Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Genesis of Mach’s Early Views on Atomism

  • Chapter
Ernst Mach: Physicist and Philosopher

Part of the book series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science ((BSPS,volume 6))

Abstract

It is appropriate to consider three distinct phases of Mach’s changing views regarding the ultimate structure of matter. As a young ‘Dozent’ at the University of Vienna, until 1863, Mach accepted the atomic theory without reservation — at least as a useful working model and hypothesis. His earliest views on atomism are contained primarily in the investigations on the Doppler effect, capillary phenomena, spectra of gases, resonance vibrations, and the transmission of sound in the ear. In addition Mach employed the atomic theory in his compendium of physics for medical students which was published in 1863.

It is a pleasure to acknowledge the support of the National Science Foundation for research on the life and works of Ernst Mach.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. In another paper the author will examine Mach’s criticism of the atomic theory as contained in his major treatises, papers, and correspondence with scientists and philosophers.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Ernst Mach, ‘Einleitung’, in Beiträge zur Doppler’schen Theorie der Ton und Farbenänderung durch Bewegung, Prag 1873, p. 3.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Christian Doppler, ‘Ueber das farbige Licht der Doppelsterne und einiger anderer Gestirne des Himmels’, Abhandl. Böhmischen Ges. Wiss. [5] 12 (1843), 467–482.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Buijs Ballot, ‘Akustische Versuche auf der Niederländischen Eisenbahn, nebst gelegentlichen Bemerkungen zur Theorie des Hrn. Prof. Doppler’, Ann. Physik 66 (1845), 321–351.

    Google Scholar 

  5. J. Petzval, ‘Ueber ein allgemeines Princip der Undulationslehre: Gesetz der Erhaltung der Schwingungsdauer’, Wien, Ak. Sber. 8 (1852), 134–156; ‘Ueber die Unzukömmlichkeiten gewisser populärer Anschauungsweisen in der Undulationstheorie und ihre Unfähigkeit das Princip der Erhaltung der Schwingungsdauer zu ersetzen’, ibid., 567–586, and ibid, 9 (1852) 699–737; Doppler, ‘Bemerkungen zu dem Aufsatze: Über ein allgemeines Princip der Undulationslehre, usw.’, ibid., 587–593; v. Ettingshausen, ‘Bemerkung, derselben Gegenstand betreffend’, ibid., 593–594.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Angström, ‘Optische Untersuchungen’, Ann. Physik 170 (1855), 141–165.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Ernst Mach, ‘Ueber die Änderung des Tones und der Farbe durch Bewegung’, Wien, Ak. Sber. 41 (1860), 543–560; continued in Ann. Physik 116 (1862), 333–338.

    Google Scholar 

  8. This was first undertaken by A. Belopolsky with an arrangement of two counter-rotating discs with mirrors moving at the rate of 80 meters per second. He measured the shift in the solar Fraunhofer lines. See Astrophys..1. 13 (1901), 15–24. Several years later B. Galitzin and J. Wilip measured the Doppler shift spectroscopically using a mercury lamp source and a Michelson echelon. See St. Pét. Ac. Sc., Bull. [VI] 1 (1907), 213–223.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Ernst Mach, op. cit. (1860), p. 548.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Ernst Mach, ‘Ueber die Controverse zwischen Doppler und Petzval, bezüglich der Änderung des Tones und der Farbe durch Bewegung’, Z. Math. Physik 60 (1861), 120–126.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Ibid., p. 124.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Ernst Mach, ‘Ueber die Molekularwirkung der Flüssigkeiten’, Sber. Akad. Wiss. Wien 46 (1863), 125–134.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Ibid., p. 127.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Ibid., pp. 132–133.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Ernst Mach, Popular Scientific Lectures,La Salle, Illinois (1943), 1–16.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Ibid., p. 10.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Ibid., pp. 15–16.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Ernst Mach, ‘Ueber die Spectra chemisch verschiedener Körper’, Z. Math. Physik 17 (1862), 214–216.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Ibid., p. 216.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Ernst Mach, ‘Ueber die Gesetze des Mitschwingens’, Sber. Akad. Wiss. Wien 47 (1863), 33–48.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Ibid., p. 35.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Ernst Mach, ‘Zur Theorie des Gehörorgans’, Sber. Akad. Wiss. Wien 48 (1863), 283–300.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Ibid., p. 284.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Ibid., p. 290.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Ibid., p. 292.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Ibid., p. 300.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Ernst Mach, ‘Die Leitgedanken meiner naturwissenschaftlichen Erkenntnislehre und ihre Aufnahme durch die Zeitgenossen’, Scientia 7 (1910), 234.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Ernst Mach, Compendium der Physik für Mediziner, Vienna 1863.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Ibid.,p. vi.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Ibid., pp. 3–4.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Ibid., p. 10.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Ibid., p. 10.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Ibid., pp. 10–11.

    Google Scholar 

  34. Ibid., p. 11.

    Google Scholar 

  35. Ibid., p. 15.

    Google Scholar 

  36. Ibid., p. 188.

    Google Scholar 

  37. Ibid., p. 18.

    Google Scholar 

  38. Ibid., p. 18. Also pp. 76–85 and 89–91.

    Google Scholar 

  39. Ibid., pp. 49–55.

    Google Scholar 

  40. Ibid., pp. 91–96.

    Google Scholar 

  41. Ibid., pp. 16–18.

    Google Scholar 

  42. Ibid., p. 171.

    Google Scholar 

  43. Ibid., p. 172.

    Google Scholar 

  44. Ibid., pp. 161–163.

    Google Scholar 

  45. Ibid., pp. 55–56.

    Google Scholar 

  46. Ibid., p. 170.

    Google Scholar 

  47. Ibid., p. 14.

    Google Scholar 

  48. Ibid., p. 16. See also pp. 178–179 and 189–193.

    Google Scholar 

  49. Ibid., p. 187–188.

    Google Scholar 

  50. Ibid., p. 170.

    Google Scholar 

  51. Ibid., p. 178.

    Google Scholar 

  52. Ibid., p. 178.

    Google Scholar 

  53. Ibid., pp. 178–181.

    Google Scholar 

  54. Ibid., p. 16.

    Google Scholar 

  55. Ibid., p. 234.

    Google Scholar 

  56. Ibid., pp. 235–239.

    Google Scholar 

  57. Ibid., p. 234.

    Google Scholar 

  58. Ibid., pp. 271–272.

    Google Scholar 

  59. The subject of Mach’s use of atomistic models in relation to views on the ultimate structure of matter, as seen among his immediate predecessors and contemporaries, forms the basis of another paper.

    Google Scholar 

  60. Aus Dr. Mach’s Vorträgen über Psychophysik’, Oesterr. Zeitschrift für praktische Heilkunde 9 (1863), 146–148,167–170,202–204,225–228,242–245,260–261,277–279, 294–298,316–318,335–338,352–354,362–366.

    Google Scholar 

  61. Ibid., p. 147.

    Google Scholar 

  62. Ibid., pp. 147–148.

    Google Scholar 

  63. Ibid., pp. 167–170.

    Google Scholar 

  64. Ibid., pp. 202–204.

    Google Scholar 

  65. Ibid., pp. 225–227, 242–245.

    Google Scholar 

  66. Ibid., p. 317.

    Google Scholar 

  67. Ibid., p. 335–336.

    Google Scholar 

  68. Ibid., pp. 362–363.

    Google Scholar 

  69. Ibid., p. 364.

    Google Scholar 

  70. Ibid., p. 366.

    Google Scholar 

  71. Ernst Mach, ‘Vorläufige Bemerkungen über das Licht glühender Gase’, Z. Math. Physik 9 (1864), 69–70.

    Google Scholar 

  72. Supra, pp. 82–83.

    Google Scholar 

  73. Ibid., p. 69, 1864.

    Google Scholar 

  74. Ibid., p. 69–70.

    Google Scholar 

  75. Ernst Mach, ‘Veber einige der physiologischen Akustik angehörige Erscheinungen’, Wien, Ak. Sber. 50 (1865), 342–362.

    Google Scholar 

  76. Supra, pp. 83–85.

    Google Scholar 

  77. Ibid., p. 348.

    Google Scholar 

  78. Ibid., pp. 351–352.

    Google Scholar 

  79. Ernst Mach, Die Geschichte und Wurzel des Satzes von der Erhaltung der Energie, 2nd unaltered reprint, Leipzig, 1909. The cited quotations and references are from the Jourdain translation, Open Court, Chicago, 1911.

    Google Scholar 

  80. Ibid., pp. 86–88.

    Google Scholar 

  81. The three essays were published together in 1906 by Open Court as Space and Geometry in the Light of Physiological, Psychological and Physical Inquiry. The citation is from this edition.

    Google Scholar 

  82. Ibid., pp. 138–139.

    Google Scholar 

  83. Ernst Mach, Bemerkungen zur Lehre vom räumlichen Sehen’, Z. für Phil. und philos. Kritik 46 (1865), 1–5; ‘Bemerkungen über die Entwicklung der Raumvorstellungen’, ibid. 48 (1866), 227–232.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Wisconsin, USA

    Erwin N. Hiebert

Authors
  1. Erwin N. Hiebert
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Boston University, USA

    Robert S. Cohen

  2. U.S. National Science Foundation, USA

    Raymond J. Seeger

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1970 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Hiebert, E.N. (1970). The Genesis of Mach’s Early Views on Atomism. In: Cohen, R.S., Seeger, R.J. (eds) Ernst Mach: Physicist and Philosopher. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 6. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1462-4_6

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1462-4_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-8318-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-1462-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation