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The vision of
the group, and some memorable meetings
Dr John Roche, Chairman 1997-2000
This talk was held during the 25th Anniversary Group Meeting, where we also has a table showing historical documents provided by John Roche,
I have been strongly involved with the History of Physics Group since its foundation in the early 1980s, to about 2000. In the early 1980s they was something of a ferment for setting up history groups by professional scientists, including one in the Royal Society of Chemistry, in the Association of Science Education, and in the Royal Meteorological Society, together with centres in The Royal Institution, Birbeck College, and in the University of Aston. For physics the American Instate of Physics already had a thriving centre for the history of physics, and Italian physics had set up a history of physics society.
In 1982 various members of the Institute of Physics, already active in the history of science, discussed setting up a History of Physics Group. This led to a preliminary meeting on the 1 February 1984, hosted by Dr Frank Greenaway, Head of the Royal Institution Centre for the History of Science and Technology. The Royal Institution was very helpful in establishing our Group. A steering committee was established with Professor Jack Meadows as Chairman, with myself as Secretary, and, Brian Gee, David Hooper, Professor Nicholas Kurti, Stuart Leadstone and Raj Williamson and committee members. The IOP was represented Dr Maurice Ebison, and later by Mr Brian Davies of the Education section. We published a short paper in 1984 in Physics Bulletin, then the House Magazine of the Institute of Physics, with the title History as Surgery, encouraging the relevance of the history of physics to the professional physicist. The inaugural meeting of the group was held on 20th February 1985 in 47 Belgarve Square, then the Headquares of the Instute of Physics, with the title Experiments and Instruments: The interaction between experimental skills and instrumental craftsmanship. The Group has a strong experimental flavour
At the first Annual General Meeting 1986 in Linacre College, Oxford, the Constitution was approved. Council ratified it in December 1987.
In 1987 the Group printed a card describing its objectives and activies, which is included in the documents display documents. The main aims of the group are to
· secure the written, oral and instrumental record of British Physics for posterity
· to foster a greater awareness concerning the history of physics among physicists.
· to promote the importance of the history of physics in physics teaching
· to provide a forum where the different disciplines of physics may interact fruitfully
The group recognises that the special skills of the practicing physicist is indispensable for certain kinds of research in history of physics, especially in the clarification of difficult physics concepts.
The Group also recognises the importance of history in the study in the social relations of physics.
The new Group committed itself to meetings held across the country.
The Group aimed for 3 meetings each year, but with an excess of enthusiasm, it ran four one-day meetings in 1985.
The first formal meeting, on the 20 February 1985, on Experiments and Instruments, and was held in 47 Belgrave Square, IOP Headquarters. The meeting fee was £17, which included lunch, morning coffee and afternoon refreshments.
On 30 November 1985 Mrs Raj Williamson organised a sumptuous meeting at the Greater Manchester Museum of Science and Industry on The Education of Physicists between the Wars. This led to a book edited by Raj, published by Adam Hilger, the IOP ‘s book publisher, which is displayed here.
One of the most ambitious ventures of the Group was a 3-day conference held in Oxford in 2-4 July 1896, on the theme The History of Physics for the Physicist. The speakers included distinguished physicists and historians of science, including Sir Rudolf Pierls, Professor Nicholas Kurti, and Professor David Whiteside. It also led to a book: Physicists look back, also published by Adam Hilger in 1990.
The pedagogy of physics has been strongly represented on the Committee by Mr Stuart Leadstone, during my period on the committee, first at Atlantic College Wales. He organised the Welsh Regional meeting in 1986 at the University of Cardiff. He ran The History of Physics Workshop of Physics Teachers on the 18 March 1989. It comprised 5 subject areas, Atomic and Nuclear Physics; Electricity and magnetism; Heat and thermodynamics; Mechanics; and Ootics. It was held at Headquarters 47 Belgrave Square, London. It was substantial meeting, which included 48 physics teachers and historians of physics, and in my period it was the most ambitions venture linking the history of physics and physics teachers. He also ran two meeting in Edinburgh, One on Vectors in physics 1997 and one on Physics and Religion in 1999.
We arranged various joint ventures with other bodies and societies. In July of 1985 Projects in the History of Physics at Linacre College Oxford was linked to an exhibition of 19th century textbooks on Heat at the Bodleian Library arranged by Mr Bernard Spurgin. In November 1985 The Role of History in the Teaching of Physics held in Trinity College, Oxford organised jointly with Education Group of tegh Institute of Phsyics. In April 1986 The History of Atmospheric Physics was held jointly with the History Groups of the Royal Astronomical Society and Royal Metrological Society, held at The City University, London. In May 1987 The Social Relations of Physics was jointly with the Scottish Branch of the Institute of Physics, at Napier College Edinburgh.
In July 1990 Aether to Relativity was arranged by Peter Rowland, and held in the Chadwick Physics Laboratory and held jointly with the Liverpool Society for the History of Science and Technology, at University of Liverpool. In April 1993 Scotland's Uncelebrated Genius held at Maxwell's birthplace 14 India Street, Edinburgh, jointly with the James Clerk Maxwell Foundation.
Easily the most successful joint venture in my period was in July 1988: George Green Miller, Physicist and Mathematician. This two day conference was jointly sponsored by our group, with the City of Nottingham and with the University of Nottingham. It was organised by the remarkable Mary Cannell, and included an archive exhibition on Green as well as a visit to Green's Mill, Nottingham. This led to a book on George Green written by Mary, who has sadly died.
Many meetings arose as the result of anniversaries of various kinds as in 1997, 100 Years of the Electron, held in the University of Leeds as part of the IOP Annual Congress, or as reminiscences of senior physicists, as in 1999 recollections of early years as a physicist in Poland, by Professor Joseph Rotblat, at 76 Portland place, London
Dr Alan Morton of the Science Museum, London was invited to join the Committee in 1988 and this gave rise to a fruitful liaison with the Science Museum. Alan subsequently became the Honorary secretary of the Group in 1991 and handed it on to another curator of the Science Museum, Dr Neil Brown which served the Group for many years., subsequently Dr Sopie Duncan, also from the Scienec Museum too over as honorary Secretary. In the later 80s and 90s many committee meetings and general meetings of the Group were held in the Science Museum. The Science Museum has been very helpful in encouraging the group, and we are very grateful for their help..
One of the considerable successes of the Group has been its Newsletter. The first editor was Mr David Hooper of Chester which very committed to photography, and this is shown in the historical photographs which grace his editions of the Newsletter. The Newsletter included accounts of lectures and meetings, topical essays of the history of physics, meetings of the group and of other historical associations, book reviews. Mr Bob Joyce of Dudley continued this tradition, as did Miss Lucy Hudson who is the last editor of my period. Malcolm Cooper will talk about the later development of the Newsletter.
The number of members of the group grew steadily during my period . Today it incudes . The Group introduced various initiatives for members. A survey of interests of members of the group give the following order of interest:.
This helped us to structure the choice of topics for our meetings. We also surveyeyed the postal codes of members to find where the greatest concentrations lay. This helped by in arranging venues of meetings.
Many other initiatives were introduced by members of the Committee.
During 1984-5, during a year of preparation for setting up the group, members gathered together a list of historical projects which physicists interested in pursuing historical research might carry out: projects which were too technical for most professional historians of science, but his were important for deepening the understanding of physics.
We drew up four broad categories of historical research projects of this sort:
Raj Williamson is particularity concerned about the preservation of archives and apparatus in physics department. She carried out an investigation for the Committee on the state of physics archive and historical instruments. She writes
“Many
physics departments in the country have important historical papers and
apparatus gathered together in store rooms., in some cases in a state of decay
and dusty neglect. The departments intend to ‘do something about it all some
day’. Sometime a suitable concerned number of staff keeps a desultory eye on
the objects - which could be valuable for historians of science - such as
inaugural addresses, portraits, X-ray tubes , spectrometers, etc, used by eminent scientists. Most departments
do not wish to relinquish their possessions to Museums out of hand”.
The Group has an ongoing concern about physics archives, but has found it very difficult to do much.
The main difficulty is pursuing projects of this sort is that professional physicists have little time to do this kind of research. Retired physicists have the time, but to develop professional standards in history requires years of effort and engagement with professional historical associations, and conferences, and peer-reviewed publications and learning the language. For some physicists, while remaining committed to physics professionalism, and at the same time to train as professional historians, is not easy. It requires a change of culture in physics or in historiography. But some physicists have done this, most notable Sir Edmund Whittaker.
Page last updated 21 Aug 2014