired a second family, and been honor ed wi t h a Nobel Prize.
But he had sought a deeper anchor : aether, "one of t he
grandest generalizations of moder n sci enceof whi ch we
are t empt ed to say t hat it ought to be t r ue even if it is not."
He died a year later, in 1931, j ust mont hs after meet i ng Ein-
stein, whose special t heory of relativity had expl ai ned t he
t r ue significance of Mi chel son and Morley' s beaut i ful exper-
i ment : t hey had proved, cont r ar y t o t hei r expect at i ons, t hat
t here is no fixed backdr op of space, or even of time. As we
move t hr ough t he universe, our measur i ng sticks shri nk and
stretch, our clocks r un slower and fasterall t o preserve t he
one t r ue st andard. Not aet her but t he speed of light.
1 2 0
C H A P T E R 9
Ivan Pavlov
Measuring the Immeasurable
Ivan Pavlov
We must painfully acknowledge that, precisely because of
its great intellectual devel opment , the best of man' s
domesticated ani mal st he dogmost oft en becomes
the victim of physiological experiments. Duri ng chroni c
experi ment s, when the animal, having recovered f r om its
operat i on, is under lengthy observation, the dog is irre-
placeable. Moreover, it is extremely touching. It is almost
a participant in the experi ment s conduct ed upon it,
greatly facilitating the success of the research by its under-
st andi ng and compliance.
Ivan Pavlov
121
T
o HEAR hi m talk, you woul d have t hought t hey were
vol unt eers, these ani mal s recrui t ed for t he research t hat
woul d make Ivan Petrovich Pavlov a f amous man. Lada,
Lyska, and Zhuchka had c ommon cani ne names. Ther e were
Pestryi (Spot ), Laska (Weasel), Sokol (Falcon), Tsygan
(Gypsy), Ryzhaia (Redhead), Pudel (Poodl e), and Voron
(Crow). There were Arleekin t he Cl own, Krasavietz the
Beauty, Lyadi t he Lady, Postrel t he Fast One, Zl oday the
Thi ef, and Rogdi t he Ol d Russian Prince. There were dogs
named Baikal (after a Siberian lake) and Genghi s Khan. And
at t he very begi nni ng t here was the one said to be Pavlov' s
favorite, a setter-collie mi x he called Dr uzhok, for Buddy or
Little Fri end.
They had it bet t er t han ani mal s in ot her physiology labs
t hat still empl oyed t he "acut e" experi ment : cut t i ng open and
sacrificing a living ani mal t o observe t he anat omi cal ticking.
To Pavlov this was like smashi ng a wat ch wi t h a mallet to see
how it ran. Begi nni ng wi t h his pi oneer i ng st udi es of t he
mammal i an digestive system, still at t he core of gast roen-
terology, he favored t he "chroni c" appr oach: while t he dog
was under anesthesia, its st omach, esophagus, or salivary
gl ands woul d be altered so fluids coul d be collected and
analyzed. Pavlov became known as one of t he most skilled
surgeons in Europe, and he operat ed under ant i sept i c con-
di t i ons bet t er t han t hose in many hospitals. Onl y when t he
ani mal had fully recovered woul d t he observat i ons, ext end-
ing over mont hs or years, begi n.
By t he early 1900s, when his interest had t ur ned to t he ner-
vous system, t he symbiosis was compl et e. In r et ur n for r oom
1 2 2
Pavlov
and board, t he dogs became experi ment al subjects, and also
mascots. Between sessions in t he l aborat ory, t hey were t aken
for walks on t he i nst i t ut e gr ounds. Somet i mes t o clarify a
poi nt of physiology, Pavlov resort ed t o acut e experi ment s,
but onl y wi t h regret. "When I dissect and destroy a living ani -
mal, I hear wi t hi n myself a bitter reproach t hat wi t h rough
and bl under i ng hand I am crushi ng an i ncompar abl e artistic
mechani sm. But I endur e this in t he interest of t r ut h, for t he
benefit of humani t y. " In a worl d where ani mal s were hunt ed
for recreation and sl aught ered for food and leather, he felt
justified in usi ng a few for t he pur sui t of knowl edge.
It was t he usual answer one gave to t he antivivisectionists,
who were a part of t he scene in Russia, as t hey are t hr ough-
out t he worl d today. Fr om t hei r perspective Pavlov' s ex-
per i ment s were anyt hi ng but beaut i ful . Even a dog owner
unper t ur bed by foie gras on a rest aurant menu or t he fate of
a l aborat ory mous e mi ght wi nce at t he surgical descri pt i ons.
The consol at i on is t he knowl edge t hat was gai ned. Wi t h its
crisp logic and elegant design, t he wor k wi t h Pavlov' s dogs
opened a passage to a worl d t hat had seemed as r emot e as t he
fart hest star: t he inside of t he brai n.
HE HAD i nt ended to become a priest, like his father, in t he
Russian Or t hodox chur ch. Then he discovered Dar wi n. It
was t he late 1860s, and Ivan and his brot her, Dmi t ry, were
st udyi ng at t he semi nar y in Ryazan, where t he Pavlovs lived.
Early in t he mor ni ng, t he st ory goes, Ivan woul d sneak i nt o
t he village l i brary t o read t he recent Russian t ransl at i on of
On the Origin of Species as well as George Henr y Lewes's
Physiology of Common Life, wi t h its mapl i ke di agr ams of
123
i nt ernal organs, and Ivan Sechenov' s Reflexes of the Brain, a
radical exercise in pur e mat eri al i sm argui ng t hat t he mi nd
was not hi ng mor e t han an exceedingly compl ex machi ne.
Sechenov pr oposed t hat every huma n behavior, f r om a
sneeze to a decision to read a book, consists of reflexes
muscul ar movement s triggered by signals registered by t he
senses. "Absolutely all t he propert i es of t he external mani fes-
t at i ons of brai n activity descri bed as ani mat i on, passion,
mockery, sorrow, joy, etc., are merel y results of a greater or
lesser cont r act i on of definite gr oups of muscles," he wrot e,
"whi ch, as everyone knows, is a purel y mechani cal act." Even
when a t hought pops i nt o t he head unbi dden, it is the
pr oduct of a reflex, he insisted, t he evoking of a buri ed me m-
or y by subtle envi r onment al cues. "The t i me will come, "
Sechenov declared, "when men will be able t o analyze the
external mani fest at i ons of t he f unct i oni ng of t he brai n as
easily as t he physicist analyzes now a musi cal chor d or t he
phenomena of a freely falling body."
These were i nvi gorat i ng ideas for t he son of a priest.
Under t he reign of Czar Al exander II, a penumbr a of enl i ght -
enment was crossing t he Russian steppes. Books and j our nal s
t hat woul d have been banned under his father, Ni chol as I,
were arri vi ng at t he library, where a crowd gat hered at t he
door s wai t i ng for t hem to open, pushi ng and shovi ng to get
in. To beat t he rush Pavlov woul d somet i mes arrange for a
worker to leave a wi ndow open.
Fascinated by t he not i on t hat t he ani mal or gani sm coul d
be under st ood scientifically, he left t he semi nar y in 1870 to
st udy in Saint Petersburg. Dmi t r y soon j oi ned hi m, and t hey
bot h st udi ed chemi st ry under Mendeleyev, who was devising
his peri odi c table of t he el ement s. Ivan, however, concen-
t rat ed on physiology, eventually ear ni ng a doct orat e of med-
124
Pavlov
icine for experi ment s on how t he cani ne ner vous system
cont rol l ed bl ood pressure and t he pumpi ng of t he heart .
In 1891 he was appoi nt ed head of physiology at t he newly
f or med Inst i t ut e for Experi ment al Medi ci ne, where he used
his surgical t echni ques t o map out t he cascade of f unct i ons
a "compl ex chemi cal factory," he called i t t hr ough whi ch
food was processed and absorbed by t he body.
Even before a morsel was placed on a dog' s t ongue, t he
flow of saliva began: wat er for di l ut i on mi xed wi t h muci n to
l ubri cat e t he food for its passage to t he st omach, where a
bat ch of "appet i t e j ui ce" was already bei ng prepared. Ther e
and later in t he duode num, specialized ner vous sensors ana-
lyzed t he food, signaling t he body to secrete t he pr oper recipe
of gastric fluids needed to digest bread, milk, meat , or what
ever t he dog was havi ng for di nner.
Salivation, Pavlov not i ced, also served anot her f unct i on.
Give t he ani mal a taste of somet hi ng unsavor ymust ar d oil,
mi l d acid, or sal t and saliva still flowed. But it consisted
most l y of wat er to prot ect t he t ongue and wash out t he nox-
ious subst ance. In this case t here were no gastric secretions.
The organi sm somehow "knew" t hey were unnecessary.
To measure the a mount and t he composi t i on of t he saliva,
Pavlov subj ect ed t he dogs to a mi nor oper at i on. Whi l e t he
ani mal was anest het i zed, t he openi ng of t he duct l eadi ng
f r om one of t he salivary gl ands was moved to t he out si de of
t he chi n or cheek and secured wi t h a few stitches. Once t he
incision had healed, fluid was collected and analyzed. Pebbles
of quart z, he f ound, pr oduced hardl y a dr op, while sand
released wat er so t he dog could wash it out . By t he same
physio-logic, a dog actually drool ed mor e at a piece of dr y
bread t han a savory chunk of meat . Each reflex was fine-tuned
by evol ut i on t o synchroni ze t he ani mal wi t h its envi r onment .
125
Scenes from the Institute of Experimental Medicine
"Every mat eri al system can exist as an ent i t y onl y so l ong
as its i nt ernal forces, at t ract i on, cohesi on, etc., bal ance t he
external forces act i ng upon it," he later wrot e. "Thi s is t r ue
for an or di nar y st one j ust as much as for t he most compl ex
chemi cal subst ances, and its t r ut h shoul d be recognized also
126
Pavlov
for t he ani mal o r g a n i s m. . . . Reflexes are t he el ement al uni t s
in the mechani sm of perpet ual equi l i brat i on. "
In 1904 Pavlov won a Nobel Prize f or his wor k on t he
physiology of digestion, an honor he was al most deni ed
when a rival l aborat ory discovered t hat he had missed an
i mpor t ant component of t he system: hor mones. "It is clear
t hat we did not take out an exclusive pat ent for t he discovery
of t rut h, " he said fatalistically. It was ar ound this t i me t hat he
deci ded to leave di gest i on to ot hers and concent r at e on what
he called t he highest part s of t he ner vous system.
P a v l o v had not i ced t hat for salivation to occur, it was not
actually ncccssary for food to ent er an ani mal ' s mout h. The
smell, t he appear ance of t he bowl, even t he creaki ng of a
door hi nge at di nner t i me mi ght be enough to set off t he
react i on. "Psychic secretions," he called t hem.
Unlike t he i nbor n refl exest he i nst i nct st hese acqui red
or "condi t i onal " responses coul d be modi fi ed. Show a dog a
piece of meat and t hen take it away. Do this several t i mes and
t he ani mal will salivate less and less. Ther e has been an "i nhi -
bi t i on" of t he reflex. A taste of meat , bread, or even, par adox-
ically, noxi ous acid restores ("di si nhi bi t s") t he react i on. Just
as evol ut i on acting over eons mol ds a species to its envi ron-
ment , experi ence act i ng over a lifetime mol ds an i ndi vi dual
or gani sm to t he details of its part i cul ar locale. It has evolved
t he ability t o learn.
Early on, Pavlov was t empt ed to i nt erpret these phe-
nomena psychologically, i magi ni ng what t hought s mi ght be
unf ol di ng on t he dog' s i nner screen. The ani mal st opped
drool i ng after repeated showi ngs of meat because it had
become j aded, cynical, as t hough "convi nced of t he useless-
l y
ness of its efforts." But why t hen woul d t he revolting t ouch of
acid br i ng salivation back? What coul d t he dog be thinking?
Thi s, Pavlov came to believe, was t he wr ong quest i on.
"Indeed, what means have we to ent er i nt o t he i nner worl d of
t he ani mal !" he later declared. "What facts give us t he basis
for speaki ng of what and how an ani mal feels?" The same, he
poi gnant l y observed, applies to peopl e. "Does not t he eternal
sor r ow of life consist in t he fact t hat huma n beings cannot
under st and one anot her, t hat one person cannot ent er i nt o
t he i nt ernal state of anot her?"
The line bet ween t he ment al and t he physical was begi n-
ni ng to blur. When a scientist st udi ed how bl ood pressure
rises and falls or pancreat i c juices flow, Pavlov not ed, he
spoke in purel y mat eri al t erms. "But now t he physiologist
t ur ns to t he highest part s of t he cent ral ner vous system, and
suddenl y t he charact er of his research sharpl y changes . . . . He
begi ns to make supposi t i ons about t he i nt ernal state of ani -
mals, based on his own subjective state. Up t o this mome nt he
had used general scientific concept i ons. Now he changes
front , and addresses himself to forei gn concept i ons in nowi se
related to his earlier ones, t o psychological ideas. In short , he
leaps f r om t he measurabl e worl d to t he i mmeasurabl e. "
It was t i me to concent rat e on t he objective. Whet her t he
salivary gl ands were fired by recept ors in t he t ongue or in
t he eye, nose, or ear, t he result was t he same: signals f r om
t he envi r onment were eliciting a physiological react i on.
THE IDEA t hat organi sms, t hei r brai ns i ncl uded, are bi ol og-
ical machi nes was broached by Descartes in t he sevent eent h
cent ury, but he allowed t hat t here was somet hi ng special
about his fellow humans . Al t hough our bodi es are purel y
128
Pavlov
mechani cal , const rai ned to obey t he pri nci pl es of physics,
our brai ns are i nhabi t ed by a hi gher presence, t he mi nd. By
Pavlov' s t i me, Darwi n' s discoveries had made this ki nd of
dual i sm tricky to mai nt ai n. The brai n presumabl y evolved
al ong wi t h t he rest of t he body, but how coul d t he mat eri al
tugs of nat ural selection act on t he ghostly mi nd? Wi l l i am
James descri bed t he pr obl em in 1890 in The Principles of Psy-
chology: "The self-same at oms whi ch, chaotically di spersed,
made t he nebul a, now, j ammed and t empor ar i l y caught in
peculiar posi t i ons, f or m our brai ns; and t he ' evol ut i on' of t he
brai ns, if under st ood, woul d be si mpl y t he account of how
t he at oms came to be so caught and j ammed. "
Some phi l osophers went so far as to pr opose t hat each
at om of mat t er is shadowed by an at om of consci ousness
"pri mordi al mi nd- dus t " t hat was carri ed al ong as t he cosmos
unf ol ded and species evolved. James explained t hei r reason-
ing: "Just as t he mat eri al at oms have f or med bodi es and
brai ns by massi ng themselves together, so t he ment al at oms,
by an anal ogous process of aggregation, have fused i nt o
t hose larger consciousnesses. "
A baby acquiring an avoidance reflex to fire. Diagram from
William James, Principles of Psychology
129
Runni ng on a parallel t rack, every chemi cal action in t he
brai n was said to be mi r r or ed by a ment al act i on, wi t h nei-
t her exert i ng cont rol over t he ot her. Thomas Henr y Huxl ey
had put it like this: "The soul st ands related to the body as
t he bell of a clock to t he works, and consci ousness answers
to t he s ound whi ch t he bell gives out when it is struck. "
When we "decide" to move a finger, t hat is an i ndi cat i on,
not t he instigator of t he event. "The feeling we call voli-
tion," Huxl ey pr oposed, "is not t he cause of a vol unt ary
act, but t he symbol of t hat state of t he brai n whi ch is t he
i mmedi at e cause of t hat act." (A cent ur y later, t he physi-
ologist Benj ami n Libet cl ai med to have demonst r at ed j ust
t hat . )
We are, in ot her words, consci ous aut omat a. James di sap-
provi ngl y descri bed t he i mpl i cat i ons:
If we knew t hor oughl y t he ner vous system of Shake-
speare, and as t hor oughl y all his envi roni ng condi t i ons,
we shoul d be able to show why at a cert ai n peri od of his
life his hand came to trace on certain sheets of paper
t hose crabbed little black mar ks whi ch we for shor t -
ness' sake call t he manuscr i pt of Hamlet. We shoul d
under st and t he rat i onal e of every erasure and alter-
at i on t herei n, and we shoul d under st and all this wi t h-
out in t he slightest degree acknowl edgi ng t he existence
of t he t hought s in Shakespeare' s mi nd. The words and
sent ences woul d be t aken, not as signs of anyt hi ng
beyond themselves, but as little out war d facts, pur e and
si mpl e. In like manner we mi ght exhaustively wri t e t he
bi ogr aphy of t hose t wo hundr ed pounds, mor e or less,
of war mi sh al bumi noi d mat t er called Mar t i n Luther,
wi t hout ever i mpl yi ng t hat it felt.
130
Pavlov
Pavlov di dn' t linger l ong on such met aphysi cal mat t ers.
What ever mi ght be happeni ng inside a dog' s mi nd coul d be
appr oached onl y f r om t he out si de, objectively. "The nat ural -
ist must consi der onl y one thing: what is the relation of this
or t hat external react i on of t he ani mal to t he phenomena of
t he external worl d?"
These signs, he was qui ck to learn, need bear no i nherent
relation to what t hey signify. It is nat ur al t hat a dog' s mout h
woul d wat er at t he smell of meat , t hough t hat t oo seemed to
be a l earned response. (A puppy still i mbi bi ng its mot her ' s
mi l k may t ur n up its nose at a hambur ger . ) But by present i ng
meat at t he same t i me as anot her st i mul us, t he exper i ment er
could t rai n t he ani mal to salivate at t he flash of a light, t he
rot at i on of an obj ect , t he t ouch of a hot or cold pr obe to the
skin, the ticking of a met r onome, or t he s ound of a buzzer,
whistle, t uni ng fork, or hor n. (Pavlov hardl y ever used a bell.)
Ther e is no reason evol ut i on woul d ant i ci pat e such ar bi t r ar y
pairings. But under t he ci rcumst ances t hey became mean-
i ngful to t he dog' s survival.
Training a dog to salivate when two
mechanical stimulators prick its skin
131
The same was t r ue of t he defensive salivary react i on. Once
t he dog had sampl ed dilute acid dyed black wi t h India ink,
it woul d drool protectively at the sight of black water. But
aft er it had sampl ed the harml ess sol ut i on several times, t he
reflex di sappeared, onl y to be restored wi t h anot her taste of
t he acid.
So malleable were t he neural connect i ons t hat t hey coul d
be pl ugged and unpl ugged like cables in a t el ephone switch-
boar d. Wi t h enough t rai ni ng, a positive st i mul us like a piece
of meat coul d be linked wi t h an obnoxi ous one. Instead of
recoiling at an electric shock t he dog woul d drool .
As his t echni que became mor e pract i ced, Pavlov' s l abora-
t ory began investigating t he cani ne sense of t i me. After a dog
was t rai ned to salivate at a flash of light, t he delivery of t he
st i mul us was post poned by t hree mi nut es. Before l ong,
t he dog l earned to ant i ci pat e the delay. Three mi nut es after
t he signal, t he ani mal ' s mout h woul d water.
In ot her experi ment s t i me itself became t he st i mul us.
Give a dog food every t hi rt y mi nut es. When t he feedings are
suspended, it will cont i nue to salivate robotically on t he half
hour. "I am convinced, " Pavlov declared, a bit grandiosely,
"t hat directly al ong this pat h of exact exper i ment at i on lies
t he sol ut i on of t he pr obl em of t i me, whi ch has occupi ed
phi l osophers for countless generat i ons. "
So precise was their neural machi ner y t hat t he dogs could
even be condi t i oned to di scri mi nat e bet ween an obj ect rot at -
ing clockwise and one rot at i ng count ercl ockwi se, bet ween a
circle and an ellipse, bet ween a met r onome beat i ng 100 t i mes
per mi nut e versus 96 or 104. They coul d di st i ngui sh bet ween
adj acent not es on a musical scale, bet ween C and F played in
any of five di fferent octaves on an organ, and among di ffer-
ent shades of gray.
132
Pavlov
For experi ment s like this, t he cont ext was essential. If a
dog l earned a new reflex while it was sitting on t he floor,
t he exper i ment mi ght fail if it was repeat ed on a table, or
by a di fferent experi ment er. Di st ract i ons had to be carefully
avoided. "Footfalls of a passer-by, chance conversat i ons in
nei ghbor i ng r ooms, t he sl ammi ng of a door or vi brat i on
f r om a passing van, street-cries, even shadows cast t hr ough
t he wi ndows i nt o t he r oom, any of t hese casual uncon-
t rol l ed st i mul i falling upon t he recept ors of t he dog set up
a di st ur bance in t he cerebral hemi spher es and vi t i at e t he
experi ment s. "
Pavlov' s dogs were as t emper ament al as Michelson' s i nt er-
feromet er. Det er mi ned to cont rol every possible variable, he
commi ssi oned the const r uct i on of a "Tower of Silence" mod-
eled on seismological l aborat ori es. The bui l di ng was sur -
r ounded by a straw-filled moat to dampen vi brat i ons, and its
first and t hi rd floors each had f our s oundpr oof observat i on
chamber s isolated by corri dors and t he unoccupi ed fl oor in
bet ween. Experi ment ers observed t he dogs remot el y t hr ough
periscopes, giving t he i mpressi on, one visitor report ed, of "a
submar i ne ready for battle."
"Pavlov' s physiology factory," as t he hi st ori an Dani el
Todes called it, was a sign of what experi ment al science
woul d become. Under Pavlov' s di rect i on t eams of re-
searchers tested hypot heses on hundr eds of di fferent dogs.
What emerged was not , perhaps, a single beaut i ful experi -
ment but a suite of t hem. Still, one was so surpri si ng t hat it
st ands above t he rest.
Pavlov and his col l aborat ors had already shown t hat a dog
had basic musical abilities. Trai ned to salivate to a specific
chor d, say A-mi nor, it woul d also react al bei t mor e
weakl yt o each i ndi vi dual not e. Pushi ng still f ur t her , t he
133
researchers began testing the ani mal ' s ability to recognize
si mpl e mel odi es.
When f our not es were played in ascension, t he dog was
given a bit of food.
When t he same not es were played in descendi ng order,
t here was no rei nforcement .
P '
The ani mal quickly l earned to tell one sequence f r om t he
other. But how, Pavlov wonder ed, woul d it respond when it
heard t he t went y-t wo ot her possible combi nat i ons of t he
same notes?
The mel odi es were played and t he spittle collected. The
dog had categorized t he scales i nt o t wo equal gr oups de-
pendi ng on whet her t he pitches were pr edomi nant l y rising
or falling. It's not t oo much of a stretch to say t hat t he ani mal
had f or med a r udi ment ar y concept . Thi s ki nd of pat t ern
recogni t i on, Pavlov came to believe, was t he root of what he
himself di d as an experi ment al scientist.
"The movement of pl ant s t oward t he light and t he seeking
of t r ut h t hr ough a mat hemat i cal anal ysi sare these not
phenomena bel ongi ng t o t he same order? Are t hey not t he
134
Pavlov
last links in an al most endless chai n of adaptabilities whi ch
appear everywhere in living creatures?"
Like many scientists wi t h a power f ul theory, he got carri ed
away at times, t ryi ng to explain his dogs' personalities and
even huma n neurosi s as bundl es of condi t i onal reflexes. In
t he Uni t ed States, John B. Wat son and B. F. Ski nner devel-
oped t he psychology of behavi ori sm, in whi ch everyt hi ng
ment al was reduced to st i mul i and responses. The result was
t wo clashing visions of t he fut ure: Ski nner' s novel Walden
Two describes a Utopia br ought on t hr ough behavi oral engi-
neeri ng, whi l e in Al dous Huxley' s Brave New World, t he same
tools are used by t he state to i mpose a crushi ng di ct at orshi p.
Nei t her has come t o pass. Mor e recently t he met aphor of t he
comput er has given scientists a mor e nuanced way to t hi nk
about t hi nki ng, but Pavlov' s f undament al realization has
endur ed: t he brai n and ner vous system f or m a precise, highly
adapt abl e living machi ne.
Later in his life Pavlov' s st udent s gave hi m an al bum wi t h
phot ogr aphs of f or t y of his dogs. A copy was tracked down
Pavlov's dogs
135
Monument to a Dog
in Saint Pet ersburg by a scientist at Col d Spri ng Har bor
Laborat ory who was usi ng Pavlovian condi t i oni ng in frui t
flies to i dent i fy genes involved in l ong- t er m memor y. He
named t he vari ous mut ant s"Pavl ov' s fl i es"aft er t he f am-
ous ani mal s.
In 1935, Monument to a Dog, an or nat e f ount ai n, was built
on t he gr ounds of t he institute. At t he core is a pedestal wi t h
136
Pavlov
a large cani ne sitting on it wi t h has reliefs of l aborat ory
scenes and quot at i ons f r om Pavlov: "Let t he dog, man' s
hel per and fri end since prehi st ori c times, offer itself as a sac-
rifice to science. But our mor al di gni t y obligates us to ensure
t hat this always occurs wi t hout unnecessary pain. "
Ar ound t he t op are bust s of eight cani nes, wat er pour i ng
f r om their mout hs as t hey salute in salivation.
137
C H A P T E R 1 0
Robert Millikan
In the Borderland
Robert Millikan
We have actually t ouched t he bor der l and wher e mat t er
and force seem to mer ge i nt o one anot her , t he shadowy
real m bet ween Known and Unknown whi ch for me has
always had pecul i ar t empt at i ons. I vent ur e to t hi nk t hat
t he greatest scientific pr obl ems of t he f ut ur e will find
t hei r sol ut i on in t hi s Border Land, and even beyond: here,
it seems t o me, lie Ul t i mat e Realities, subtle, far-reachi ng,
wonder f ul .
Wi l l i am Crookes, 1879
O
N A SATURDAY mor ni ng in January, in search of t he
last piece of equi pment I needed to persuade myself
KNOPF
Millikan
t hat electrons exist, I set out for t he "Black Hole," a
post apocal ypt i c j unkyar d ("Everyt hi ng goes in and not hi ng
comes out ") in Los Al amos, New Mexico. Run by Edward B.
Grot hus, a f or mer b o mb maker and now agi ng peace activist,
t he war ehouseconver t ed f r om an old grocery st orei s
packed fl oor to ceiling wi t h oscilloscopes, signal generat ors,
Geiger count ers, vacuum pumps , cent ri fuges, ammet er s,
ohmmet er s, vol t met ers, cryogeni c storage vessels, i ndust ri al
furnaces, t her mocoupl es, bar omet r i c gauges, t r ansf or mer s,
t ypewri t ers, anci ent mechani cal cal cul at or smor e t han
seventeen t housand square feet of el ect roni c and mechani cal
det ri t us cast off over t he years by t he nat i onal l abor at or y
where t he Manhat t an Project began.
Over t he years I had acqui red on eBay most of what I' d
need t o repeat t he classic experi ment s: J. J. Thomson' s 1897
demonst r at i on t hat electricity is a f or m of negatively charged
mat t er, followed t hi rt een years later by Robert Millikan' s t ri -
umphal oi l -drop experi ment , isolating and measur i ng t he
charge of i ndi vi dual electrons. Combi ng t he dar k aisles of
t he Black Hole, I finally spot t ed what I' d been l ooki ng for: a
Fluke 415B Hi gh Voltage Power Supply. Reachi ng over my
head, I carefully freed t he l ong gray chassis f r om t he mi ddl e
of a st acki t weighed t hi rt y pounds and lowered it to t he
concret e floor. Built in t he 1960s and operat ed by vacuum
tubes, it appeared to be in perfect condi t i on. Draggi ng it to
t he back of t he store, where miles of coaxial cables hung
snakelike f r om hooks or lay coiled on t he floor, I f ound one
t hat fit t he out put connect or and made my way to t he cash
register.
Ed never seems to actually want to sell anyt hi ng. He' d
rat her tell you about his pl an to erect a pai r of grani t e
obelisks to surpri se alien archeologists aft er t he comi ng
139
hol ocaust , or about his First Chur ch of Hi gh Technology,
where he per f or ms a "critical mass" on Sundays. By t he t i me
s ome cust omer s tracked hi m down in the dept hs of his lair,
he was in a cant anker ous mood. "Two hundr ed fifty dollars
for that," he sai dabout ten t i mes what I' d been expecting. I
t ri ed to reason wi t h hi m. Ther e was one exactly like it on
eBay for $99. But Ed is not a man to bargai n. Di sappoi nt ed, I
dragged t he uni t back to its resting place, where it is probabl y
still sitting, and left wi t h j ust t he cable. St oppi ng at the publ i c
library, next to Fuller Lodge, where Oppenhei mer and t he
ot her nucl ear physicists part i ed and di ned, I signed on to t he
Int ernet and bought t he ot her power supply. Two weeks later
it arrived and I was ready to begin.
IN 1896, Robert Andrews Millikan, a young physicist fresh
out of Col umbi a University wi t h a PhD, f ound himself at a
lecture in Berlin where Wi l hel m Roent gen was showi ng pic-
t ures he had t aken of t he bones inside a hand. The occasion
was a January meet i ng of t he Ger man Physical Society, and
Millikan felt such childlike wonder t hat he later mi sr emem-
bered t he talk as occur r i ng on Chr i st mas Eve.
Just t wo years earlier, in t he Uni t ed States, he had heard
t he great Al bert Mi chel son specul at e t hat physics was all but
over. The laws of mot i on and optics were set firmly in place,
and Maxwell' s equat i ons had dr awn tight t he t hreads Fara-
day and his generat i on had spun bet ween electricity and
magnet i sm. Hei nri ch Hert z had gone on to verify Maxwell' s
theory, showi ng t hat radi o waves can be reflected, refract ed,
focused, and pol ar i zedt hat t hey are j ust a ki nd of light. But
here was a new, entirely unexpect ed phenomenon. X-rays.
The prevailing wi sdom, Millikan was happy to realize, had
1 4 0
Millikan
Roentgen rays
look inside a hand
been wr ong. "We had not come qui t e as near soundi ng t he
dept hs of t he universe, even in t he mat t er of f undament al
physical principles, as we t hought we had. "
Roent gen had made his ast oni shi ng discovery whi l e inves-
tigating t he glowing spot t hat appears at t he end of an evacu-
ated glass "discharge t ube" when a large enough voltage is
appl i ed across t wo met al plates i nsi dea negatively charged
cat hode and a positively charged anode ( names t hat had
come f r om Faraday). Traveling t hr ough t he rarefied air, these
cat hode rays were puzzl i ng enough. If a t ube was desi gned
wi t h an obst r uct i on i nsi deWi l l i am Crookes, a chemi st and
spiritualist, used a Maltese crossi t s shadow woul d appear
on t he fl uoresci ng glass, a clue t hat t he rays moved bulletlike
in st rai ght lines. If he held a magnet near t he t ube, t he beam
woul d sway to one side. Mount a gemst one inside and it
woul d fluoresce. The rays also seemed t o have subst ance,
141
Crookes tubes: cat hode rays light up a di amond, project a shadow
of a Maltese cross, and move a paddl e wheel al ong a track.
Millikan
t ur ni ng t he vanes of a tiny paddl e wheel. "A f our t h state
of matter," Crookes cl ai medsol i d, liquid, gaseous, and
radi ant .
What Roent gen f ound was even wei rder: if t he beam
st ruck t he end of t he t ube wi t h enough force, it unl eashed a
di fferent ki nd of r adi at i onpower f ul enough to penet rat e
flesh. Less t han a year later Henr i Becquerel in Paris discov-
ered anot her f or m of penet r at i ng rays emanat i ng f r om l umps
of ur ani um, passing t hr ough an opaque shield and leaving
their mar k on a phot ogr aphi c plate. Both ki nds of radi at i on,
it soon was l earned, could ionize a gas, giving it an electrical
charge. We know now t hat t hey do this by knocki ng el ect rons
off at oms.
Ret ur ni ng f r om Europe to take a j ob at t he University of
Chicago, where Mi chel son now rei gned, Millikan wat ched
f r om afar as some of Europe' s greatest scientists expl ored t he
new physics. At t he Cavendi sh Laborat ory in Cambr i dge,
Engl and, J. J. Thoms on showed t hat t he beams could be
repelled not j ust by magnet s but by st r ong electrical fields.
Her t z himself had tried and failed at t he exper i ment , in
whi ch a beam travels bet ween parallel plates inside an evacu-
ated t ube. When t he plates were charged wi t h a battery, t he
beam di dn' t budge. Her t z t ook this to mean t hat t he rays
were an i mmat eri al di st ur bance of t he aether. ( The lesson of
Mi chel son-Morl ey was still si nki ng in. )
Thoms on suspect ed t hat Her t z hadn' t pumpe d enough air
f r om t he t ubet hat t he l i ngeri ng mol ecul es were shor t i ng
out t he plates as surely as if t hey had been rai ned on. Wi t h a
bet t er vacuum, he was able t o nudge t he beam t owar d t he
positive pol ea st rong i ndi cat i on t hat cat hode rays were
made of negatively charged mat t er. Particles of electricity.
Electrons.
143
J. J. Thomson experiment. Cat hode rays are emitted at C, pulled
t hrough the positively charged anode (A) then pass through slit B
and between plates D and E before leaving a spot on the end of the
tube. Charging the plates causes the beam to move.
I HADN'T meant to buy my own Thoms on appar at us but its
beaut y was i mpossi bl e to resist: t he si mpl e wooden f r ame
cradl i ng t he bul bous, poi nt ed vacuum t ube, t he large copper
Hel mhol t z coils ( named for t he Ger man physicist Her mann
von Hel mhol t z) st andi ng at either side. Wi t h the spaci ng
bet ween t hem equal to t hei r radi usfi ft een cent i met er s
t hey bat he t he t ube in a uni f or m magnet i c field. The device
was made in Ger many for use in physics classes, and the
grayish crackled finish on t he electrical j unct i on box dat ed it
probabl y to t he 1960s.
The manual was not i ncl uded, just a heavy piece of draw-
ing paper on whi ch s omeone had sketched wi t h colored pen-
cils a wi ri ng di agram: t he filament requi red 6.3 volts to heat
the met al cat hode and boil off electrons, whi ch woul d be
accelerated by a much larger positive voltage on t he anode. A
t hi rd source of cur r ent woul d energize t he Hel mhol t z coils. I
hooked up t he wires to my power suppl y and t ur ned out t he
lights.
It was an eerie sight. As I slowly increased t he anode volt-
age, a greenish appl e-shaped haze gat hered ar ound t he cat h-
ode, growi ng larger and fatter unt i l suddenly, a hair above
160 volts, a bl ue ray of light shot st rai ght up f r om the st em
1 4 4
Millikan
A moder n version of t he Thoms on appar at us.
Drawi ng by Alison Kent
and st ruck t he t op of t he glass. The geni e in t he bot t l e. How
spooky this must have been for Cr ookes and t he ot her
cat hode-ray pi oneers. Some t hought t hey were seeing ecto-
pl asm. Ghost stuff. Hol di ng a bar magnet t o t he glass, I made
t he genie wri t he. The black pol e beckoned t he beam t oward
me, t he red pol e pushed it away.
The next step was to energize t he coils. As I t ur ned up
t he knob, t he beam slowly bent unt i l at 3.5 volts, 0.76
amper esi t abrupt l y dived clockwise and f or med a gl owi ng
circle inside t he t ube. Whi l e t he anode was t r yi ng t o pull t he
electrons st rai ght upwar d, this magnet i c wi nd was bl owi ng
t hem to t he si dea per pendi cul ar st ruggl e whose out come,
145
Thoms on had realized, depends on bot h t he mass of the par-
ticles and their charge. His exper i ment can' t tell you either
value al one (lightweight particles wi t h a tiny charge woul d
act t he same as heavier particles wi t h a larger charge), but it
does give you t hei r ratio.
I pl ugged my number s t he voltage on t he anode, the
cur r ent in t he coils, t he radi us of t he gl owi ng ci rcl ei nt o his
equat i on and did t he ari t hmet i c: 2.5 x 10
8
coul ombs of
charge per gr am. (A coul omb, named in honor of t he French
scientist Charl es-August i n de Coul omb, is approxi mat el y the
quant i t y of electricity flowing each second t hr ough a 100-
watt bul b. ) My result was 50 percent larger t han t he accepted
value, but at least I got t he right number of zeros.
Mor e i mpor t ant is what Thoms on went on to show: t hat it
di dn' t mat t er what ki nd of gas was in t he t ube or what metal
he used for t he cat hode. The ratio r emai ned unchanged. The
rays were all made f r om t he same stuff.
And what st range st uff it was. The rat i o of charge t o mass
had already been measur ed for t he hydrogen at omt he
lightest of t he el ement sas it mi grat ed bet ween t he poles of
an electrolytic cell. The value for t he electron was about a
t housand t i mes greater. Either it had an enor mous charge, or
as Thoms on suspect ed, it was vastly smaller t han an at om.
His instincts told hi m he had discovered somet hi ng al most
unt hi nkabl e: a subat omi c particle.
IT WAS 1906 and Millikan was feeling like a has- beena
decade at Chi cago and still an assistant professor. He consi d-
ered himself an effective teacher, and his t ext books were sell-
ing. But he was di sappoi nt ed t hat at age t hi rt y-ei ght , rat her
old for a physicist, he had made no i mpor t ant discoveries.
1 4 6
Millikan
He knew t hat Thomson' s exper i ment , impressive as it was,
hadn' t clinched t he case. For all anyone knew, el ect rons came
in a slew of charges and sizes all yielding t he same ratio.
Thoms on had just assumed t hey were identical. In t he face of
this uncert ai nt y, t he Ger mans r emai ned part i cul arl y skepti-
cal, clinging to t he belief t hat electricity was an aethereal
wave. The onl y way t o break t he l ogj am woul d be to measur e
one of t he number s in Thomson' s r at i oei t her t he mass or
t he charge of t he el ect ron.
Millikan began by repeat i ng an exper i ment in whi ch a sci-
entist in Thomson' s lab at t he Cavendi sh had t i med how
quickly a charged mist of wat er vapor one t hat had been
ionized wi t h X-rays or r adi umset t l ed to t he bot t om of a
closed cont ai ner. Above and bel ow t he cl oud were met al
plates connect ed t o t he poles of a battery. By observi ng t he
effect of t he electrical field on t he speed of t he cl oud' s
descent , you coul d calculate its total charge. Di vi de t hat by
your guesst i mat e of how many charged particles were in
t he cl oud and you could rough out an average val ue for t he
electron.
The t echni que, whi ch involved a device called a Wi l son
cl oud chamber, was rife wi t h uncer t ai nt y and assumpt i ons.
The vapor was cont i nual l y evaporat i ng, leaving t he t op edge
of t he cl oud so irregular and i ndi st i nct t hat t racki ng its
mot i on was an exercise in f r ust r at i on. Millikan cranked up
t he voltage, hopi ng he coul d hol d t he target st eadysus-
pended "like Mohammed' s coffi n" bet ween positive and neg-
ative. Then he coul d measur e t he rate of evaporat i on and
account for it in his calculations.
Instead he flicked on t he switch and blew t he cl oud away.
The exper i ment was a f a i l u r e . . . or so it seemed unt i l he
not i ced t hat a few i ndi vi dual water dr ops r emai ned hangi ng
147
Wilson cloud chamber. Openi ng valve B causes a vacuum (C)
to suck down the floor beneath chamber A, which is filled with
moist air. The expansion of the volume causes a cloud to form.
in the air, j ust t he ri ght wei ght and charge so t hat t he down-
ward pull of gravity was offset by t he levitating oomph of t he
electrical field.
Thi s, he realized, woul d make for a mor e decisive experi-
ment . Instead of st udyi ng t he mass behavi or of a whol e
cl oud of drops, he coul d observe t hem one by one. Peering
t hr ough a small telescope set up t wo feet away, he woul d pick
a dr op hoveri ng in suspensi on and t hen suddenl y t ur n off
t he voltage. St opwat ch in hand he t i med t he fall bet ween t he
hairlines of his eyepiece. Hour aft er hour he recorded t he
dat a, compar i ng the est i mat ed weight of a dr op wi t h how
much charge was requi red to keep it afloat. The answer, Mil-
likan report ed, was always "1, 2, 3, 4, or some ot her exact mul -
tiple of t he smallest charge on a dropl et t hat I ever obt ai ned. "
Char ge i ndeed seemed to come in uni f or m por t i onswhat
he reckoned to be 1.55 x io~
19
coul ombs.
1 4 8
Millikan
In Sept ember 1909 he traveled to Wi nni peg to present t he
resul t she still consi dered t hem pr el i mi nar yt o a meet i ng
of t he British Association for t he Advancement of Science.
Thoms on himself gave t he presidential address, and Ernest
Rut her f or d, who had just won a Nobel Prize, l ect ured on
t he state of at omi c physics, not i ng t hat for all t he recent
successes "it has not yet been possible to detect a single elec-
tron. " Then Millikan, who wasn' t even on t he agenda, sur-
prised everyone by r epor t i ng t hat he had come close t o doi ng
j ust t hat .
On t he t rai n back home he t hought about how he mi ght
make a mor e persuasive case. Because of evaporat i on each
wat er drop' s lifetime was measur ed in seconds. How much
better it woul d be if he coul d follow a single dr op for mi nut es
or even hours, adj ust i ng t he voltage and buf f et i ng it up and
down. As he was gazing out at t he plains of Mani t oba, t he
answer, he later said, came in a flash.
After arri vi ng in Chi cago, he asked Harvey Fletcher, a doc-
toral st udent who had been l ooki ng for a thesis pr obl em, t o
see if t he dropl et exper i ment coul d be done wi t h somet hi ng
less evanescent t han dr ops of water. Purchasi ng a per f ume
at omi zer and wat ch oil at a local drugst ore, Fletcher began
assembl i ng t he equi pment : t wo r ound brass plates, t he t op
one wi t h a hol e drilled at t he center, mount ed on a lab st and
and i l l umi nat ed f r om t he side by a bri ght light. He sprayed a
mist of oil above t he appar at us and wat ched t hr ough a tele-
scope. "I saw a most beaut i ful sight," he later recalled:
The field was full of little starlets, havi ng all t he colors of
t he rai nbow. The larger dr ops soon fell t o t he bot t om,
but t he smaller ones seemed to hang in t he air for nearly
a mi nut e. They executed t he most fasci nat i ng dance.
149
By t he next mor ni ng Fletcher had wheel ed in a large bank
of bat t eri es capable of pr oduci ng one t housand volts and
connect ed t hem to t he brass plates. Tur ni ng on t he current ,
he wat ched wi t h exci t ement as some of t he dropl et s were
pushed slowly upwar d while ot hers were pul l ed down, t he
fri ct i on f r om t he tiny nozzle of t he at omi zer havi ng given
t hem negative or positive charges. When Millikan saw how
well t he pl an was worki ng, he was elated. He and Fletcher
refined t he set up and spent nearly every af t er noon for t he
next six mont hs t aki ng dat a.
DESIGNED and craft ed by t he Philip Harri s Company of
Bi r mi ngham, Engl and, my set up was a st reaml i ned version
of Millikan' s. But t he idea was t he same. The brass plates
were mount e d inside a three-legged Plexiglas pl at f or m t hat
st ood on a dar k har dwood base measur i ng about fifteen by
t went y inches. Off to one side was t he lighting source: a
l!
mmmmm+n.T.
< 130
-22 cm..
- T f V -
1
a " + "
tfcn
arff
Early version of the Millikan oil-drop experiment. Droplets
fall t hrough the pinhole and into the space between brass
plates C and D, which are connected t hrough a switch to
a battery. To the left is an X-ray source used to knock
electrons off the drops and change their charge.
150
Millikan
A later version. A commerci al at omi zer (A) uses filtered air
to spray oil into chamber C f r om which an occasional dr op
makes its way t hr ough the pi nhol e in the t op plate (M).
cylindrical met al housi ng, pai nt ed t he familiar l abor at or y
gray, wi t h a lens to concent r at e t he glow. The British-sized
bul b was missing, but I was able t o subst i t ut e an or di nar y
hal ogen l amp powered by an old Lionel t rai n t r ansf or mer .
For peeri ng bet ween t he plates at t he danci ng dr ops t here
was a t el emi croscope (a cross bet ween a telescope and a
mi croscope) fitted wi t h a crosshat ched measur i ng reticule,
and a kni fe switch for appl yi ng t he electricity. Up sent power
to t he plates ( "Do not exceed 2,000 volts," war ned t he black
151
Philip Harris Co. Millikan apparatus.
Drawing by Alison Kent
Bakelite i nst ruct i on panel. ) Down short ed t hem t oget her and
dispelled t he charge. After di sassembl i ng t he part s to clean
out dust and t he accumul at ed oil of a t housand st udent
experi ment s, I was ready for my first r un.
I l oaded a per f ume at omi zer wi t h or di nar y mi neral oil and
sprayed it i nt o t he chamber above t he t op brass plate. Then I
waited for a few dropl et s t o fall t hr ough t he tiny hole. They
l ooked mor e like dust mot es in a shaft of sunl i ght t han like
little stars. But t he effect was hypnot i zi ng. I' d pick out one
t hat was falling st rai ght and slow and switch on t he plate
voltage. If it suddenl y began movi ng upwar d I knew t hat it
1 5 2
Millikan
carried a charge. Fl i ppi ng t he kni fe switch up and down and
adj ust i ng t he voltage, I'd t i me t he dr ops as t hey rose and fell
bet ween t he hairlines in t he eyepiece4. 2 seconds down, 2.6
seconds up . . . 6.8 down, 4.0 up . . . 7.1 and 2.2 . . . 8.1 and 3.3.
I was st art i ng to get t he hang of it. But to do this ri ght I
needed t o grab on to a single dr op l ong enough to wat ch f or
t he sudden vari at i ons in rise t i me, whi ch woul d signal t hat it
had gai ned or lost an el ect ron. When I'd collected t he dat a
for a dozen dr ops and est i mat ed t hei r masses (with an equa-
t i on called Stokes' s law), I coul d calculate t he f undament al
uni t of charge.
These t hi ngs sound so easy in t he physics books. You don' t
hear about t he brass plates shor t i ng out and sparki ng because
a met al clip slipped i nt o t he wr ong posi t i on. Or about spray-
ing t oo much oil and clogging t he pi nhol e. I' d conf use one
dr op wi t h anot her or wi t h a floater in my eye. I'd lock on to
what seemed t he perfect speci men and t hen wat ch helplessly
as it dri ft ed out of t he focal pl ane. Somet i mes a dr op woul d
be so heavy t hat it sank like a st one, or carry so much charge
t hat when I t ur ned on t he voltage it rocketed out of sight. I
t ri ed and failed t oo many t i mes before I realized: for me t o
mast er so delicate an exper i ment woul d be like l earni ng t o
play t he violin or at least make good cabinetry.
MA ESTRO Millikan' s t ouch was so deft t hat he coul d snag an
oil dr op in his gun sights, go home for di nner, and r et ur n
later t hat eveni ng to find it had barely moved. Wi t h his assis-
t ant Fletcher at his side, he' d call out t he changes in speed as
electrons hopped on and off a dropl et like passengers ri di ng
a San Francisco cable car. If t hey needed a little boost , he
opened a small lead door and zapped t hem wi t h r adi um.
153
His dat a on t he wat er dr ops had already come under
attack f r om an Aust ri an exper i ment er who soon was claim-
ing to have f ound "subel ect rons" and suspect ed t hat t here
was no smallest uni t of charge. But what Millikan had f ound
wi t h his earlier, cr uder exper i ment was conf i r med in spades
by t he oil drops. Ther e really were electrons. One af t er noon,
Charl es Prot eus St ei nmet z, t he pi oneer i ng electrical engi-
neer, came to wat ch t he experi ment s. "I never woul d have
believed it," he said, shaki ng Fletcher' s hand. "I never woul d
have believed it."
Early in 1910 they began wri t i ng up t he results, and over
t he next t hree years Millikan cont i nued t o i mprove t he
exper i ment . The si mpl e t abl et op cont r apt i on mor phed i nt o
a hi gh-t ech device wi t h filtered air, tightly regulated t emper -
at ure, pressure, and voltage, and a clock capable of mar ki ng
t i me in milliseconds. Just as i mpor t ant was his progress in
l earni ng t o read t he drops. He recorded t he ups and downs in
his not ebook:
Very low somet hi ng wr o n g . . . not sure of dis-
t ance . . . Possibly a doubl e dr op . . . Beauty Pub-
lish . . . Good one for very small one . . . Exactly
Ri g h t . . . Somet hi ng t he mat t er . . . Will not work
o u t . . . Publish this Beaut i ful one.
As he t uned his reflexes t he f r equency of beaut i es
increased:
Perfect Publish . . . Best one yet.
It was as t hough t he el ect rons themselves were s hi mmer -
ing in t he light.
154
Millikan
"He who has seen that experiment... has in effect SEEN the
electron," Millikan later wrot e, italicizing his italics. "He can
count the number of electrons in a given small electrical charge
with exactly as much certainty as he can attain in counting his
fingers and his toes."
In 1913 he publ i shed his definitive val ue for t he basic uni t
of electrical charge: 1.5924 x 10"
19
coul omb. ( The accepted
value t oday is just slightly higher, 1.60217653 x io~
19
.) Ten
years later he was awarded a Nobel Prize.
THE STORY has a st range denouement . After Millikan' s
f or mer assistant, Harvey Fletcher, died in 1981, a memoi r
surfaced descri bi ng bot h his appreci at i on to Millikan for
advanci ng his career and his di sappoi nt ment at not get t i ng
mor e recogni t i on for t he oi l -drop exper i ment . As Fletcher
told t he story, his professor showed up unexpect edl y one
day at his apar t ment offeri ng to cut a deal. Millikan woul d
be the sole aut hor of t he paper on t he charge of t he elec-
t r on, but Fletcher woul d get full credit for a less i mpor t ant
col l aborat i on.
Fletcher' s insistence t hat his account be publ i shed post hu-
mousl y added to its credibility but also deni ed Millikan ( who
had di ed in 1953) an oppor t uni t y to respond. Judgi ng f r om
his aut obi ography, Millikan was not s omeone you' d want to
be st uck wi t h on a desert island, or even a cr oss- count r y
flight. He coul d be pat roni zi ng and even a little bi got ed.
Though he was t he i ndi sput abl e force behi nd t he isolation
and measur ement of t he electron, he probabl y coul d have
been mor e generous t o his st udent . The beaut y here lies wi t h
t he exper i ment not t he experi ment er.
Mor e t r oubl i ng were accusat i ons, comi ng still later, t hat
155
Millikan had cooked t he books. The annot at i ons in his labo-
rat ory j ournal s, retrieved f r om t he archives, were const rued
as evi dence t hat he had combed his dat a for results t hat sup-
por t ed his preconcept i ons.
Thi s is not an accusat i on t hat rings t r ue to s omeone who
has st ruggl ed wi t h t he oi l - dr op experi ment . Millikan, I sus-
pect, had si mpl y devel oped a feeling for t he mechani sm, a
sixth sense for when somet hi ng had gone wrong: a slip of t he
t humb on t he st opwat ch, a sudden fl uct uat i on in t emper a-
t ur e or plate voltage, a dust particle masquer adi ng as an oil
dr op. He knew when he had a bad r un.
Mor e interesting t han t he unf ounded allegations is t he
quest i on of how you keep f r om conf usi ng your instincts wi t h
your supposi t i ons, unconsci ousl y nudgi ng t he apparat us,
like a Oui j a boar d, to come up wi t h t he hoped- f or reply. It's
somet hi ng every experi ment er must struggle wi t h. The most
t emper ament al piece of l aborat ory equi pment will always be
t he huma n brai n.
156
Afterword
The Eleventh Most Beautiful
Experiment
I
N THE AUTUMN of 2006, while I was science wri t er in
residence at t he Kavli Inst i t ut e for Theoret i cal Physics in
Sant a Barbara, Cal i forni a, I gave a talk on The Ten Most
Beautiful Experiments. Aft erward a woman came f or war d to
ask why t here woul d be onl y men in t he book.
I' d t hought of i ncl udi ng Mari e Cur i e for her discovery of
r adi um, l abori ousl y distilling a smi dgen of t he gl owi ng stuff
f r om t ons of radioactive ore. But t hat st ruck me as mor e of a
heroi c expl orat i on t han a cont rol l ed i nt errogat i on of nat ure.
Lise Mei t ner seemed a likelier candi dat e, but her pi oneer-
ing exper i ment s in nucl ear fission in t he 1930s were done
wi t h Ot t o Hahn and Fritz St r assmann. Science was already
becomi ng t he collaborative effort t hat it is today. Ther e were
439 names on t he paper announci ng t he discovery of t he t op
quar k.
If I were t o go beyond my ar bi t r ar y cut off, maybe t he
eleventh most beaut i ful exper i ment woul d be Rita Levi-
Mont al ci ni ' s discovery of ner ve- gr owt h factor, Barbara
McCl i nt ock' s work on genetic regul at i on and j umpi ng genes,
KNOPF
Afterword
or Chi en- Shi ung Wu' s gl ori ous demonst r at i on t hat decaying
el ect rons violate a law called conservat i on of parity.
Pve barely finished t he book and already I' m second-
guessing myself. Why not Rut her f or d and t he at omi c
nucleus, James Chadwi ck and t he neut r on, or Heike Kamer-
lingh Onnes and superconduct i vi t y? In biology t here were
Gregor Mendel wi t h his garden exper i ment s in genetics, and
Oswal d Avery, who showed t hat genes are made f r om DNA, a
poi nt beaut i ful l y driven home by Alfred Hershey and Mar t ha
Chase' s f amous Wari ng bl ender exper i ment . In what some
have called t he most beaut i ful exper i ment in biology
Mat t hew Meselson and Frankl i n Stahl conf i r med t hat DNA
replicates as predi ct ed by Wat son and Crick' s doubl e helix.
As t he t went i et h cent ur y wears on, t he pickings grow
sl i mmer, wi t h nat ur e hol di ng tightly to what secrets remai n.
The days when an unknown piece of t he scaffol di ng coul d be
exposed on a t abl et op mi ght be behi nd us. But you never
know. The eleventh most beaut i ful exper i ment may be yet to
come.
158
N O T E S A N D B I B L I O G R A P H Y
T H E S E NOT E S are i nt ended to serve doubl e dut y as a suggested read-
ing list, wi t h t he books gr ouped chapt er by chapt er. Because of t he mer cu-
rial nat ur e of t he Web and t he jagged appearance of URLs (never meant
for huma n consumpt i on) on t he pri nt ed page, I' ve put links to Int ernet
resources on my own site, talaya.net, where readers can find ot her suppl e-
ment ar y material as well.
v "somet hi ng like my own obi t uary": Paul Ar t hur Schilpp, Albert Ein-
stein: Philosopher-Scientist (La Salle, III.: Open Cour t , 1979, origi-
nally publ i shed 1949), pp. 3, 9.
Prologue
xi "The appearance of this dr op": Robert Millikan, Physical Review 32
(1911): 349, excerpted in Mor r i s H. Shamos, Great Experiments in
Physics (New York: Dover, 1987), p. 243.
xii The Physics World survey appeared in Sept ember 2002 (Robert P.
Crease, "The Most Beautiful Experi ment , " pp. 19-20) and f or med
t he basis of Crease' s book The Prism and the Pendulum: The Ten
Most Beautiful Experiments in Science (New York: Random House,
2003).
xiv "Quest i ons of personal pri ori t y": Quot ed in t he first vol ume of Sil-
vanus Phillips Thompson, The Life of Lord Kelvin, 2nd ed. (New
York: Chelsea, 1976), p. 292.
1. Galileo: The Way Things Really Move
Drake, Stillman. Galileo Studies: Personality, Tradition, and Revolution.
Ann Arbor: University of Mi chi gan Press, 1970.
. Galileo at Work: His Scientific Biography. Chicago: University of
Chi cago Press, 1978.
KNOPF
Notes and Bibliography
Galilei, Galileo. Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences. Translated by
Henr y Crew and Alfonso de Salvio. Great Mi nds Series. Buffalo, N.Y.:
Promet heus, 1991; originally published 1914.
. Two New Sciences, Including Centers of Gravity & Force of Percus-
sion. Translated by Stillman Drake. 2nd ed. New York: Moder n
Library, 2001; originally published 1974.
Koestler, Arthur. The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of
the Universe. New York: Macmi l l an, i 959.
Rowland, Wade. Galileo's Mistake: A New Look at the Epic Confrontation
Between Galileo and the Church. 1st U.S. ed. New York: Arcade, 2003.
Shea, William R., and Mariano Artigas. Galileo in Rome: The Rise and Fall
of a Troublesome Genius. New York: Oxf or d University Press, 2003.
Sobel, Dava. Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and
Love. New York: Walker, 1999.
3 epigraph: Galileo Galilei, Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche
intorno a due nuove scienze, published in Le Opere di Galileo Galilei,
edizione nazionale (Firenze: Tip. di G. Barbara, 1890), p. 204. Trans-
lated into English by Henr y Crew and Al fonso de Salvio as Dialogues
Concerning Two New Sciences and by Stillman Drake as Two New Sci-
ences. Quot at i ons are f r om the Crew t ransl at i on; pagi nat i on is f r om
Le Opere, which Drake also uses.
4 debunki ng Galileo: Ar t hur Koestler is particularly harsh in The
Sleepwalkers, pp. 425-509.
6 "Now you woul d not hide behi nd": Opere, p. 109.
6 "A piece of wooden moul di ng or scantling": Ibid., p. 213.
8 a little t oo good to be t rue: See Paul D. Sher man, "Galileo and the
Inclined Plane Controversy," Physics Teacher 12 (1974): 343-48.
9 "A br onze ball r ol l i ng. . . ! " : Alexandre Koyrd, "An Experi ment in
Measurement," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 97,
no. 2 (1953): 222-37.
9 Stillman Drake on Galileo' s inclined-plane experi ment : "The Role of
Music in Galileo' s Experiments, " Scientific American 232, no. 6 (June
1975): 98-104.
12 Galileo could have started with t he odd- number progression: For
mor e layers of Drake' s analysis, see "Galileo' s Discovery of the Law
of Free Fall," Scientific American 228, no. 5 (May 1973): 84-92; the
i nt roduct i on t o his translation of Two New Sciences; and his essay
"Discovery of the Law of Fall," which is appended t o the second edi-
1 6 0
tion. There is still mor e on t he subject in his books Galileo Studies,
pp. 214-39, and Galileo at Work, pp. 76-90.
13 Thomas Settle's reconst ruct i on of t he experi ment : "An Experi ment
in t he Hi st ory of Science," Science 133 (1961): 19-23.
13 "The conduct or of an orchestra": "Role of Music," p. 98.
15 "Even in his day": Ibid., p. 100.
2. William Harvey: Mysteries of the Heart
Aubrey, John, and Oliver Lawson Dick. Aubrey's Brief Lives. Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Press, 1957.
Harvey, William. On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals. Trans-
lated by Robert Willis. Great Mi nds Series. Buffalo, N.Y.: Promet heus,
1993; originally published 1910.
. The Works of William Harvey. Translated by Robert Willis. Classics
in Medicine and Biology Series. Philadelphia: University of Pennsyl-
vania Press, 1989; originally published 1965.
Keynes, G. L. The Life of William Harvey. New York: Oxf or d University
Press, 1966.
Pagel, Walter. William Harvey's Biological Ideas: Selected Aspects and Histor-
ical Background. Basel, Switzerland: S. Karger, 1967.
. New Light on William Harvey. Basel, Switzerland: S. Karger, 1983.
Park, Roswell. An Epitome of the History of Medicine. Philadelphia: F. A.
Davis, 1897.
17 epigraph: Harvey, On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals.
(I have used Harvey' s chapt er and paragraph number s. )
18 "Betwixt t he visible and invisible": Motion of the Heart, IV.17.
18 "as t hough it had been seen t hr ough a wi ndow": Ibid., IV.16.
19 The best source of biographical details for Harvey is Keynes, The Life
of William Harvey.
20 "He was wont to say": Aubrey's Brief Lives, pp. 130-31.
21 "For I could neither rightly perceive": Motion of the Heart, I.i.
23 "abundant l y, i mpet uousl y": Ibid., IX.8.
24 "These t wo mot i ons": Ibid., V.3-6.
25 "t he sun of the mi crocosm": Ibid., VIII.3.
26 "Just as by air God makes ruddy": Stephen Finney Mason, A History
of the Sciences, new rev. ed. (New York: Collier, 1962), p. 219.
27 Harvey decided to do the mat h: Motion of the Heart, IX.2-5.
1 6 1
27 "If a live snake be laid open": Ibid., X.6-7.
28 "detractors, mummer s, and writers": "A Second Disquisition to
John Riolan," The Works of William Harvey, p. 109.
30 "But he often sayd": Aubrey's Brief Lives, p. 128.
3. Isaac Newton: What a Color Is
Fauvel, John, ed. Let Newton Be! Reprint. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1990.
Feingold, Mordechai. The Newtonian Moment: Isaac Newton and the Mak-
ing of Modern Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Gleick, James. Isaac Newton. New York: Pantheon, 2003.
Hall, A. Rupert. All Was Light: An Introduction to Newton's Opticks.
Reprint. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Hooke, Robert. Micrographia; or, Some Physiological Descriptions of
Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses, with Observations and
Inquiries Thereupon. Dover Phoenix Editions, Mineola, N.Y.; Dover,
2003.
Sabra, A. I. Theories of Light: From Descartes to Newton. New York: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1981.
Westfall, Richard S. Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton. New York:
Cambri dge University Press, 1980.
31 epigraph: From the preface of Micrographia (unpaginated).
34 For the early history of optics, see Sabra, Theories of Light.
34 Descartes describes his experiment with the water-filled sphere in
his treatise "Les Mdteores," which is extracted in William Francis
Magie, A Source Book in Physics (New York, London: McGraw-Hill,
1935). PP- 273-78.
36 "Blue is an impression on the Retina": Hall, All Was Light, p. 18.
36 Newton' s early optical experiments are described in his paper Of
Colours (Cambridge University Library Add. Ms. 3975, pp. 1-22) and
summari zed and interpreted in Isaac Newton, pp. 79-89, Never at
Rest, pp. 93-96, and All Was Light, pp. 33-38. All of Newton' s scien-
tific manuscriptsas well as his writings on alchemy and religion
are available online t hrough the Newton Project.
36 "twixt your eye & a candle": Of Colours, 1. (I have used the para-
graph number s from the manuscript. )
37 Shut away from the plague: The precise chronology of Newton' s
optical experiments is somewhat confused, and there is reason to
1 6 2
wonder how much of the work was per f or med in Wool st horpe and
how much in Cambri dge. See Never at Rest, pp. 156-58.
37 "mul t i t ude of reflecting surface": Of Colours, 56.
37 "Accordingly as t he glasses": Ibid., 36.
38 "betwixt my eye & the bone": Ibid., 58-60.
38 "f r om the center greene": Ibid., 62-63.
38 "a vast mul t i t ud of these slender pipes": Ibid., 64.
40 "good deepe red": Ibid., 6.
40 The experi ment with the wi ndow shut t er and pri sm is described in
"Fair Copy of 'A Theor y Concerni ng Light and Col or s ' " ( Cam-
bridge University Library, Add. Ms. 3 9 7 0 ^ . ) , pp. 460-66. It was
later published as "New Theor y About Light and Colors," Philosoph-
ical Transactions of the Royal Society 80 (19 February 1671-1672).
Both versions are onl i ne at the Newt on Project. For narratives and
analyses of the experiment, see Never at Rest, pp. 156-75, and Theo-
ries of Light, pp. 234-44.
40 "It was at first a very pleasing divertisement": All quot at i ons here are
f r om "Theor y Concer ni ng Light and Colors."
41 a mul t i t ude of experi ment s: Westfall lays out the details in Never at
Rest, pp. 94-96, and not es that Newt on had a hunch about the het -
erogeneity of white light as early as 1664 in Cambri dge.
42 "blew rays suffer": Of Colours, 6.
42 "consists of rayes differently refrangible": "Theor y Concer ni ng
Light and Colors."
42 "To the same degree of refrangibility": Ibid.
44 "bri ght cl oud": "A Letter of t he Learn' d Franc. Linus . . . ani mad-
verting upon Mr Newt ons Theor y of Light and Col ors" and "An
Answer to this Letter," Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society
110 (25 January 1674-1675). Available onl i ne at the Newt on Project.
4. Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier: The Farmer's Daughter
Bell, Madison Smartt. Lavoisier in the Year One: The Birth of a New Science
in an Age of Revolution. New York: Nor t on, 2005.
Djerassi, Carl, and Roald Hof f mann. Oxygen: A Play in Two Acts. New
York: Wiley-VCH, 2001.
Donovan, Arthur. Antoine Lavoisier: Science, Administration and Revolu-
tion. New ed. New York: Cambri dge University Press, 1996.
Guerlac, Henry. Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, Chemist and Revolutionary.
New York: Scribner, 1975.
1 6 3
. LavoisierThe Crucial Year: The Background and Origin of His
First Experiments on Combustion in 1772. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univer-
sity Press, 1961.
Holmes, Frederic Lawrence. Antoine Lavoisier: The Next Crucial Year; or,
The Sources of His Quantitative Method in Chemistry. Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press, 1998.
Lavoisier, Ant oi ne-Laurent . Elements of Chemistry. New York: Dover, 1965.
Poirier, Jean-Pierre. Lavoisier: Chemist, Biologist, Economist. Reprint.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998.
45 epi graph: Djerassi and Hof f mann, Oxygen, p. 119.
46 the particle accelerator of its day: Donovan, Antoine Lavoisier, p. 47.
46 The di amond- bur ni ng experi ment is described in Poirier, Lavoisier,
pp. 58-60.
47 "t he air contained in mat t er": Poirier, Lavoisier, p. 58.
47 "Camphi r e dissolved in well deflegmed spirit": Port smout h Collec-
tion (Add. Ms. 3975), Cambr i dge University Library, Cambri dge
University, pp. 32-44.
48 "In [Saturn] is hid an i mmor t al soul": The manuscri pt is at Yale
University (Beinecke Library, Mellon Ms. 79) and onl i ne at the New-
ton Project. The passage was copied f r om George Starkey' s The Mar-
row of Alchemy (1654). For the meani ng of the alchemical terms, I
relied on an analysis by William Newman, a historian of science at
Indi ana University, on the PBS Web site for the Nova show "New-
ton' s Dark Secrets."
48 For t he history of the phlogiston hypothesis, see Stephen Finney
Mason, A History of the Sciences, new rev. ed. (New York: Collier,
1962), pp. 303-13-
49 "impelled by forces": Poirier, Lavoisier, p. 63.
49 "gave wings to earthly molecules": Ibid., p. 62.
50 Lavoisier's 1769 experi ment : Ibid., pp. 32-34.
52 Lavoisier's marriage: Ibid., pp. 39-41.
52 Details about Lavoisier's wife and her role in his experi ment s are in
Roald Hof f mann, "Mme. Lavoisier," American Scientist 90, no. 1
( Januar y- Febr uar y 2002): 22. A virtual mus eum of Lavoisier's work,
i ncl udi ng a detailed chronol ogy of his experi ment s and pho-
t ographs of some of his equi pment , is bei ng assembled onl i ne at
Panopt i con Lavoisier. In addi t i on, the compl et e works of Lavoisier,
in French, are available on the Web at Les GEuvres de Lavoisier.
52 "different kinds of air": Priestley wrote a t hree-vol ume work, Exper-
1 6 4
iments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air (London: printed
for J. Johnson, 1774). For a brief history of this work, see Mason' s
History of the Sciences, pp. 304-6.
53 Lavoisier's experi ment s wi t h phosphor us, sulfur, tin, and litharge:
Poirier, Lavoisier, pp. 65-66, and Guerlac, Lavoisier, pp. 79-80. The
tin experiment is described in History of the Sciences, p. 308. The
apparat us in the litharge experi ment , called a pneumat i c t rough,
was a variation of one devised by Stephen Hales.
53 He t hought he knew t he answer: In the experi ment s with phospho-
rus and sul fur he also saw signs of air absorpt i on, and a Parisian
chemist had report ed a similar result. See Guerlac, Lavoisier, p. 79.
54 Estimates of t he price of mercurius calcinatus are f r om Poirier,
Lavoisier, p. 74.
54 "wi t hout addition": Ibid.
54 "What surpri sed me more": Ibid.
54 "I fancied that my breast": Poirier, Lavoisier, p. 76.
55 Lavoisier's first experi ment s with mer cur y are described in Poirier,
Lavoisier, pp. 79-80.
55 "emi nent l y breathable": Ibid., p. 103. Lavoisier used these words in a
talk to t he French academy in April 1775 t hat was published as "On
the Nat ure of t he Principle Whi ch Combi nes wi t h Metals Dur i ng
Calcinations and Increases Thei r Weight." Three years later, he
revised the paper wi t h his new i nt erpret at i on. James Bryant Conant
compared the t wo versions in "The Overt hrow of the Phlogiston
Theory," in Harvard Case Histories in Experimental Science, vol. 1
(Cambri dge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1957).
55 Lavoisier report ed t he results of his experi ment with the mat rass to
the Acaddmie des Sciences on May 3,1777, as "Experi ment s on t he
Respiration of Animals and on t he Changes Whi ch Happen to Air in
Its Passage Thr ough Thei r Lungs," and later in chapt er 3 of his Ele-
ments of Chemistry, pp. 32-37.
57 "when a t aper was pl unged": Elements of Chemistry, p. 35.
57 "with a dazzling spl endor": Ibid., p. 36.
57 "Here is the most compl et e kind of pr oof ": Poirier, Lavoisier, p. 104.
58 Lavoisier's execution: Ibid., pp. 381-82.
59 A story ricocheting t hr ough the Internet: It apparent l y ori gi nat ed
with a comment made on a Discovery Channel pr ogr am, and in
some versions t he assistant count i ng the blinks was Lagrange. For a
debunki ng of the legend, see William B. Jensen, "Di d Lavoisier
Blink?" Journal of Chemical Education 81 (2004): 629.
1 6 5
5. Luigi Galvani: Animal Electricity
Fara, Patricia. An Entertainment for Angels: Electricity in the Enlightenment.
New York: Col umbi a University Press, 2003.
Galvani, Luigi. Galvani Commentary of the Effect of Electricity and Mus-
cular Motion. Translated by Robert Montraville Green. Cambridge,
Mass.: E. Licht, 1953.
Heilbron, J. L. Electricity in the 17th and 18th Centuries: A Study of Early
Modern Physics. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979.
Ostwald, Wilhelm. Electrochemistry: History and Theory. New Delhi:
Amerind. Published for the Smithsonian Institution and the National
Science Foundation, Washington, D.C., 1980.
Pancaldi, Giuliano. Volt a: Science and Culture in the Age of Enlightenment.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2005.
Pera, Marcello. The Ambiguous Frog: The Galvani-Volta Controversy on
Animal Electricity. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1992.
60 epigraph: Galvani, De Viribus Electricitatis in Motu Musculari Com-
mentarius, p. 40. (Unless otherwise indicated all quotations are from
the English translation by Robert Montraville Green, Galvani Com-
mentary on the Effect of Electricity and Muscular Motion.)
61 Symmer' s experiment is described in Heilbron, Electricity in the 17th
and 18th Centuries, pp. 431-37, and in Pera, The Ambiguous Frog, pp.
38-39-
61 "When this experiment is performed": The Ambiguous Frog, p. 39,
quot i ng f r om Robert Symmer, "New Experiments and Observations
Concerni ng Electricity," Philosophical Transactions 61 (1759): 340-89.
61 The eighteenth-century electrical vogue is described in Electricity in
the 17th and 18th Centuries, pp. 263-70; The Ambiguous Frog, pp.
3-18; and Fara, An Entertainment for Angels.
63 "said to proceed from some animals": The Ambiguous Frog, pp.
60-61, quoting Priestley's Experiments and Observations on Different
Kinds of Air, pp. 277-79.
64 Galvani' s experiment near the Palazzo Zamboni is described in The
Ambiguous Frog, p. 80.
67 The experiments with the railing and silver box: Commentary, pp.
40-41, and The Ambiguous Frog, pp. 81-83.
67 "crept into the animal and accumulated": Commentary, p. 40.
67 "At the very moment the foot touched": The Ambiguous Frog, p. 82.
Galvani describes the scene in Commentary, pp. 43-44.
166
68 Galvani' s wi de-rangi ng speculations are in Commentary, pp. 78-81.
68 "But let there be a limit t o conjectures!": Ibid., p. 81.
68 "among the demonst r at ed t rut hs": The Ambiguous Frog, p. 98.
68 "the same convulsions, spasms and jerks": Ibid., p. 100.
69 Volta's experi ment with tin and silver clips: Ibid., p. 105.
69 "Galvani' s t heory and explanations": Ibid., p. 114.
69 "If that is how things are": Ibid., p. 113.
70 the Galvanists' experi ment s challenging Volta's bimetallic hypot he-
sis: Ibid., pp. 119-22.
70 "Why t hen ascribe": Ibid., p. 122.
71 "Each t i me I t ouch it": Ibid., p. 123.
71 Galvani' s experi ment wi t hout external conduct ors (often referred t o
as his "t hi rd experi ment "): Ibid., p. 129.
71 "But if that is how things are": The Ambiguous Frog, p. 13.
72 Volta's battery: described in ibid., pp. 153-58.
73 Galvani' s final ("fourt h") experi ment : Ibid., pp. 147-48.
74 "Now what dissimilarity": Ibid., p. 148.
6. Michael Faraday: Something Deeply Hidden
Cantor, Geoffrey. Michael Faraday, Sandemanian and Scientist. New ed.
London: Palgrave Macmi l l an, 1993.
Dibner, Bern. Oersted and the Discovery of Electromagnetism. Norwalk,
Conn. : Burndy Library, 1961.
Faraday, Michael. The Chemical History of a Candle. New York: Dover,
. Experimental Researches in Electricity. New York: Dover, 1965;
originally published 1839-1855.
. The Forces of Matter. Great Mi nds Series. Buffalo, N.Y.:
Promet heus, 1993.
Faraday, Michael, and Howard J. Fisher. Faraday's Experimental Researches
in Electricity: Guide to a First Reading. Santa Fe, N.M.: Green Lion,
2001.
Faraday, Michael, and Thomas Mart i n. Faraday's Diary. London: Bell, 1932.
Hamilton, James. A Life of Discovery: Michael Faraday, Giant of the Scien-
tific Revolution. New York: Random House, 2004.
Jones, Bence. The Life and Letters of Faraday. London: Longmans, Green,
1870.
Lehrs, Ernst. Spiritual Science: Electricity and Michael Faraday. London:
Rudol ph Steiner Press, 1975.
1 6 7
Russell, Colin Archibald. Michael Faraday: Physics and Faith. New York:
Oxford University Press, 2000.
Williams, L. Pearce. Michael Faraday: A Biography. New York: Da Capo,
1987.
Woolley, Benjamin. The Bride of Science: Romance, Reason, and Byron's
Daughter. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000.
75 first epigraph: Jones, The Life and Letters of Faraday, vol. 2, pp.
473-74- Jones dates the letter April 22,1867.
75 second epigraph: Faraday, Experimental Researches in Electricity,
Thi rd Series, para. 280.
76 "Enchantress of Numbers": Woolley, The Bride of Science, p. 274.
76 "Bride of Science": Ibid., p. 306.
76 "calculus of the nervous system": Ibid., p. 305.
76 "ladye-fairy": Hamilton, A Life of Discovery, p. 318.
78 Oersted described his discovery in "Experiments 011 the Effect of a
Current of Electricity on the Magnetic Needle," Annals of Philosophy
16 (1820): 276.
79 Faraday's experiments with a crude electric mot or are described in
Faraday's Diary, pp. 50-51, and are summari zed in Williams, Michael
Faraday, p. 156, and A Life of Discovery, pp. 164-65.
79 errands of the Industrial Age: A Life of Discovery, pp. 151-56.
79 "unfort unat el y occupied": Williams, Michael Faraday, p. 109.
79 crispations: Ibid., pp. 177-78.
80 "Mercury on tin plate": A Life of Discovery, pp. 236-37, quoting Fara-
day's diaries.
80 The induction ring experiment is described in Williams, Michael
Faraday, pp. 182-83; in Faraday's Diary, August 29,1831, p. 367; and in
Experimental Researches in Electricity, First Series, para. 27-28.
81 "wave of electricity": Williams, Michael Faraday, p. 183.
82 as a German scientist proposed: This was Johann Ritter, ibid., pp.
228-30.
82 Faraday's breakdown: A Life of Discovery, pp. 293-94.
82 "You drive me to desperation": Ibid., p. 319.
82 Maybe it is too great a reach: Another inspiration for undertaking
the polarization experiment may have been a letter f r om William
Thomson, the fut ure Lord Kelvin: Williams, Michael Faraday, pp.
383-84.
83 a question that had been gnawing at hi m: Faraday describes an ear-
1 6 8
lier at t empt using a t rough of electrolytes in his diary ent ry for Sep-
t ember io, 1822, p. 71.
83 "so that they mi ght regulate": From the official history posted on the
Trinity House Web site.
83 Faraday' s work in lighthouses: A Life of Discovery, pp. 322-23.
83 Faraday describes his experi ment s with light beams in vol. 4 of his
diary, paragraphs 256-67, and in the Ni net eent h Series of Experi-
mental Researches, 2146-72. Ther e is also an account in Williams,
Michael Faraday, pp. 384-87.
85 "At present I have scarcely a moment ": A Life of Discovery, p. 327.
86 "BUT when cont rary magnet i c poles": Williams, Michael Faraday,
p. 386. The 1932 edition of t he diary, edited by Thomas Mart i n,
includes a facsimile of the handwri t t en page with the triple under -
scoring.
86 "ALL THIS IS A DREAM": A Life of Discovery, p. 334.
86 "You see what you do": Ibid., p. 320.
7. James Joule: How the World Works
Baeyer, Hans Christian von. Maxwell's Demon: Why Warmth Disperses and
Time Passes. New York: Random House, 1999.
Caneva, Kenneth L. Robert Mayer and the Conservation of Energy. Prince-
t on, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993.
Cardwell, Donald S. L. From Watt to Clausius: The Rise of Thermodynamics
in the Early Industrial Age. London: Heinemann, 1971.
. James Joule: A Biography. Manchester, England: Manchester Uni-
versity Press, 1991.
. Wheels, Clocks, and Rockets: A History of Technology. New York:
Nor t on, 2001.
Carnot, Sadi. Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire: And Other Papers on
the Second Law of Thermodynamics. New York: Dover, 2005.
Joule, James Prescott, William Scoresby, Lyon Playfair, and William Thom-
son. The Scientific Papers of James Prescott Joule. London: The Society,
Lindley, David. Degrees Kelvin: A Tale of Genius, Invention, and Tragedy.
Washi ngt on, D.C.: Joseph Henr y Press, 2005.
Thomps on, Silvanus Phillips. The Life of Lord Kelvin. 2nd ed. New York:
Chelsea, 1977; originally published 1910.
1 6 9
Truesdell, Clifford A. The Tragicomical History of Thermodynamics,
1822-1854. New York: Springer, 1980.
88 epigraph: Truesdell, The Tragicomical History of Thermodynamics,
pp. 164-65.
89 "i nocul at ed with Faraday fire": Thomps on, The Life of Lord Kelvin,
p. 19.
89 The encount er on t he trail with Kelvin is described in Life of Lord
Kelvin, p. 265, and in Cardwell, James Joule, pp. 88-89.
90 Joule and Thomson' s meet i ng in Oxford: James Joule, pp. 82-83, and
Lindley, Degrees Kelvin, pp. 74-75.
91 "Joule is, I am sure": James Joule, p. 85.
92 The marri age of Rumf or d to Mine. Lavoisier is recount ed in Poirier,
Lavoisier, pp. 407-9 (cited in my not es for chapt er 4). Poirier also
describes, pp. 125-26, an ext ramari t al affair she had with the econo-
mist Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemour s, father of the founder of
the chemical company.
92 "en bon poi nt ": Ibid., p. 407.
92 "merely by the strength": Benj ami n Thomps on, "An Inqui ry Con-
cerni ng the Source of the Heat Whi ch Is Excited by Friction," Philo-
sophical Transactions of the Royal Society 88 (1798): 80-102; excerpted
in Magie' s A Source Book in Physics (cited in my notes for chapt er 3),
pp. 159-60.
93 "a very brisk and vehement agitation": Hooke, Micrographia. Observ.
VI. "Of Small Glass Canes" (cited in my not es for chapt er 3), p. 12.
96 Joule's shocki ng chi l dhood experi ment s and ot her biographical
details are f r om James Joule, pp. 13-16.
96 "I can hardly doubt that el ect ro-magnet i sm": The Scientific Papers of
James Prescott Joule, vol. 1, p. 14.
97 "t here seemed to be not hi ng to prevent": Ibid., p. 47; James Joule,
p. 36.
97 Joule's mot or s are described in Scientific Papers, vol. 1, pp. 1-3,16-17,
and in James Joule, pp. 32-37.
98 "The compar i son is so very unfavourabl e": James Joule, p. 37, quot -
ing a publ i c lecture at the Royal Victoria Gallery, February 16,1841.
98 Joule report ed on his experi ment with the crank in part 1 of Joule,
"On the Calorific Effects of Magneto-Electricity, and on the
Mechanical Value of Heat," Scientific Papers, vol. 1, pp. 123-59; see
also James Joule, pp. 53-56.
1 7 0
100 The experi ment wi t h the pulleys is in part 2 of "Calorific Effects," pp.
149-57, and ' n James Joule, pp. 56-58.
100 "the subject did not excite": Scientific Papers, vol. 2, p. 215.
101 Joule published the experi ment presented at Oxf or d as "On the
Mechanical Equivalent of Heat, as Det ermi ned by the Heat
Evolved by the Friction of Fluids," Scientific Papers, vol. 2, pp.
277-81. For later refi nement s see t he similarly titled "On t he
Mechanical Equivalent of Heat," Scientific Papers, vol. 1, pp.
298-328.
103 "irrecoverably lost": Life of Lord Kelvin, p. 288.
103 "Wi t hi n a finite peri od of t i me past": Ibid., p. 291.
8. A. A. Michelson: Lost in Space
Livingston, Dorothy Michelson. Master of Light: A Biography of Albert A.
Michelson. Reprint. Chicago: University of Chi cago Press, 1979.
Mach, Ernst. The Principles of Physical Optics: An Historical and Philosoph-
ical Treatment. Translated by John S. Anderson and A. F. A. Young.
London: Met huen, 1926; originally publ i shed 1921.
Maxwell, James Clerk. Matter and Motion. New York: Dover, 1952; origi-
nally published 1876.
Michelson, Albert Abraham. Experimental Determination of the Velocity of
Light. Mi nneapol i s: Lund, 1964. A reproduct i on of Michelson' s hand-
written report on his experi ment s of 1878, commi ssi oned by Honey-
well, Inc.
. Light Waves and Their Uses. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
. Studies in Optics. Phoeni x Science Series. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1962; originally published 1927.
Swenson, Lloyd S. Ethereal Aether: A History of the Michelson-Morley-
Miller Aether-Drift Experiments, 1880-1930. Austin: University of
Texas Press, 1972.
104 epi graph: Maxwell, Matter and Motion, quot ed in Swenson, Ethereal
Aether, p. 30.
105 Michelson' s breakdown: Livingston, Master of Light, pp. 111-15.
105 "soft in the head": In a letter to his father, Sept ember 27,1885, Mor -
ley referred t o "some sympt oms which poi nt to soft eni ng of the
brain." Quoted in Master of Light, p. 112.
171
105 "rendering all the fancies, moods, and emotions": Michelson, Light
Waves and Their Uses, p. 2.
106 Galileo's experiment on the speed of light: Two New Sciences (cited
in the notes for chapter 1), Opere, p. 88.
106 "if not instantaneous": Ibid.
106 early history of light-speed measurements: Master of Light, pp.
47-49, and Norriss S. Hetherington, "Speed of Light," in J. L. Heil-
bron, ed., The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 467-68.
106 Roemer' s paper 011 the speed of light was translated into English as
"A Demonst rat i on Concerni ng the Motion of Light," Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society 12 (June 25,1677): 893-94. Bradley
described stellar aberration in "An Account of a New Discovered
Motion of the Fixed Stars," Philosophical Transactions of the Royal
Society 35 (1727-28): 637-61. Both can be found in Magie's A Source
Book in Physics (cited in the notes for chapter 3), pp. 335-40. The
actual values of their estimates vary dependi ng on whether they are
based on what was known then or now about planetary distances. I
used the numbers in the Encyclopaedia Britannica entries for Roe-
mer and Bradley.
107 Fizeau's experiment appeared as "Sur un experience relative a la
vitesse de propagation de la lumidre," Comptes Rendus 29 (1849): 90.
An English translation is in Source Book in Physics, pp. 341-42.
108 Foucault described his experiment in "Det ermi nat i on experimen-
tale de la vitesse de la lumifere: parallaxe du Soleil," Comptes Rendus
55 (1862): 501-3,792-96, which is excerpted in Source Book in Physics,
PP- 343-44-
109 Michelson' s early biographical history is from Ethereal Aether, pp.
33-43, and Master of Light, pp. 11-44.
110 Michelson describes his light-speed experiment in "Experimental
Det ermi nat i on of the Velocity of Light," Proceedings AAAS, vol. 27
(1878), pp. 71-77. For a summar y see Master of Light, pp. 51-63. His
original handwritten paper was reprinted and published as a fac-
simile by Honeywell in 1964.
110 "being about 200 times that": Velocity of Light, p. 5.
111 "It would seem that the scientific world": Master of Light, p. 63.
111 "globular bodyes" and "a Tennis-ball struck with an oblique
Racket": Newton used these words in "A Theory Concerni ng Light
and Colors," cited in the notes for chapter 3.
111 "fits of easy reflexion": Newton uses the term in his Opticks; or, A
1 7 2
Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light,
2nd ed., with additions (London: 1717), 3rd book, part 1, p. 323.
112 The trip to Europe is described in Ethereal Aether, pp. 67-68.
According to Master of Light, pp. 74-75, Michelson goes to Berlin
first and then to Paris in 1881.
113 "struggling upst ream and back": Master of Light, p. 77.
113 Michelson' s Berlin and Potsdam experiments: Michelson, "The Rel-
ative Motion of the Earth and the Luminiferous Aether," American
Journal of Science, Thi rd Series, 22 (August): 120-29. Described in
Ethereal Aether, pp. 68-73, and Master of Light, pp. 77-84-
113 "So extraordinarily sensitive": Albert A. Michelson and Edward W.
Morley, "On the Relative Mot i on of the Earth and the Luminiferous
Ether," American Journal of Science, Third Series, vol. 34, no. 203
(November 1887), p. 124. The event he refers to took place in Potsdam.
115 "I have a very high respect": Bell made the observation in 1883 in a
letter to his wife quot ed in Master of Light, pp. 96-97.
116 measuring light speed in a vacuum: Ibid., pp. 95-96.
117 repeating the Fizeau experiment: Ethereal Aether, pp. 81-87, and
Master of Light, pp. 110-11.
117 the fire at Case: Master of Light, pp. 121-22.
119 "if light travels with the same velocity": Morely wrote this in a letter
of April 17,1887, to his father; quot ed in Ethereal Aether, p. 91.
119 the Michelson-Morley experiment: "The Relative Motion," summa-
rized in Ethereal Aether, pp. 91-97, and Master of Light, pp. 126-33.
120 Miller on Mount Wilson: Ethereal Aether, pp. 205-6.
120 Michelson on Mount Wilson: Ibid., pp. 225-26.
120 "one of the grandest generalizations": Light Waves and Their Uses,
p. 162.
120 It took the publication of Einstein's special theory: Einstein, how-
ever, denied that the Michelson-Morley results were in themselves a
motivation for his work.
9. Ivan Pavlov: Measuring the Immeasurable
Babkin, B. P. Pavlov. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975.
Frolov, Y. P. Pavlov and His School: The Theory of Conditioned Reflexes. New
York: Johnson Reprint, 1970.
Gray, Jeffrey A. Ivan Pavlov. New York: Viking, 1980.
James, William. The Principles of Psychology. New York: Dover, 1950; origi-
nally published 1890.
173
Pavlov, Ivan Petrovich. Conditioned Reflexes: An Investigation of the Physio-
logical Activity of the Cerebral Cortex. Translated by G. V. Anrep. New
York: Dover, i960; originally published 1927.
. Lectures on Conditioned Reflexes. Vol. 1. Translated by W. Horsley
Gantt. New York: International, 1928; originally published 1923.
Sechenov, Ivan. Reflexes of the Brain. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1965.
Todes, Daniel Philip. Ivan Pavlov: Exploring the Animal Machine. New
York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
. Pavlov's Physiology Factory: Experiment, Interpretation, Laboratory
Enterprise. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002.
121 epigraph: Todes, Pavlov's Physiology Factory, p. 123, quot i ng Pavlov's
1893 essay, "Vivisection."
122 The names of some of Pavlov's dogs are in Tim Tully, "Pavlov's
Dogs" (Current Biology 13, no. 4: R117-19), and on a page at the Web
site for Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
123 "When I dissect and destroy": Babkin, Pavlov, p. 162.
123 Details of Pavlov's life are from a biographical sketch by his colleague
and translator W. Horsley Gant t in Pavlov, Lectures on Conditioned
Reflexes, pp. 11-31; Pavlov, pp. 5-23; and Todes, Ivan Pavlov, pp. 11-43.
123 Pavlov and the library: Todes, Ivan Pavlov, p. 19.
124 "Absolutely all the properties": Sechenov, Reflexes of the Brain, p. 4.
125 "complex chemical factory": Todes, Ivan Pavlov, p. 59.
125 Pavlov's digestive experiments: Todes, Ivan Pavlov, pp. 53-65; Pavlov,
pp. 224-30; and Gray, Ivan Pavlov, pp. 20-25.
126 "Every material system": Pavlov, Conditioned Reflexes, lecture 1, p. 8.
127 an honor he was almost denied: For a fascinating account of the
Nobel politicking, see Pavlov's Physiology Factory, pp. 332-45.
127 "It is clear that we did not": Pavlov, p. 229.
127 Pavlov's firsthand accounts of his salivation experiments can be
found in his two books, Conditioned Reflexes and Lectures on Condi-
tioned Reflexes, vol. 1. Good secondary sources are Gray, Ivan Pavlov,
pp. 26-51, and Todes, Ivan Pavlov, pp. 71-79.
127 "convinced of the uselessness": Lectures on Conditioned Reflexes,
p. 71.
128 "Indeed, what means have we": Pavlov, p. 277.
128 "Does not the eternal sorrow": Lectures on Conditioned Reflexes,
p. 50.
128 "But now the physiologist turns": Ibid., p. 121.
129 "The self-same atoms": James, The Principles of Psychology, p. 146.
174
129 "primordial mi nd-dust ": Ibid., p. 150.
129 "Just as the material atoms": Ibid., p. 149.
130 "The soul stands related": Ibid., p. 131.
130 Benjamin Libet describes his experiments on free will in Mind Time:
The Temporal Factor in Consciousness (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 2004).
130 "If we knew thoroughly": Principles of Psychology, pp. 132-33.
131 "The naturalist must consider": Lectures on Conditioned Reflexes,
p. 82.
132 drooling at an electric shock and after a t hree-mi nut e delay: Ibid.,
pp. 149,186-87.
132 salivating on the half hour: Conditioned Reflexes, lecture 3, p. 41.
132 "I am convinced": Lectures on Conditioned Reflexes, p. 233.
132 discriminating between clockwise and counterclockwise, etc.: Con-
ditioned Reflexes, lecture 7, pp. 117-30, and lecture 13, p. 222; Lectures
on Conditioned Reflexes, p. 140.
133 "Footfalls of a passer-by": Conditioned Reflexes, lecture >., p. 20.
133 "Tower of Silence": Lectures on Conditioned Reflexes, pp. 144-46;
Frolov, Pavlov and His School, pp. 60-62; and Todes, Ivan Pavlov, pp.
77-78.
133 "a submari ne ready for battle": Pavlov and His School, p. 61.
133 Pavlov describes the experiment on ascending and descending scales
in Lectures on Conditioned Reflexes, p. 141. (The notes were D, E,
F-sharp, and G-sharp. )
134 "The movement of plants": Ibid., p. 59.
135 conditional reflexes: Todes and others argue that this is a better
translation of Pavlov's term tislovnyi refleks than the more familiar
"conditioned reflex." See Pavlov's Physiology Factory, pp. 244-46.
135 A copy was tracked down: Ti m Tully described his search in
"Pavlov's Dogs" (Current Biology 13, no. 4: R118).
136 "Pavlov's flies": from a Cold Spring Harbor press release, February
17,2003, available on the lab's Web site.
137 "Let the dog, man' s helper": Todes, Ivan Pavlov, p. 100.
10. Robert Millikan: In the Borderland
Goodstein, Judith R. Millikan's School: A History of the California Institute
of Technology. New York: Nort on, 1991.
Holton, Gerald James. The Scientific Imagination: Case Studies. New York:
Cambri dge University Press, 1978.
175
Millikan, Robert Andrews. Autobiography. London: Macdonal d, 1951.
. The Electron: Its Isolation and Measurement and the Determina-
tion of Some of Its Properties. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1924.
. Evolution in Science and Religion. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1927.
. Science and Life. Boston: Pilgrim, 1924.
Thoms on, Joseph John. Recollections and Reflections. New York: Macrnil-
lan, 1937.
Weinberg, Steven. The Discovery of Subatomic Particles. New York: Free-
man, 1990.
138 epi graph: William Crookes, "On Radiant Mat t er II," Nature 20 (Sep-
t ember 4,1879): 439-40.
140 Millikan mi sremembered t he talk as occurri ng 011 Chri st mas Eve:
He described listening to the Roentgen lecture in Evolution in Sci-
ence and Religion, pp. 10-11. The actual dat e of t he meet i ng was Jan-
uary 4,1896. (Roentgen had, in fact, given anot her talk in December
1895 in Wur zbur g. ) The oft -ci t ed Michelson lecture is recalled in
Autobiography, pp. 39-40.
140 Hert z on radio waves and light: "On Electric Radiation," Annalen der
Physik 36 (1889): 769; in A Source Book in Physics, pp. 549-61.
141 "We had not come quite as near": Autobiography, p. 11.
141 The history of the di scharge-t ube experi ment s is described in Wein-
berg, The Discovery of Subatomic Particles, pp. 20-25,102-5.
141 Crookes' s wor k is described in two beautifully illustrated papers in
vol ume 20 of Nature: "On Radiant Mat t er" (August 28,1879): 419-23,
and " On Radiant Mat t er II" (Sept ember 4,1879): 436-40. Both are
reprinted in David M. Knight, Classical Scientific Papers: Chemistry,
Second Series. Papers on the Nature and Arrangement of the Chemical
Elements (New York: Ameri can Elsevier, 1970), pp. 89-98.
143 "A f our t h state of mat t er": "Radi ant Mat t er II," 439. Crookes bor-
rowed the t erm f r om Faraday.
143 Roentgen' s penet rat i ng rays: "On a New Kind of Rays," translated by
Art hur St ant on, Nature 53 (1896): 274-76. A different translation is
excerpted in A Source Book in Physics (cited in my notes for chapt er
3), pp. 600-10.
143 Becquerel' s ur ani um experi ment : "On the Rays Emitted by Phos-
phorescence," Comptes Rendus 122 (1896): 420-21,501-3; in A Source
Book in Physics, pp. 610-13.
1 7 6
143 J. J. Thomson described his experiments in "Cat hode Rays," Philo-
sophical Magazine 44, no. 293 (1897): 293-316. A facsimile appears in
Stephen Wright, Classical Scientific Papers: Physics (New York:
American Elsevier, 1964). Weinberg analyzes the experiment in Dis-
covery of Subatomic Particles, pp. 12-71.
143 Electrons: The name had first been used by the Irish physicist
George Johnstone Stoney in "Of the Electron or Atom of Electric-
ity," Philosophical Magazine 38 (1894), p. 418.
144 My Thomson apparatus, made by Leybold, also included a focusing
grid, or Wehnelt (named after the German physicist who invented it).
146 2.5 x 10
8
coul ombs of charge per gram: The formul a for the charge-
to-mass ratio is v/Br where v is the velocity of the electrons, B is the
strength of the magnetic field, and r is the radius of the curving
beam. This t urns out to be equivalent to
2V( 5/ 4) V
(N\l
0
Ir)
2
a = the radius of the coils
N = the number of t urns of wire in the coils
V = the accelerating voltage on the anode
I = the amperes of current in the coils
r = the radius of beam
H
0
is a number called the permeability constant (47c x io~
7
), a con-
version factor that makes all the unitsvolts, amperes, coulombs,
centimeters, and gramsplay well together.
146 the quantity of electricity flowing each second t hrough a 100-watt
bulb: assuming, of course, a power source of 100 volts.
146 The value for the electron was about a t housand times greater:
Thomson also considered the possibility that electrons might have a
larger mass and a smaller charge, but that would have contradicted
experiments by Philip Lenard suggesting that cathode-ray corpus-
cles were considerably lighter t han molecules of air.
146 feeling like a has-been: Millikan tells the story in Autobiography, pp.
84-85.
147 The Cavendish experiment with the vapor cloud was done by H. A.
Wilson and marked an i mprovement over earlier attempts by
Thomson and J. S. E. Townsend. The experiments are summari zed
in Autobiography, pp. 85-87, and in The Electron, pp. 45-57. Wein-
berg analyzes the work in Discovery of Subatomic Particles, pp. 91-95.
The device used in the experiments, a Wilson cloud chamber, was
177
invented by the Scotsman C. T. R. Wilson, who used it to observe the
tracks of cosmic rays.
147 "like Mohammed' s coffin": Autobiography, p. 89. Curiously, Thom-
son used the same analogy fourt een years earlier in his own mem-
oirs, Recollections and Reflections, p. 343.
148 Millikan' s wat er-drop experi ment s: Autobiography, pp. 89-91. For an
analysis see "Subelectrons, Presupposi t i ons and the Millikan-
Ehrenhaft Dispute," in Hol t on, The Scientific Imagination, pp. 42-46.
148 "1, 2, 3, 4, or some ot her exact multiple": Autobiography, p. 90. Mil-
likan report ed his result as 4.65 x 10"
10
electrostatic uni t s (also called
st at coul ombs), which converts to 1.55 x 10"'
9
coul ombs.
149 The Wi nni peg meet i ng is described in The Scientific Imagination,
pp. 48-50. Millikan' s recollection about the train t ri p home is in
Autobiography, pp. 91-92.
149 "it has not yet been possible": The Scientific Imagination, p. 50.
149 "I saw a most beaut i ful sight": Harvey Fletcher, "My Work with Mil-
likan on the Oi l -Drop Experiment, " Physics Today (June 1982): 45.
153 Stokes' s law ( named after the ni net eent h-cent ury scientist Sir
George G. Stokes) describes how small spherical objects fall in a vis-
cous medi um like water or air. Millikan later adj ust ed the equat i on
so t hat it applied mor e closely t o objects as tiny as his oil drops.
154 "subelectrons": The physicist was Felix Ehrenhaft of the University
of Vi enna.
154 "I never woul d have believed it": Fletcher told the st ory in "My Work
with Millikan," p. 46.
154 Millikan and Fletcher wrote up t he results: "The Isolation of an Ion,
a Precision Measurement of Its Charge, and t he Correct i on of
Stokes' s Law," Science 30 (Sept ember 1910): 436-48.
154 "Very low somet hi ng wrong": The Scientific Imagination, pp. 70-71,
and "In Defense of Robert Andrews Millikan," Engineering and Sci-
ence 63, no. 4 (2000): 34-35.
155 "He who has seen that experiment": Autobiography, pp. 96-98.
155 1-5924 x 10"" coul ombs: or 4.774 X io~
10
st at coul ombs.
155 Fletcher told his story in "My Work with Millikan."
155 Millikan' s pat roni zi ng manner : See, for exampl e, Autobiography,
p. 70. David Goodst ei n gives ot her examples in "In Defense of
Robert Millikan."
156 The controversy over Millikan' s data is described in the essays by
Hol t on and Goodst ei n.
1 7 8
A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S
I DON'T know how this book coul d have been wri t t en wi t h-
out so many good libraries ar ound me. First is t he beaut i ful
Meem Library, just up t he hill at St. John' s College, desi gned
by t he sout hwest ern architect John Gaw Meem and filled
wi t h classics in t he hi st ory of science f r om Pt ol emy' s
Almagest to Millikan' s The Electron. I was actually able to find
a facsimile edi t i on of Albert Michelson' s handwr i t t en not es
f r om his 1878 measur ement of t he speed of light. Just as spe-
cial is the Santa Fe Public Library downt owni t s readi ng
r oom is anot her archi t ect ural t r easur ewher e t he reference
l i brari ans hel ped me secure several i nt erl i brary loans. The
fart hest I had to stray f r om Santa Fe was to t he University of
New Mexico in Al buquer que, where t he old bound j our nal s
are still on t he open shelves and not relegated to t he pri son of
mi crofi l m.
Early on, t he ent husi asm of St. John' s presi dent , John
Balkcom, was an i nspi rat i on. I also t hank Hans von Briesen,
the school' s f or mer l aborat ory director, who gave me my first
experi ence wi t h t he Thoms on and Millikan experi ment s,
and William Donahue, Peter Pesic, and Ned Wal pi n, faculty
member s who made i nsi ght ful comment s on t he ma nu-
script. I' m grat eful to Owen Gi ngeri ch and Geral d Hol t on at
Har var d and John Hei l bron at Berkeley for t hei r advice.
Dani el Todes at Johns Hopki ns made many hel pful observa-
KNOPF
Acknowledgments
t i ons about Pavlov, as did Roald Hof f ma nn at Cornel l about
Lavoisier.
As always, t hanks go to my fri ends who vol unt eered to be
early readers: Patrick Coffey, Louisa Gilder, Bonni e Lee La
Madel ei ne, David Padwa, and Ursula Pavlish. A mi croscopi c
read by Cor mac McCar t hy compel l ed me to expunge semi -
col ons and under wor ked commas (a few of whi ch have
snuck back i n). In t he final stage, t he book was greatly
i mpr oved by t he shar p scrutiny, er udi t i on, and good sense of
Mara Vatz and t he art i st ry of Alison Kent.
Thi s is t he sixth book I' ve had t he good f or t une to do wi t h
Jon Segal at Knopf and t he t hi rd wi t h Will Sulkin at Jonat han
Cape and Bodley Head. Thei r counsel and encour agement
are invaluable, as arc t hose of my agent, Est her Newberg,
who has been t here f r om t he start. At Knopf I woul d also like
to t hank editorial assistant Kyle McCart hy, designer Virginia
Tan, copy chief Lydia Buechler, and pr oduct i on edi t or Kath-
leen Fridella for t hei r skill and pat i ence in t ur ni ng a manu-
script i nt o a book.
1 8 0
I N D E X
Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations.
acute experiments, 122-3
aether, 18,34,112-16,119-20,143
air, xiii, 52,54-8
resistance of, 6, 96, 103
alchemy, 47,52
Alexander 11, Czar of Russia, 124
Allegorical Monument to Sir Isaac
Newton, Am (Pittoni), 32,33
Ampfcre, Andrd-Marie, 77-9
anatomy, anatomists, 19,20, 23,38
anesthesia, 122,125
animal electricity, 67-9, 74
anode, 141,144-6
Arago, Francois, 116
Arcetri, Italy, 5
Archimedes, xiii
Argand oil lamp, 83,119
Aristotle, 4, 5-6, 21-2, 34
arteries, 22,23,25-8
astronomy, xiv, 5,32,48,49,91,103,
105,106,107,107,110,112,115,
116,129
Astrophysical Observatory, 115
atoms, atomic theory, 81,96,112,
129,143,146,158
Aubrey, John, 19-20
auricle, 24,26
aut omat a, 130
Avery, Oswald, 158
azote (phlogisticated air), 52,57
Bacon, Francis, 19
batteries, 72, 74, 78-81, 83-4, 96-9,
102,143,147,150,150
Becquerel, Henri, 143
behaviorism, 135
Bell, Alexander Graham, 113,115
Bernoulli, Daniel, 93
bimetallic arc, 69,72
blood, circulation of, 17-30,29, 68
blood pressure, 128
Boyle, Robert, 35-6
Bradley, James, 106
brain, 3-4,38,62,123-4,128-30,135
brass, 69,72,101
Brave New World (Huxley), 135
Browne, Lancelot, 19
Caius, John, 19
calcination, 48-9, 53, 57
calculus, 32
caloric, 90-3, 95, 98-9, 103
calx, 49, 54-6
Camot , Lazare, 95
Carnot , Sadi, 95
Case School of Applied Science,
106,116-17
cathode, 141,143-6
cat hode ray, 142,143,144,145
cerebellum, 3
cerebrum, 4,133
Chadwick, James, 158
charcoal, 49, 54-5, 57-8
Charles I, King of England, 19
Chase, Mart ha, 158
chemistry, 47,52,74,82
coal, 91,97-8
cog-wheel, 107-8,108
coils, 80-1,96-100,102,145-6
color, 32,34-44
KNOPF
Index
Col umbus, Realdus, 26
combust i on, 45-58,92
Concerning the Fabric of the
Human Body (Vesalius), 23
conditioned responses, 128-35
Condorcet , Marquis de, 49
consciousness, 129-30
Copernicus, Nicolaus, 5,23,104
copper, 48,72,74,78-81,96,101
copperplating, 81,83
cosmological expansion, 49
Coul omb, Charles-Augustin de,
146
coulombs, 146,148,155
crispations, 79,81
Crookes, William, 141,145
Crookes tubes, 141,142
crystals, 83,84
Curie, Marie, 157
Dalton, John, 96
dark matter, 49
Darwin, Charles, xiv, 123,129
Davy, Humphry, 77-8
dephlogisticated air, 55,58
Descartes, Rene, 34,106,128
De Viribus Electricitatis in Motu
Musculari Commentarius
(Galvani), 64, 68
Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief
World Systems (Galileo), 5
di amonds, 46,49,142
diastolic heartbeat, 21,23,27
digestive system, 122-3,125-7
Dioptrics (Descartes), 34
Discourses Concerning Two New
Sciences (Galileo), 3,5,9,13,
106
DNA, 158
dogs, Pavlov's experiments with,
121-37,131
Drake, Stillman, 9-11,13,15
Dufay, Charles-Francois de
Cisternay, x
Earth, 106-7,112-13,115-17,119
ectoplasm, 145
Einstein, Albert, 81,86
elasticity, 36
"electricians," 61,68,80
electricity, 76,78,85-6,100,139,
143,146-9,150,152-5
animal, 67-9, 74
atmospheric, 66-7
in brain, 62
currents of, 67,71-2,71, 74,78,
81-2, 84, 96, 98-9, 146, 150
fields of, 143,147-8
Galvani's experiments with,
60-74, 64, 65,71
life and, 64,74
relationship to chemistry and
magnetism of, 81-3
resinous, x
static, ix-x, xii, 63, 65, 84
vertiginous, 78
vitreous, x
see also electromagnetism
electric motor, 79,96,97, 98,
103
electrolosis, 98
electrolytic cell, 146
electromagnetism
Faraday's experiments with, 76,
80-1,85,85
Joule's experiments with,
96- 9, 99
electrons, ix, xi, 96,138-56,150
energy, xiv, 81,97,102,103
epicycles, 5
epileptic siezu res, 68
equilibration, 127
esophagus, 122
ethereal essence, 18
Euripus Strait, 21-2
evaporation, 56,147
evolution, 125,127,131
Experimental Researches in
Electricity (Faraday), 75
1 8 2
Index
experimenters, xiii, 69,71
experiments
acute, 122-3
distractions in, 133
errors in, 11,115
experimenters as part of,
69.71
see also specific experiments and
experimenters
Experimentum Crucis, 41,44
Fabricius, Hieronymus, 19,20, 25
Fahrenheit measure, 89,100
falling bodies, 4, 6, 124
see also Galileo Galilei
Faraday, Michael, 75-87.75.79. 85,
89.93.140-1
Favaro, Antonio, 9
Ferine Gdndrale, 50
fire, xiii, 47, 92
fire air, 55
fixed (mephitic) air, 52,54,57
Fizeau, Armand-Hippolyte-Louis,
107-8
flamingo flask, 55-6,56
Fletcher, Harvey, 149,153,155
fluorescence, 141
foot -pounds, 100-2
Foucault, Ldon, 108,108,110
Franklin, Benjamin, 61
French Academy of Science, 46-7,
54.57
Fresnel, Augustin-Jean, 116-17,
119
friction, ix, 4,13,61,63,96,101-2
frogs, Galvani's experiments with,
64-73
Galen, 18,21,22,23,24,27,38
Galileo Galilei, xiii-xiv, 3-16,3,7,
15,19,22,106,107
Galvani, Luigi, 60-74, 60
galvanometer, 81, 98-9, 99
Gamma Draconis, 106
generators, electrical, 65-7,70,81,
98,100,102
genetics, xi, 157,158
geocentric universe, 5
Gilbert, William, ix, xii
Grand Unified Theory, ix, xiii
gravity, 4, 32, 49. 148
Great Fire of London, 43
Great Plague, 34
Greece, ancient, xiii, 21-2
Grothus, Edward B., 139
guillotine, 58-9
Hahn, Ot t o, 157
Harvey, William, 17-30,17
heart, 18,19,21-8,24
heat, xiv, 89-103
heliocentrism, 5,23
Helmholtz, Her mann von, 144
Heminway, Margaret, 109,112
Henry, Joseph, 80
Henry VIII, King of England, 83
Hershey, Alfred, 158
Hertz, Heinrich, 140,143
Holy Family, The (Pittoni), 32
Hooke, Robert, 35-6, 43-4, 93
hormones, 127
Hospice du Grand-Saint-
Bernard, 90
Hotel Normandi e, 105
humors, ix, 68
Huxley, Aldous, 135
Huxley, Thomas Henry, 130
Huygens, Christiaan, 35-6, 44
hydrogen, 81-2,98,146
inclined plane experiment, 4,
5-16, 7
induction ring, 80
inflammable air, 52
instincts, 127
Institute for Experimental
Medicine, 125-6
intelligence, 4
183
Index
interferometer, 114-15,114,117-20,
118,133,143
lo, 106,107
ions, 74
James, William, 129-30,129
James I, King of England, 19
Joule, James, xiv, 88-103,88, 99,
100
Jupiter, xiv, 106,107
Kelvin, William Thomson, Lord,
xiv, 89-91,95,101,103
Kepler, Johann, 5,106
Koyr, Alexandre, 8- 9
Laurentius, Andreas, 21
Lavoisier, Antoine-Laurent, xiv,
45-59.45. 90-1
Lavoisier, Marie Anne, 51-2,51, 91,
92,93
lead, 48,54
learned response, 131
lenses, 46,110,151
Levi-Montalcini, Rita, 157
Lewes, George Henry, 123
Leyden Jars, 61,63, 65, 67-8, 96
Libet, Benjamin, 130
I.iebniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, 32
life, electricity and, 64,74
light, 32, 34-5, 76, 92, 106-9
Faraday's experiments with,
83-6,85
Michelson' s experiments with,
109-20,109,114,118
Newton' s experiments with,
36-44
speed of, 106-20,108,109,114,
118
lightning, 62, 64, 64, 66-8
lignum nephriticum, 36
limewater, 52,54-5,57
litharge, 54-5
liver, 18,22
Lovelace, Ada, 76-7, 77, 82,86
luminiferous aether, 112
lungs, 19,22,26
McClintock, Barbara, 157
magnetism, ix, 82, 85-6, 96, 100,
140,143-4
see also electromagnetism
magnetite, ix
magnifier, 46
Manchester, 90, 93, 96, 101
Manhat t an Project, 139
mass, x, 3,58,100,146-7,153
mathematics, 32,34,43,134
matrass flask, 55
matter, 48,58,91,143
Maxwell, James Clerk, 86,104,140
Mayer, Robert, xiv
Meitner, Lise, 157
Mendel, Gregor, 158
Mendeleyev, Dmitri, 124
mephitic (fixed) air, 52,54,57
mercurius calcinatus, 54-5
mercury, 48, 54-8, 56, 70, 79-80, 99
Meselson, Matthew, 158
metabolism, 22
metallic arc, 70
metallurgy, 79
metaphysics, 131
Michelson, Albert A., xiv, 104-20,
104,140
Michelson-Morley experiments,
117-20,118,143
Micrographia (Hooke), 35-6,35, 38
microscopes, 35,151
Miller, Dayton Clarence, 120
Millikan, Robert, ix-xi, xiii, 138-56,
138,150,152
mirrors, 108-13,108,109,118,119
molds, 35,35
Monument to a Dog, 136-7,136
Morley, Edward, 105,117-20,118,
143
mot i on, 3,4,34,100,102,140
1 8 4
Index
motors, electric, 79,96,97, 98,
103
mucin, 125
muscles, 64-72,64
music, Pavolov's dogs and, 132-4
mysticism, xiii
natural philosophy, 89
natural selection, 129
nerve-growth factor, 157
nerves
of frogs, 64-74
optic, 38-40,39
nervo-electrical fluid, 63
nervous system, 74
Pavlov's experiments with,
122-3,125.127-35
neural connections, 132
neutrons, 158
New Theory About Light and Colors
(Newton), 43
Newton, Isaac, xiv, 31-44,31, 47,80
Experimentum Crucis of, 40, 41
in feud with Hooke and
Huygens, 43-4
Newton's rings, 37,37,111
Nicholas I, Czar of Russia, 124
nitrogen, 57
Nobel Prize, 120,127,149,155
Nollet, Jean-Antoine, 62
nuclear fission, 94,157
Oersted, Hans Christian, 78,81
On Floating Bodies (Archimedes),
xiii
Onnes, Heike Kamerlingh, 158
On the Motion of the Heart and
Blood in Animals (Harvey), 25
On the Origin of Species (Darwin),
123
Oppenheimer, ]. Robert, 140
optic nerves, 38-40,39
optics, 32,34-44.140
ostiola, 25
oxygen, 82,98
discovery of, 45-59
parity, conservation of, 158
particle accelerator, 46,46
particles, subatomic, xi, 146-7,158
see also electrons
pattern recognition, 134
Pavlov, Dmitry, 123-4
Pavlov, Ivan Petrovich, 121-37,121
pelican flask, 50-1,50, 55
periodic table, 124
periscope, 133
perpetual motion, 74
Philalethes (George Starkey), 47
philosopher's stone, 48,52
Philosophical Transactions, 43
phlogisticated air (azote), 52,57
phlogiston, 48-9, 52-5,57-8,62,
82,90
phosphorus, 52
physics, 47,89,94-5,129,140,149
Physics World, xii
physiology, 122-4,127-8
Physiology of Common Life
(Lewes), 123
Pittoni, Giovanni Battista, 32,33
planets, 32,48
platinum, 83
Plato,34
pncuma, 18,22
polarization
electrical, 61,67,74,81-2
of light, 83-5,84, 85,140
Presocratics, 34
Priestley, Joseph, 52,54-5,58,62-3
Principia Mathematica (Newton),
32,44
Principles of Psychology, The
(James), 129,129
prisms, 32,37,40-1,111,116
Nicol, 83,85
Protestants, 26
psychology, 127-8,135
185
Index
Ptolemy, 5,105
pulmonary circulation, 19,26
Pythagoras, xii-xiii
quantum mechanics, xii
quarks, xi
quartz, 125
radiation, 143
radium, 147,153,157
rate of fall, 4,5-16
receptors, 128,133
reduction, 54,58
refinement of ore, 49
reflection, of light, 34,36,84,140
Reflections on the Motive Power of
Fire (Carnot), 95
reflexes, 124,127,135
Reflexes of the Brain (Sechenov),
124
refraction, of light, 34,41-3,111,116,
140
relativity, xii, 117,120
respiration, 49,55
responses, conditioned, 128-35
retina, 36
Robespierre, Maximilien, 91
Roemer, Ole, 106,107
Roentgen, Wilhelm, 140-3,141
Royal Institution, 77,80
Royal Society, 35,43,60,92
Rumford, Count (Benjamin
Thompson), 91-3,99
Rutherford, Ernest, 149,158
Sacrifice of Polyxena, The
(Pittoni),32
salivation, 125,127-8,131-3,131,137
Scheele, Carl Wilhelm, 55,58
sciatic nerve, 64,69,71
scientific revolution, 35
Sechenov, Ivan, 124
Servetus, Michael, 26
Settle, Thomas B., 13
silver, 69,72
silverplating, 81
Skinner, B. F., 135
smell, 127
smelting, 54
Snell's law, 34
solar system, 106,115
spectrum, 40,42,105
spinal cord, 64,66,70
Stahl, Franklin, 158
Stahl, Georg Ernst, 48
Starkey, George (Philalethes), 47
stars, light from xi, 106,107,110,
112,116
static electricity, 63, 65, 84
steam engine, 90,93,94, 95-8,103
steel, 79
Steinmetz, Charles Proteus, 154
stimulus, 132-3,135
Stokes's law, 153
stomach, 122,125
Strassmann, Fritz, 157
Sturgeon, William, 80
subatomic particles, xi, 146-7,158
see also electrons
subelectron, 154
sublunar realm, 5
sulfur, 48,52
sulfuric acid, 52-3,96
Sun, 32,112
sunbeams, 40-1,46
Sun-centered solar system, 5,23
superconductivity, 158
superstring theory, xii
Symmer, Robert, 60-1,64
Symmer's socks, 6i, 62, 63-4
systolic heartbeat, 21,23,27
tax farmers, 50-1,58
telemicroscope, 151
telescope, 15,106-7, no, 116,148,151
reflecting, 43
temperature, 99,102,120,156
see also heat
186
Index
terra pingua, 48
Thales of Miletus, ix, xii
theodolite, 110
thermodynamics, 96
thermometer, 89-91,99,101
Thompson, Benjamin (Count
Rumford), 91-3,99
Thomson, J. J., 139,143-7, >49
Thomson apparatus, 144,145
time, 13-14,132
times-square law, 12,13
tin, 53,69,72,101
Todes, Daniel, 133
tongue, 72,125,128
tourmaline, 83
transmutation, 48
universe, 91,103,105
uranium, 98,143
vacuum, 116,143-4,148
vacuum chamber, 67
vascular system, 18
vegetative fluid, 18
venous system, 22,23,25-8
vertiginous electricity, 78
Vesalius, Andreas, 23,26
vis viva, 93-4,97,102
vital air, 55,57
vital fluid, 18
vital force, 74
vital spirit, 23
Volta, Alessandro, 68-72,74,77
von Briesen, Hans, x, xi
Walden Two (Skinner), 135
Waring blender experiment, 158
water, xiii, 82,94,99,101-3,116-17,
125
water clock, 8
waterfalls, 89
water wheel, 95
Watson, John B., 135
waves
electricity as, 81,147
light as, 85,111-13
Wedgewood China, 77
whale oil, 78
Wilson cloud chamber, 147,148
work, 98-103
Wren, Christopher, 43
Wu, Chien-Shiung, 158
X-rays, 140,147,150
Young, Thomas, 111,111,113
zinc, 72,74,78,81,96-7
187
I L L U S T R A T I ON C R E D I T S
3 Galileo Galilei, by Ottavio Leoni. Wikimedia Commons.
7 An early ni net eent h-cent ury demonst rat i on of the inclined plane
experiment. Drawing by Alison Kent.
10 A page from Galileo's notebook. Folio 107V, vol. 72. Reproduced by
kind permission of the Ministero per i Beni e le Attivit;\ Culturali,
Italy/Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale. Firenze. This image cannot be
reproduced in any form wi t hout the authorization of the Library, the
owners of the copyright.
15 Galileo's finger. By permission of Istituto e Museo di Storia della
Scienza.
17 William Harvey, by Willem van Bemmel. From a wood engraving by
Jacob Houbraken of a painting. In Roswell Park, An Epitome of the
History of Medicine (Philadelphia: The F. A. Davis Company, 1897),
p. 156.
20 The Anat omy Theater of Fabricus. From a seventeenth-century
engraving in Jacopo Filippo Tomasini, Gymnasium Patavinum
(Udine: Nicolas Schiratt, 1654). Public domai n.
24 Cross section of a human heart from Gray's Anatomy. Henry Gray,
Anatomy of the Human Body, 20th edition (Philadelphia: Lea &
Febiger, 1918).
29 Blood vessels, from Harvey' s Motion of the Heart, 1628.
31 Isaac Newton, by Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1689.
33 An Allegorical Monument to Sir Isaac Newton, by Giovanni Battista
Pittoni. By permission of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, En-
gland. In 2005, when I went to see the painting, it had been moved to
a stairway at the Trinity College Library.
35 Viewed under a microscope, "a small white spot of hairy mould. "
From Robert Hooke, Micrographia, 1665. Schem: XII, between pp. 124
and 125.
37 A lens sandwich used to show Newton' s rings. Redrawn from a dia-
gram in the Harvard Natural Sciences Lectures. Wikimedia Commons.
39 Newton' s experiment with his own eye. A page from his notebooks.
MS ADD 3975, p. 15. By permission of the Syndics of Cambri dge Uni-
versity Library.
40 Newton' s drawing of his Experimentum Crucis. From Newton' s Corre-
KNOPF
45
46
50
51
53
56
6o
62
63
63
64
65
71
73
75
77
78
79
8o
84
Illustration Credits
spondence I, p. 107. (MS 361 vol. 2. fol, 45.) By permission of the War-
den and Fellows, New College, Oxford.
Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier. Wikimedia Commons.
Incinerating di amonds. Bridgeman Art Library.
A pelican flask. John French, The Art of Distillation (London, 1651).
Marie Anne Pierrette Paulze. An engraving by Arents from a pastel
portrait by an unknown artist. From fidouard Grimaux, Lavoisier,
1743-1794, D'apr&s Sa Correspondance, Ses Manuscrits, Ses Papiers De
Fatnille Et D'autres Documents Inidits, 3. ed (Paris: F. Alcan, 1899).
Burning litharge in a jar with a magnifying glass. From Lavoisier,
Mimoires De Chimie (Paris, 1805).
Heating mercury in a "flamingo flask." Lavoisier, Elements of Chem-
istry (Paris, 1784). Plate 4, figure 2.
I.uigi Galvani. Wikimedia Commons.
Symmer' s socks. In Jean-Antoine Nollet, Lettres sur I'electricite III
(1767).
An eighteenth-century static electricity machine. From Jean-Antoine
Nollet, Essai sur I'electricite des corps (1750).
Benjamin Franklin' s drawing of two Leyden jars. Benjamin Franklin,
Experiments and Observations on Electricity (London: E. Cave, at St.
John's Gate, 1751).
Muscular contractions caused by lightning. From Luigi Galvani, De
Viribus Electricitatis in Motu Musculari Commentarius, 1791. Table II.
Static electricity and frogs' legs. From Luigi Galvani, De Viribus Elec-
tricitatis in Motu Musculari Commentarius. Table I.
Galvani' s experiment wi t hout external conductors. From Marc Sirol,
Galvani Et Le Galvanisme. L'tlectriciti Animate (Paris: Vigot frferes,
1939)-
Volta's electrical pile. From Alessandro Volta, On the Electricity Excited
By the Mere Contact of Conducting Substances of Different Kinds. In a
Letter From Alexander Volta to Sir Joseph Banks, Bart (1800).
Michael Faraday. Project Gut enberg Archives.
Lady Ada Lovelace. Dated 1838. Wikimedia Commons.
Oersted' s experiment. From Faraday's Forces of Matter (1868), p. 85.
From Faraday's diary, a wire rotating around a magnet. Sept. 3,1821,
p. 50.
Faraday's drawings of an induction ring. From his diary. Aug. 29,1831,
P- 367-
Polarization by reflection and t hrough a polarizing crystal. Redrawn
based on a diagram in Scientific American, July 1955.
1 9 0
85 The polarization experi ment . From Faraday's Diary, vol. 4, p. 264.
88 James Prescott Joule. Wi ki medi a Commons . From Robert Andrews
Millikan and Henry Gor don Gale, Practical Physics, 1920 (first pub-
lished 1913).
94 A l at e-ei ght eent h-cent ury st eam engine made by James Watt. From A
History of the Growth of the Steam-Engine by Robert H. Thurston,
1920 (originally published 1878).
95 A water wheel. Millikan and Gale.
97 Joule' s electric mot or. From his Scientific Papers, vol. 1, p. 17.
99 Joule's generator. Joule, Scientific Papers, vol. 1, p. 125.
100 Weights and pulleys t o t ur n the generat or crank. From Joule, Scien-
tific Papers, vol. 1 p. 150.
101 The refined version of Joule's experi ment . Scientific Papers, vol. 1.
Plate II of "Mechanical Equivalent of Heat." Appears after p. 298.
104 Albert A. Michelson.
107 A di agram by Roemer of Jupiter (B) eclipsing its moon Io (DC) as
viewed from different poi nt s in earth' s orbi t ar ound the sun. From his
paper, "A Demonst r at i on Concerni ng the Mot i on of Light" (1878).
108 The Fizeau experi ment . From Ernst Mach, The Principles of Physical
Optics, English translation, 1926, p. 25
108 The Foucault experi ment . From Michelson, "Experi ment al Det ermi -
nat i on of the Velocity of Light Made at the U.S. Naval Academy,"
Annapol i s, 1878.
109 Michelson' s rot at i ng mi rror. "Experi ment al Det ermi nat i on of t he
Velocity of Light."
111 Thomas Young's interference pat t ern. From Lecture XXXIX of his
Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy and the Mechanical Arts
(1807).
114 Michelson' s first interferometer, viewed f r om the t op and f r om t he
side. From "The Relative Mot i on of the Earth and t he Lumi ni ferous
Aether" (1887).
118 The Mi chel son-Morl ey experi ment . From "On t he Relative Mot i on of
the Earth and the Lumi nferous Aet her" (1887).
121 Ivan Pavlov. Court esy t he Institute of Experi ment al Medicine, St.
Petersburg.
126 Scenes f r om the Institute of Experi ment al Medicine. From Niva 7
(1891): 156-57.
129 A baby acqui ri ng an avoidance reflex to fire. William James, The Prin-
ciples of Psychology (1890), p. 25.
131 Training a dog to salivate when two mechanical st i mul at ors prick its
191
skin. From Pavlov, "Physiology and Psychology in the Study of the
Hi gher Nervous Activity of Ani mal s" (1916). In Lectures on Condi-
tioned Reflexes, p. 27.
134 Ascending scale
134 Descendi ng scale.
135 Pavlov's dogs. From Ti m Tully, "Pavlov' s Dogs," Current Biology 13, no.
4: R118.
136 Monument to a Dog. Court esy the Institute of Experimental Medi-
cine.
138 Robert Millikan. From Robert Andrews Millikan, Science and Life
(Freeport, N.Y: Books for Libraries Press, 1969).
141 Roentgen rays look inside a hand. From a phot ogr aph by P. Spies,
McClure's Magazine, April 1896, p. 404.
142 Crookes tubes. From "On Radiant Mat t er" (1879).
144 J. J. Thoms on experi ment . From "Cat hode Rays" (1897).
145 A moder n version of the Thoms on apparat us. Drawi ng by Alison
Kent.
148 Wilson cloud chamber. From C. T. R. Wilson, "On an Expansion
Apparat us for maki ng Visible t he Tracks of Ionising Particles in Gases
and some Results obtained by its Use," Proceedings of the Royal Society
of London (Series A) 87 (1912), no. 595: 277-92.
150 Early version of the Millikan oi l -drop experi ment . From Robert Mil-
likan, "The Isolation of an Ion, a Precision Measurement of its
Charge, and the Correct i on of Stokes' s Law," Physical Review (Series I)
32 (1911).
151 A later version. From Millikan' s paper "On the El ement ary Electrical
Charge and the Avogadro Const ant , " Physical Review (Series I) 32
(1911).
152 Philip Harri s Co. Millikan apparat us. Drawi ng by Alison Kent.
1 9 2
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