ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Riemann Reads Helmholtz: German Natural Philosophy after 1847

• In Event: Emergence and Interpretation of the Principle of Energy Conservation in the Long 19th Century

English Abstract

Bernhard Riemann (1826-1866) was a major figure closely linked with the Göttingen tradition established by Carl Friedrich Gauss and Wilhelm Weber. Already in 1847, Hermann Helmholtz had noted that Weber’s theory of electrodynamics did not account for certain phenomena involving free electricity. In the early 1850s, Riemann studied some of these phenomena with Weber and Rudolph Kohlrausch. At what point he first encountered Helmholtz’s booklet Über die Erhaltung der Kraft (1847) is unknown, but he definitely read it. Helmholtz only came out publicly in favor of Maxwell’s theory in 1870, after Weber’s theory had been attacked by Maxwell, Thomson and Tait. They maintained that Weber's force law was inconsistent with conservation of vis viva and energy conservation. It has long been known that Riemann attempted to modify Weber’s theory in order to overcome its reliance on action-at-a-distance (Fernwirkung). Riemann, who was extremely well read, was fond of quoting Newton’s third letter to Bentley in which he wrote that the notion that gravity acted instantaneously over vast distances was absurd. In this talk I will focus on Riemann’s various reactions to Helmholtz’s writings, which show that he was fully abreast of major issues in natural philosophy during his lifetime.

Author

• David E. Rowe, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz