This book tells the story of the researches that are traditionally lumped together under the label "radiation theory" and revolving, loosely speaking around the familiar heat and-light exchange (hot bodies emit light or radiate; the absorption of light, especially sunlight, is warming). This characterization, we will soon find out, is too crude. Attempts to improve upon it have brought about the revolution in physics known as the quantum revolution (because the revolutionary change involved was the chopping up of light waves into discrete quantities) early in the twentieth-century. I wrote it with the following rules in mind: (a) try to present the development of the intellectual background relevant to your story; (b) try to present the details of your story in a critical manner; try to present developments as results of dissatisfaction with current states of affairs; (c) try to avoid reporting any piece of information without explaining what purpose it serves.
1: Radiation Theory.- Absorption And Emissionv.- Big Questions And Small Questions.- The Rear Guard of Science.- The Background to Radiation Theory.- Unity And Diversity In Nature.- Kirchhoff’s Law.- 2: The Background to Radiation Theory.- Flames as Things.- Heat as Substance.- Radiant Heat.- The Place of Prevost’s Law in History.- 3: The Rise of Spectroscopy.- Spectral Lines.- The Discovery of Spectral Lines: A Problem.- The Discovery of Spectral Lines: The Story.- The Discovery of Spectral Lines: A Discussion.- The Rise of Astrophysics.- Clues and Promises in Science.- The Place of Young in History.- 4: The Changing Scenery.- The Wave Theory of Light.- More About Waves.- Light Waves and Matter.- Heat as Energy.- 5: Kirchhoff’s Law.- Spectral Analysis.- Absorption Spectra.- Emission and Absorption Coefficients.- Kirchhoff’s Law.- Kirchhoff’s Followers.- Spectral Lines Between Kirchhoff and Bohr.- Atomic Spectra and the End of Atomism.- 6: The Background To Quantum Theory.- The Stefan-Boltzmann Law.- Wien’s Law.- The Red Herring of the Violet Catastrophe.- Planck and Bohr on Models.- Planck’s Law.- Einstein and the Photoelectric Effect.- The Crisis in Physics.- Appendix A: The Kirchhoff-Planck Radiation Law.- Prevost’s Law of Exchange.- Fraunhofer’s Discovery of Spectroscopy.- Stewart’s Law of Radiation.- Preliminaries to Kirchhoff’s Law of Radiation.- Kirchhoff’s Law and Its Proof.- Between Kirchhoff and Planck.- Planck’s Studies Prior to His Quantization.- Einstein’s Version of Kirchhoff’s Law.- References and Notes.- Appendix B: The Structure of the Quantum Revolution.- Kuhn on Planck.- Kuhn on the Quantum Revolution.- Kuhn’s Sociology of Science.- Planck’s Program.- The Status of Entropy.- Planck Versus Boltzmann.- Planck’sCapitulation to Boltzmann.- Conclusion.- Notes.- Appendix C: Quantum Duality.- and Abstract.- Dismissing Popular Cynicism about Science.- Approximationism in Action in Modern Physics.- The Confused Roots of Complementarity.- Conclusion.- Bibliographic Note.- Name Index.
