Classical studies and experimental physics in the work of Johann
Salomo Christoph Schweigger
The physicist Johann Salomo Christoph Schweigger is best known as
the inventor of a device for measuring weak electric currents, the
so-called multiplicator. As early as in November 1820, he
anticipated Faradays Electromagnetic Rotation Apparatus by
suggesting the realization of a permanent mechanical rotation based
on Ørsteds dis- covery of electromagnetism. In his research
on electricity and magnetism, Schweigger was guided by the idea that
electromagnetism had already been known in antiquitity. Being
trained as a classical scholar, he was familiar with Greek and Roman
mythology, and he believed that physical knowledge was hidden in
ancient myths. According to Schweigger, the Dioscuri Castor and
Pollux were symbols of the electric poles, and a picture
representing Castor, Pollux and dancing water nymphs served him as a
guidance for the construction of physical devices like the
multiplicator and a rotation apparatus. Neither by his
contemporaries nor by posterity, Schweiggers opinion about
physical knowledge in antiquity was taken seriously.
Nevertheless it is remarkable that such a strange speculation led to
far-reaching scientific results, the multiplicator being a basic
requirement for quantification in electricity. Thus
Schweiggers physics is a convincing evidence that logical
reconstructions of scientific developments are highly problematic.
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