Heinrich Hertz and the Development of Physics

Abstract

The discovery that electromagnetic radiation in the microwave and radio regions of the spectrum displays the same basic behavior as visible light—reflection, refraction, diffraction, interference, polarization—was made in Karlsruhe in 1888 by Heinrich Rudolf Hertz. Some special events last year marked the centennial of Hertz's momentous discovery. The Technical University in Karlsruhe, at which Hertz did his electromagnetic research, held a symposium on Hertz and the consequences of his work, and devoted one complete volume of its publication Fridericiana to him. In the US, the Microwave Theory and Techniques Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers held a symposium in New York City to celebrate Hertz's achievements. On display at this meeting, from the Science Museum in London, was a refurbished set of replicas of Hertz's original apparatus. These replicas were exhibited at the MIT Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, before returning to London late last year.