Prologue II Quanta

Abstract

As the nineteenth century came to a close, physicists were in an up-beat mood. The discoveries of Roentgen, Becquerel, and the Curies — x-rays, penetrating radiation, and the transmutation of elements — had capped a triumphant century in the laboratory. On the theory side, Hamilton, Jacobi, and others had solved the problems of rigid bodies and constrained motions, completing Newton’s program in mechanics. Faraday and Maxwell had unified electricity, magnetism, and optics at one stroke in their continuum theory of the “aether.” True, these two great edifices were somewhat askew at the join, and the building labeled “atomic structure” remained an empty shell. But only a few physicists worried about that.