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Philadelphia: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Physics

I present a guide to some of the locations and figures associated with the history of physics in Philadelphia, from colonial times to the present, including a walking tour and additional excursions. Highlights include sites related to Benjamin Franklin, discussions of the lives and work of important physicists at the University of Pennsylvania, a sketch of the early history of the Bartol Research Foundation, and a description of some of the laboratories and observatories in the Philadelphia area.

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Correspondence to Paul Halpern.

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Paul Halpern is Professor of Physics at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. He currently is a member of the Executive Committee of the Forum on the History of Physics of the American Physical Society.

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Halpern, P. Philadelphia: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Physics. Phys. perspect. 11, 209–227 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-008-0386-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-008-0386-2

Keywords:

  • James Logan
  • Benjamin Franklin
  • Peter Collinson
  • David Rittenhouse
  • George Frederic Barker
  • Thomas Alva Edison
  • Nikola Tesla
  • Arthur Goodspeed
  • Gaylord Harnwell
  • Robert Hofstadter
  • Henry Primakoff
  • J. Robert Schrieffer
  • Raymond Davis, Jr.
  • Joseph Taylor
  • John H. Mather
  • Leonard Schiff
  • William Francis Gray Swann
  • Martin Pomerantz
  • Sandra Moore Faber
  • Emmy Noether
  • Philadelphia
  • American Philosophical Society
  • Franklin Institute
  • Chemical Heritage Foundation
  • University of Pennsylvania
  • Drexel University
  • Temple University
  • Bartol Research Foundation
  • Swarthmore College
  • Bryn Mawr College
  • Haverford College