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The Solvay Councils and the Birth of Modern Physics pp 95–111Cite as

Birkhäuser

The First Solvay Council

The theory of radiation and quanta

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Part of the book series: Science Networks · Historical Studies ((SNHS,volume 22))

Abstract

On October 30th 1911, in a small room in the Métropole Hotel in Brussels, Ernest Solvay opened a scientific council (“a sort of private congress” as the reports put it when they were published in 1912), which brought together twenty of the most famous names in physics. H. A. Lorentz, M. Curie, H. Poincaré, M. Planck, A. Einstein, M. Brillouin, M. de Broglie, H. Kamerlingh Onnes, H. Rubens, E. Rutherford, W. Nernst, J. Perrin, J.H. Jeans, E. Warburg, and A. Sommerfeld were there.

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Notes

  1. See Ernest Solvay: the System, the Law and the Council, in this volume.

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  2. E. SOLVAY, Allocution à l’ouverture du `Conseil de Physique’, in La théorie du rayonnement et les quanta (1st Solvay Council of Physics), Rapports et discussions de la réunion tenue à Bruxelles, du 30 octobre au 3 novembre 1911, sous les Auspices de M. E. Solvay, Published by P. Langevin et M. de Broglie, Gauthier-Villars, Paris, 1912, p. 3 and 5.

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  3. Discours d’ouverture de M. LORENTZ, ibid.,p. 9

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  4. Id.,p. 8.

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  5. Discours de M. NERNST, ibid.,p. 11.

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  6. H. A. LORENTZ, Sur l’application au rayonnement du théorème de l’équipartition de l’énergie, ibid.,p. 12.

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  7. M. PLANCK, Scientific Autobiography, Philosophical Library, New York, 1949, pp. 33–34.

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  8. Quoted in M. JAMMER, The Conceptual development of Quantum Mechanics, Tomash Publishers, American Institute of Physics, 1989, p. 13.

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  9. Id.,p. 16.

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  10. Id.,p. 17.

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  11. M. PLANCK (SIIPC).

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  12. Discussion du rapport de M. LORENTZ, in La théorie du rayonnement et les quanta (1st Solvay Council of Physics), op.cit., p. 41.

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  13. Discussion du rapport de M. JEANS, ibid.,p. 77.

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  14. M. PLANCK, La loi du rayonnement noir et l’hypothèse des quantités élémentaires d’action, ibid.,pp. 93–94.

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  15. Id.,p.100.

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  16. A. EINSTEIN, Concerning a Heuristic Point of View about the Creation and Transformation of Light, in The World of the Atom, ed. by H. A. Boorse L. Motz, vol. 1, Basic Books, New York - London, 1966, p. 545.

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  17. Id.,p. 553.

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  18. M. PLANCK, La loi du rayonnement noir et l’hypothèse des quantités élémentaires d’action, op. cit., p. 100–101.

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  19. Id.,p. 110–111.

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  20. M. PLANCK, Scientific Autobiography,op. cit., p. 44–45.

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  23. Discussion du rapport de M. Einstein, in La théorie du rayonnement et les quanta (1st Solvay Council of Physics), op. cit., p. 436.

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  24. Quoted in B. HOFFMAN, Albert Einstein, Creator and rebel, The Viking Press, New York, 1972, p. 98.

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  25. When the witches’ Sabbath in Brussels is over I will again be my own person. Letter to Besso, 21 October 1911, quoted in D. K.BARKAN, The Witches’ Sabbath: The first International Solvay Congress in Physics, Science in Context 6 (1993), p. 67.

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  26. H. POINCARÉ, L’hypothèse des quanta, Dernières pensées, Flammarion, Paris, 1913, p. 165.

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  27. Conclusions générales, in La théorie du rayonnement et les quanta (1st Solvay Council of Physics), op. cit., p. 451.

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  28. Ibid.

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  29. M. JAMMER, The Conceptual development of Quantum Mechanics,op. cit., p. 49.

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  30. Allocution finale de M. Ernest Solvay, in La théorie du rayonnement et les quanta (1st Solvay Council of Physics), op. cit., p. 455.

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  31. M. BRILLOUIN, quoted in H. A. Lorentz Impressions of his life and work, G. L. De Haas-Lorentz (ed.), North Holland, Amsterdam, 1957, p. 107–108.

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  32. N. BOHR, The Solvay Meetings and the Developments of Quantum Physics, in La théorie quantique des champs (Twelfth Solvay Council of Physics), Interscience Publishers R. Stoops, New York, London Bruxelles, 1962, p. 17.

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  33. LORENTZ to SOLVAY, 7 November 1911 (SIIPC).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculté des Sciences — CP 230, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Boulevard du Triomphe, B-1050, Bruxelles, Belgium

    Dr. Pierre Marage

  2. Institut de Philosophie — CP 175, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 50 av. F. D. Roosevelt, B-1050, Bruxelles, Belgium

    Dr. Grégoire Wallenborn

Authors
  1. Dr. Pierre Marage
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  2. Dr. Grégoire Wallenborn
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculté des Sciences — CP 230, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Boulevard du Triomphe, B-1050, Bruxelles, Belgium

    Pierre Marage

  2. Institut de Philosophie — CP 175, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 50 av. F. D. Roosevelt, B-1050, Bruxelles, Belgium

    Grégoire Wallenborn

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© 1999 Springer Basel AG

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Marage, P., Wallenborn, G. (1999). The First Solvay Council. In: Marage, P., Wallenborn, G. (eds) The Solvay Councils and the Birth of Modern Physics. Science Networks · Historical Studies, vol 22. Birkhäuser, Basel. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-7703-9_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-7703-9_7

  • Publisher Name: Birkhäuser, Basel

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-0348-7705-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-0348-7703-9

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