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Fizeau’s Research Program on Ether Drag: A Long Quest for a Publishable Experiment

Abstract.

Hippolyte Fizeau’s research program on ether drag consisted of a sequence of optical experiments and theoretical considerations aimed at clarifying the interaction between the ether and moving matter to reveal the motion of the Earth through the ether. In addition to Fizeau’s published papers, my reconstruction of his research program is based on his unpublished drafts, sketches, and experimental data.These reveal an increasingly complex interplay between his experimental setups,unexpected results, and theoretical convictions. I argue that publishing is an integral part of experimental research rather than a secondary activity undertaken after the “true” laboratory research has been completed. Accordingly, Fizeau’s research program can best be understood as a long quest for a publishable experiment. I show that to Fizeau, to be publishable meant achieving an expected positive experimental result.This publication strategy deeply influenced the design of his experiments as well as what he and his audience regarded as successful experimental research.

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Correspondence to Jan Frercks.

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Jan Frercks received his Ph.D. degree in the history of physics at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Germany, in 2001. He currently is a postdoctoral researcher in the Institute for History of Medicine, Science, and Technology at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Germany.

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Frercks, J. Fizeau’s Research Program on Ether Drag: A Long Quest for a Publishable Experiment. Phys. perspect. 7, 35–65 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-004-0224-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-004-0224-0

Key words.

  • Hippolyte Fizeau
  • Léon Foucault
  • François Arago
  • Augustin Fresnel
  • Jacques Babinet
  • ether theory
  • stellar aberration
  • optics of moving bodies
  • publication