Abstract
In July 1916, in the midst of the catastrophic European war, a thirty-year-old Dane returned from Manchester, where he had worked during the preceding two years, to his native Copenhagen to assume a professorship in theoretical physics. Upon landing, he reported back to his British mentor Ernest Rutherford that the boat had not been torpedoed and arrived safely.
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Notes
- 1.
Rutherford to Bohr, 31 July 1916.
- 2.
Bohr’s classic papers of 1913 are reprinted and analyzed in (Aaserud and Heilbron 2013). For the history of Bohr’s and other atomic models, see (Heilbron and Kuhn 1969; Heilbron 1977; Kragh 2012).
- 3.
“As conditions are in this country… it would be for many years, maybe forever, impossible… to get a scientific post at the university.” Harald Bohr to C. W. Oseen, 7 March 1912. On Knudsen, see Pihl (1983, 393–396).
- 4.
Munch-Petersen (1925, 4: 283–287), Robertson (1979, 16–17); Bohr to Oseen, 11 August 1913, 10 March 1914; Bohr to Rutherford, 10 March 1914 (BCW 2: 557; 591–2), Knudsen to Bohr, 20 May 1915. On the crucial role of family connections in securing Bohr’s professorial appointment, see Aaserud and Heilbron (2013).
- 5.
Henriques to Bohr, 23 December 1915 (BCW 2: 521–2).
- 6.
Bohr to the Faculty of Science and Mathematics, 18 April 1917 (Robertson 1979, 20–22; Munch-Petersen 1923, 3: 316–329). See also references to a “small experimental laboratory” in Bohr to Rutherford, 9 December 1917; Bohr to Richardson, 15 August 1918.
- 7.
Robertson (1979, 16–17), Munch-Petersen (1925, 4: 305–307); Bohr to J. N. Brønsted, 14 June 1913; Bohr to Oseen, 3 March 1914; Hansen to Bohr, 23 September 1915.
- 8.
IMN 2 (281–285). On the discovery of X-rays, see Forman (1969). I am indebted to Paul Forman for pointing out to me the example of the Munich institute.
- 9.
Early directors of theoretical physics institutes, Ludwig Boltzmann in Munich and Vienna, Woldemar Voigt and Peter Debye in Göttingen, Theodor DesCoudres in Leipzig, also performed experimental research. Max Planck appears to be “the first pure theoretical physicist,” and his institute in Berlin lacked a collection of experimental instruments (IMN 2: 33–54; Cahan 1985). Noteworthy, that in other university disciplines, such as chemistry or biology, emerging subdivisions separated the objects of study rather than the style of research.
- 10.
Bohr (1923), Munch-Petersen (1925, 4: 315–17); Bohr to S. H. Weber, 31 May 1917.
- 11.
“Det er imidlertid indlysende, at en sådan af undervisningshensyn betinget deling ikke er udtryk for en tilsvarende spaltning af den videnskabelige fysiske forskning. Og det må da særlig fremhæves at frugtbar teoretisk forskning, således som videnskaben har udviklet sig er aldeles umulig uden samtidige experimentelle arbejder, der kræves for at prøve rigtigheden af de forskellige muligheder der frembyder sig for de teoretiske antagelser.” Draft of Bohr’s presentation to the University Konsistorium, 8 June 1917 (NBA).
- 12.
Bohr’s speech at the dedication of the Institute for Theoretical Physics, 3 March 1921 (BCW 3: 293). Bohr to IEB, 27 June 1923 (RAC. Projects. Denmark).
- 13.
Berlème to Knud Faber (university rector), 19 October 1917; Berlème to Bohr, 3 May 1918; Bohr to Berlème, 13 September 1918 (NBA). For a detailed account of the fundraising and the construction of the institute, see Robertson (1979, 23–38). During the 1920s, the Danish krone was worth about 20 cents US, albeit subject to large fluctuations due to inflation.
- 14.
Aaserud and Heilbron (2013); Interview with Fru Bohr, 23 January 1963, 14–15 (AHQP). Bohr had a secretary from the early 1920s onwards (BCW 3: 24).
- 15.
Nielsen (1963, 23); Kramers to Bohr, 25 August 1916 (BCW 2: 537); Ehrenfest to Bohr, 10 May 1918; Kramers’s Notebooks: September 1916. Atoommodellen (AHQP). For a biography of Kramers, see Dresden (1987).
- 16.
Glamann (1976, 2002) and Danes proudly claim that the Carlsberg Foundation was established earlier than similar foundations in other countries: Carl Zeiss in Germany (1889); Nobel in Sweden (1900); Rockefeller in the USA (1913); Welcome Trust in Britain (1936); van Leer in the Netherlands (1949).
- 17.
Carlsbergfondet (1930); The list of Carlsberg fellows at Bohr’s institute includes 35 names for the period 1916–1935 (NBA).
- 18.
Interview with Fru Bohr, 30 January 1963, 12 (AHQP).
- 19.
Bohr to Kramers, Hellerup, 15 November 1917.
- 20.
Kramers to Bohr, Hellerup, 16 November 1917.
- 21.
Their point of departure was the famous introduction of transition probabilities for spontaneous and induced emission of radiation in Einstein (1916). Bohr reinterpreted these results away from the concept of light quanta, implied by Einstein, toward the analogy with classical electromagnetic radiation. For the clearest analysis of the correspondence principle, see Darrigol (1992, 121–149). Most historical descriptions assume that Bohr’s general argument preceded and logically led to Kramers’s calculations, but this sequence simply reflects the order of the eventual publications, not necessarily the genesis of ideas.
- 22.
Bohr (1923); Bohr to Ehrenfest, 25 January 1919.
- 23.
Romein to Kramers, 20 February 1923; Kramers to Romein, 28 October 1924, quoted in Radder (1982, 235–237).
- 24.
On retroactive, rhetorical construction of the concept of classical physics, see Staley (2005). Kramers to Bohr, 17 March 1917; 27 January 1919, 26 September 1919; Klein to Bohr, 27 March 1918.
- 25.
Bjerknes to Bohr, 27 January 1920; Rosseland to Bohr, 6 August 1920; Bohr to Bjerknes, 12 January 1921; (Klein and Rosseland 1921).
- 26.
Klein to Bohr, 25 October 1922; Rosseland to Bohr, 18 September 1924. Two Danish students of physics—Fricke and Rud Nielsen—who also assisted Bohr occasionally, also had to leave for the USA.
- 27.
Ebbe Rasmussen, “Medhjælper hos Niels Bohr” (1955, NBA). Heisenberg, who later served as one of the ‘helpers,’ left the following description: “Bohr would always change the sentences again and again. He could have filled half a page with a few sentences and then everything was crossed out and changed again. And even when the whole paper was almost finished… the next day everything would be changed over again… The final text of Bohr’s paper was so subtle and he would think about half an hour whether in a certain case he would use indikativ or the konjunktiv and so on” (Kragh 2012, 193).
- 28.
Kramers’s 1920–1922 lecture drafts, 1923–1924 seminar plans in his notebooks (AHQP); Dissertations defended at Bohr’s Institute: Sven Werner (1927), J. C. Jacobsen (1928), Ebbe Rasmussen (1932), Chr. Møller (1932), R.E.H. Rasmussen (1936) (NBA).
- 29.
Forman (1973), Somsen (2008), Walker (2012). For a history based on the simple opposition between nationalism and internationalism in science, provisionally defined as “involving scientists from three nations or more,” see Crawford (1992, 38).
- 30.
“De vil i Fremtiden i Kraft af deres Neutralitet under Krigen kunne faa en Indflydelse, der ikke staar i Forhold til deres Folketal. Initiativet til internationalt Samarbejde ogsaa indenfor Videnskaben maa væsentlig udgaa fra dem, mange af de Traade, der paany skal knytte de stridende sammen, vil i lang Tid komme til at ligge i deres Haand.” “Oprettelse af Rask-Ørsted Fondet” in Munch-Petersen (1925, 4: 50–55, on 51).
- 31.
“Fondets Formaal vil i første Række være at tage de internationale videnskabelige Opgaver op, saavidt dets Midler tillader det, ved at organisere Hovedsæde for dem i Danmark, knytte de rette Kræfter til dem, baade danske og Udlændinge, etablere de rette Forbindelser til alle Sider, paatage sig Trykning og Udgivelse her i Landet af deres Resultater… Det maa endvidere fremhæves, at denne Sag har en stor national Betydning. Vort Land faar herved Mulighed for en fremskudt Stilling, mange danske Videnskabsmænd vil gennem Foretagender, der saaledes centraliseres i Danmark, blive rigt befrugtede og kan faa Anvendelse for deres Kræfter. Danmark vil ogsaa ved internationale Publikationers Fremstilling og Udgivelse blive bemærket og faa Lejlighed til at vise, hvad det formaar, ligesom dansk Videnskab vil kunne undgaa at tabe i national Præg ved at spredes ud i udenlandske Tidsskrifter.” (Ibid., 52). The money for the internationalism of the Rask-Ørsted Fond came from the selling of a colonial possession, the Danish West Indies, to the United States in 1916 (Knudsen and Nielsen 2012, 118).
- 32.
Bohr to IEB, 27 June 1923 (RAC. Projects. Denmark).
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Kojevnikov, A. (2020). Scandinavian Settings. In: The Copenhagen Network. SpringerBriefs in History of Science and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59188-5_2
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