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Physics on the periphery: A world survey, 1920–1929

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Abstract

We provide a quantitative, historical survey of physics on the periphery (that is, beyond Europe and the United States) during the crucial decade of the 1920s. Our population derives from Henry Small'sPhysics Citation Index; 1920–1929, 2 vols (Philadelphia, 1981), which organizes the content of sixteen of the world's most important physics journals into the alphabetical lists familiar to users of the products of the Institute for Scientific Information. The 319 authors are situated in eleven separate political entities. Both expected and surprising results emerge from considering the educational trajectories, publishing patterns, and citation visibility of our sample.

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Notes and references

  1. The notion of a scientific periphery has been circulating at least since EdwardShils's writings of the 1950s, but relatively few studies have infused it with historical dimensions. Noteworthy are: C. K. VANDERPOOL, Center and Periphery in Science: Conceptions of a Stratification of Nations and Its Consequences, in: S. P. RESTIVO, C. K. VANDERPOOL, Eds.Comparative Studies in Science and Society, Columbus, Ohio, 1974, pp. 432–444; G. BUDOWSKI,Imperialismo cientifico, trans. E. BELTRÁN, Mexico, 1972; Y. M. RABKIN, H. INHABER, Science on the Periphery: A Citation Study of Three Less Developed Countries,Scientometrics, 1 (1979) 261–274; HelgeKRAGH, On Science and Underdevelopment, Roskilde, Denmark, 1980; Adel Awwad ZIADAT, Arab Scientists in the North American Scientific Community,Arab Studies Quarterly, 4 (1982) 242–253; M. ROCHE, Y. FREITES, Producción y flujo de informacion científica en un país periferico americano (Venezuela),Interciencia, 7 (1982) 279–290.

  2. J. HEILBRON,A History of Electricity in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, Berkeley, 1978; K. HUFBAUER,The Formation of the German Chemical Community, 1720–1795, Berkeley, 1982; D. ROCHE,Le Siècle de lumières en province: Académies et académiciens provinciaux, 1680–1789, 2 vols, Paris, 1978; J. MORRELL, A. W. THACKRAY,Gentlemen of Science: Early Years of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Oxford, 1981.

  3. An excellent study of scientific discovery on the periphery—and perhaps the finest book to date on Canadian science—is Michael BLISS'sDiscovery of Insulin, Toronto, 1982.

  4. F. CAJORI, The Mathematical Sciences in the Latin Colonies of America,Scientific Monthly, 16, No. 2 (1923) 194–204; J. BABINI,la Ciencia en la Argentina, Buenos Aires, 1954. J. NEEDHAM's series,Science and Civilization in China, currently occupies more than two linear feet in most university libraries.

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  5. D. FLEMING, Science in Australia, Canada, and the United States: Some Comparative Remarks, inActes du X e congrès international d'histoire des sciences, Paris, 1964, pp. 179–196; G. BASALLA, The Spread of Western Science,Science, 156 (1967) 611–622; T. O. EISEMON,The Science Profession in the Third World: Studies from India and Kenya New York, 1982; L. PYENSON, The Incomplete Transmission of a European Image: Physics at Greater Buenos Aires and Montreal, 1890–1920,Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 122 (1978) 92–114; L. PYENSON, Cultural Imperialism and Exact Sciences: German Expansion Overseas, 1900–1930,History of Science, 20 (1982) 1–43.

  6. D. J. KEVLES,The Physicsts: The History of a Scientific Community in Modern America, New York, 1978; D. J. KEVLES, Carolyn HARDING, The Physics, Mathematics, and Chemical Communities in American, 1870–1915, Pasadena, 1977 (California Institute of Technology, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Social Science Working Paper 136).

  7. L. PYENSON, D. SKOPP, Educating Physicsts in Germanycirca 1900,Social Studies of Science, 7 (1977) 329–366, on p. 338.

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  8. R. F. BUD, P. T. CARROLL, J. L. STURCHIO, A. THACKRAY, Chemistry in America, 1876–1976: An Historical Application of Science Indicators, Philadelphia, 1978 (Report to the National Science Foundation, prepared under Grant No. SOC 75-14952).

  9. H. SMALL,Physics Citation Index, 1920–1929, 2 vols, Philadelphia, 1981. SMALL elaborates on the index in his final report to the National Science Foundation for Grant SOC 77-14957,A Citation Index for Physics: 1920–1929, Philadelphia, 1980.

  10. SMALL used the following journals:Annalen der Physik; Annales de physique; Astrophysical Journal; Journal de physique; Matematisk-Fysiske Meddelelser; Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society; Nippon Sugaku-Buturigakkwai Kiji (Proceedings of the Physical-Mathematical Society of Japan); Il Nuovo Cimento; Philosophical Magazine; Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (London), section A;Physica; Physical Review; Physikalische Zeitschrift; Proceedings of the Physical Society (London);Proceedings of the Royal Society (London), section A;Zeitschrift für Physik.

  11. Volumes 4, 5 and 6 of J. C. POGGENDORFF's lexion; the various editions ofAmerican Men of Science; Biographical Memoirs of the Fellows of the Royal Society (London); various editions ofWho's Who in Canada, J.F. WESTERKAMP,Evolución de las ciencias en la República Argentina, II: Física (Buenos Aires, 1975);Japan Biographical Encyclopedia and Who's Who, Tokyo, 1964–65. The McGill University archives furnished additional information on Canadian authors.

  12. R. W. HOME, Origins of the Australian Physics Community,Historical Studies (Melbourne), 44 (April 1983) 383–400.

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  13. Yet even Toronto fell under the spell of Cambridge. In offering McLENNAN's chair in experimental physics to DIRAC, E. F. BURTON pointed to a glowing future in America: “I feel that perhaps the centre of gravity of Mathematical Physics may be moving towards the West as time goes on.” Burton to Dirac, 20 February 1932. Cambridge, Churchill College, Papers of P. A. M. Dirac, 3/4.

  14. The Canadian physics authors manifest a marked propensity to obtain redundant degrees, and for this reason there is no simple connection between Table 1c and the number of Canadian authors-61. The redundant degrees are largely at the predoctoral level, as the following tabulation indicates: E. F. ALLEN, MA, New Brunswick & Cornell; E. F. BURTON, PhD, Toronto & Cambridge; E. L. HARRINGTON, BA&BSc, Missouri; T. C. HEBB, BA & BSc, Dalhousie; G. H. HENDERSON, BA&BSc, Dalhousie; D. A. KEYS, PhD, Cambridge & Harvard; L. V. KING, BA, McGill&Cambridge; R. K. McCLUNG, BA, McGill&Cambridge; A. J. McTAGGART, PhD, Cambridge&Toronto; S. SATTERLY, BA, Cambridge&London; A. N. SHAW, MA, McGill&Cambridge; F. R. TERROUX, BA, Loyola&McGill. We emphasize that here, as elsewhere, we have tried to exclude honorary degrees.

  15. Y. GINGRAS, Le Développement du marché de la physique au Canada: 1879–1928, in: R. A. JARRELL, A. E. ROOS, Eds,Critical Issues in the History of Canadian Science, Technology and Medicine, Thornhill/Ottawa, 1983, pp. 16–30.

  16. A contract between CABANNES and the Institut scientifique franco-canadien as well as a list of Cabannes's lectures in Canada may be found in the arcives of the University of Montreal, P12/L1 and P12/G1.

  17. The Clay-Millikan controversy is mentioned in D. J. KEVLES, Robert A. Millikan,Scientific American, 240, No.1 (1979) 118–125. It is discussed in G. W. RATHENAU, Levensbericht van Jakob Clay,Jaarboek der Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, 1955–1956, pp. 1–4; H. F. JONGEN, Claij, Jacob,Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland, forthcoming. COMPTON nominated HESS, CLAY, and ANDERSON (in that order) for a Nobel prize in January 1936. Leiden, Boerhaave Museum, Arch. 117. Compton to Clay, 6 March 1937.

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  18. J. M. PRICE, V. R. LORWIN, Introduction, in: J. M. PRICE, V. R. LORWIN, Eds,The Dimensions of the Past: Materials, Problems, and Opportunities for Quantitative Work in History, New Haven, 1972, pp. 1–11, on p. 8.

  19. J. DREXLER, The Truth of Non-Euclidean Geometry (in Chinese), appearing inFestschrift zum Gedenken des 20-jährigen Bestehens der staatlichen Tung-Chi Universität, Woosung, 1928

  20. L. PYENSON, Laub, Jakob,Neue Deutsche Biographie, 13 (1982) 688–689.

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  21. Eli de GORTARI,La Ciencia en la historia de México, Mexico City, 1980, pp. 242–259; Sterrenkunde (de beoefening der) in Nederlandsch-Indië, in: J. PAULUS,et al., Eds,Encyclopaedie van Nederlandsch-Indië, 6 (1932) 674–679.

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  1. Institut d'histoire et de sociopolitique des sciences, Université de Montréal, H3C 3J7, Canada

    L. Pyenson & M. Singh

  2. Physics Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 02139, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    L. Pyenson & M. Singh

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  1. L. Pyenson
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Pyenson, L., Singh, M. Physics on the periphery: A world survey, 1920–1929. Scientometrics 6, 279–306 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02020129

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