Synopsis
Excerpt from The Origin and Development of the Quantum Theory
Moreover, my suggestion that the resonator might be able to exert a one-sided, i. E. Irreversible, action on the energy of the surrounding radiation field called forth the emphatic protest of Ludwig Boltzmann who with his more mature experience in these questions succeeded in showing that according to the laws of the classical dynamics every one of the processes I was considering could take place in exactly the opposite sense. Thus a spherical wave emitted from a resonator when reversed shrinks in concentric spherical surfaces of continually de creasing size on to the resonator, is absorbed by it, and so permits the resonator to send out again into space the energy formerly absorbed in the direction from which it came. And although I was able to exclude such singular processes as inwardly directed spherical waves by the introduction of a special restriction, to wit the hypothesis of natural radiation yet in the course of these investiga tions it became more and more evident that in the chain of argument an essential link was missing which should lead to the comprehension of the nature of the entire question.
Présentation de l'éditeur
Excerpt from The Origin and Development of the Quantum Theory
My task this day is to present an address dealing with the subjects of my publications. I feel I can best discharge this duty, the significance of which is deeply impressed upon me by my debt of gratitude to the generous founder of this Institute, by attempting to sketch in outline the history of the origin of the Quantum Theory and to give a brief account of the development of this theory and its influence on the Physics of the present day.
When I recall the days of twenty years ago, when the conception of the physical quantum of 'action' was first beginning to disentangle itself from the surrounding mass of available experimental facts, and when I look back upon the long and tortuous road which finally led to its disclosure, this development strikes me at times as a new illustration of Goethe's saying, that 'man errs, so long as he is striving'. And all the mental effort of an assiduous investigator must indeed appear vain and hopeless, if he does not occasionally run across striking facts which form incontrovertible proof of the truth he seeks, and show him that after all he has moved at least one step nearer to his objective. The pursuit of a goal, the brightness of which is undimmed by initial failure, is an indispensable condition, though by no means a guarantee, of final success.
In my own case such a goal has been for many years the solution of the question of the distribution of energy in the normal spectrum of radiant heat.
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