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Samuel Pierpont Langley and his Contributions to the Empirical Basis of Black-Body Radiation

Abstract.

In this paper I deal with an early phase of the history of research on black-body radiation. In this phase, from 1880-1900, the American astrophysicist Samuel Pierpont Langley (1834-1906) invented and used a key instrument, the bolometer, to measure for the first time radiation curves that displayed the characteristic features of asymmetry and of a shifting of their maxima to shorter wavelengths with increasing temperature. I emphasize the complex development of the construction of the bolometer and the early experiments performed with it. I also discuss how these developments became important for theoretical research on the black-body radiation formula. My aim is to show that the often-neglected experimental part of the history of research on black-body radiation represents an important precondition for the theoretical developments that followed.

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Correspondence to Andrea Loettgers.

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Loettgers, A. Samuel Pierpont Langley and his Contributions to the Empirical Basis of Black-Body Radiation. Phys. perspect. 5, 262–280 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-003-0143-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-003-0143-5

  • History of experiment
  • black-body radiation law
  • bolometer
  • infrared spectroscopy
  • Samuel Pierpont Langley
  • University of Pittsburgh
  • Allegheny Observatory
  • Smithsonian Institution