Philosophical Magazine is one the oldest and longest-running scientific periodicals, appearing monthly from 1798 to the present day without interruption. Its name dates from a period when ‘natural philosophy’ embraced all aspects of science: physics, chemistry, astronomy, medicine, botany, biology, zoology and geology, in addition to natural phenomena of many kinds, for instance earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, lightning strikes and aurora. In the Preface to Volume 1, its aims were proclaimed:
‘To diffuse philosophical knowledge among every class of society, and to give the public as early an account as possible of everything new or curious in the scientific world, both at home and on the continent’.
Since 1798, many classic papers have been published in Philosophical Magazine during its vast history, including notable articles by Faraday, Joule, Lord Kelvin, Clausius, Maxwell, Lord Rayleigh, Michelson, Rydberg, Zeeman, J.J. Thomson, Rutherford, Millikan, Bohr and de Broglie, to name just some of great scientists who contributed papers.
All papers that have appeared in Philosophical Magazine and Philosophical Magazine Letters (the Letters section was launched in 1987) are now available online. The wealth of scientific discovery contained within this archive is immense.
Access to the full archive can be reached at:
www.informaworld.com/philmagarchive
(See back page for more details)
In this booklet, Taylor & Francis reproduce four articles from the archive. The first is from Phil. Mag. 5 (1799) p.1, entitled Observations on Animal Electricity, and particularly that called Spontaneous. This is included mainly for amusement; one should recall that electricity was an exceedingly mysterious phenomenon until Michael Faraday laid down the foundations of the subject in the first quarter of the nineteenth century.
The second of the articles reprinted here is surely one of the most significant theoretical physics papers to be published during the nineteenth century. It is by James Clerk Maxwell on Physical Lines of Force, published over an eleven month period in four parts [Phil. Mag. 21 (1861) p.161, Phil. Mag. 21 (1861) p.281 & p.338, Phil. Mag. 23 (1862) p.12, Phil. Mag. 23 (1862) p.85]. In Part III, which is reproduced here, Maxwell states on page 22: ‘… we can scarcely avoid the inference that light consists in the transverse undulations of the same medium which is the cause of electric and magnetic phenomena.’ This statement marks no less than the birth of the electromagnetic theory of light.
In 2008, Philosophical Magazine and Philosophical Magazine Letters introduced, in partnership with the James Clerk Maxwell Foundation, The James Clerk Maxwell Young Writers Prize, which is awarded annually to a talented young writer of a paper published in either of the journals. This prize aims to nurture tomorrow's researchers in physics and materials science, some of whom may follow in James Clerk Maxwell's footsteps. For more details about the prize, past winners and how to apply for the next prize go to: www.tandf.co.uk/journals/authors/tphm-tphl-prize.asp
J.J. Thomson's paper, Cathode Rays [Phil. Mag. 44 (1897) p.293], which describes the discovery of the electron, is the third of the articles, the first five pages of which are reproduced here. The paper was significant for many reasons. It was the first time that the atom was shown to be divisible into smaller components and marked the discovery of the first fundamental particle (it was not until 1911 that the proton was postulated and 1932 before the neutron was isolated). It also initiated the development of thermionics and all subsequent electronic devices. At the time of the discovery, the term electron was reserved for a unit of charge (as investigated in electrolysis for example) and Thomson christened his new particle a ‘corpuscle’.
There can hardly be a more historic paper than the fourth paper reproduced in this booklet. It is by Ernest Rutherford and reports the first artificial transmutation of an element. Not quite the dream of alchemists of turning base metals into gold, but in fact the transmutation of nitrogen into oxygen by bombardment with alpha particles. The title of the article, An Anomalous Effect in Nitrogen, gives no clue as to the significance of the discovery. Indeed, in the paper, there is not even a diagram of the apparatus used; one needs to see the earlier part of a series of papers to find that. The paper [Phil. Mag. 37 (1919) p.581] is modest in the extreme. In notation developed later, the reaction Rutherford had discovered can be written: 12N7 + 4He2 → 17O8 + 1H1, from which it can be seen that the oxygen produced was an isotope (atomic weight 17) and that a proton was emitted at the same time as the nitrogen nucleus was disintegrated.
Many other historic papers published in Philosophical Magazine are reproduced, along with detailed commentaries and illustrations, in four volumes, each covering a 50-year period, with the title Science in the Making compiled by E.A. Davis (Taylor & Francis Ltd. Volumes 1–4; 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999).
A history of the publishers of the journal, has been written by Professors W.H. Brock and A.J. Meadows, The Lamp of Learning: Taylor & Francis and Two Centuries of Publishing (2nd revised edition, Taylor & Francis Ltd. 1998).
Philosophical Magazine homepage: www.tandf.co.uk/journals/philmag
Philosophical Magazine Letters homepage: www.tandf.co.uk/journals/philmagletters