The Emergence of Conservation of Energy in the Nineteenth Century

This book examines the factors that lay behind the emergence of the principle of conservation of energy and of a new fundamental concept, energy, from a science marked by rough notions concerning the various forces and powers of nature. These conjoined developments constituted arguably the most important innovation in physics during the nineteenth century: they unified and defined the field as never before while for the first time bringing mechanics—previously belonging to mathematics—within the purview of physics. As shown in abundant detail, no one but Friedrich Mohr and Robert Mayer both marginal figures in the science of the day exemplified both aspects of this development, i.e. the concept of energy and the principle of its conservation. What it shows, likewise in abundant detail, is how those concepts achieved clarification through the exchanges and interactions of scientists—from Britain, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Denmark—who addressed cognate issues. Any notion of “discovery” as an essentially individualistic aspect of science is thus rendered moot. Based on an in-depth study of the work of twenty scientists, this book is of great interest primarily to professional historians of science and graduate students.