A Cassini pamphlet against Delambre on lunar libration and other issues
In this paper I analyze the context in which Cassini 1st described lunar libration and proposed its interpretation.
physics.hist-ph↗
arXiv subjects
Pasquale Tucci
Publications and source records attributed to Pasquale Tucci.
E. Amaldi, C. Dilworth, G.P.S. Occhialini on F.G. Houtermans
In the Occhialini-Dilworth Archives of the University of Milan are preserved four typescripts by E. Amaldi, dealing with F.G. Houtermans, German physicist, who fled to the USSR to escape the Nazis. During a Stalinist purge he was arrested. The typescripts were sent to the two Milanese physicists so that they might give a judgement. G.S. Occhialini and C. Dilworth, in fact, had personally met Houtermans in 1934 and in 1950. The scenario is that of the role of nuclear physicists during the WW2. The exchange of letters between Amaldi and the two Milanese physicists will be analysed in order to identify possible influences on Amaldi. I will highlight Dilworth's contribution, which found room in a chapter of Amaldi's biography of Houtermans.
physics.hist-ph↗
The Physicists and the Historians of Physics
In the 60s of the last century the few courses of History of physics in Physics degree were held by scholars who, apart from a few exceptions, did not have a specific research background in the field. Some activities, books, social movements in the civil society allowed in the 70's the entry, among Physics courses, of teachings in History of physics held by scholars specifically trained for that job since their degree. A second change happened in the 90s when many difficulties forced physicists to allocate fewer and fewer resources to the History of their discipline. I'll outline the features of the two periods and the efforts of Historians to find a proper space in Physics departments.
physics.hist-ph↗
Historical reconstruction and personal recollections in the Memoirs of Dilworth/Occhialini
The folder containing the sheets of the Memoirs of Dilworth/Occhialini is kept in the Dilworth-Occhialini Archives at the BICF Library of the University of Milan. They cover the two English periods of Giuseppe Paolo Stanislao Occhialini (1907-1993): in Cambridge between 1931 and 1934 and in Bristol between 1945 and 1948. The Memoirs were written between an unspecified day in 1992 and April 16, 1993. They do not have the organic form of a historical reconstruction but are recollections and clarifications of Occhialini about some aspects of his activity, neglected by both historians and his colleagues, primarily Powell. Constance Dilworth (1924-2004) was the driving force. In Occhialini's considerations, references to specific dates or documents are often missing. In my contribution, after briefly describing the contents of the Memoirs, I will focus my attention on Occhialini's claim to have been instrumental in improving photographic plates provided by Ilford in the 1945, without Powell ever having acknowledged the importance of the suggestion. Keywords: History of cosmic rays, Occhialini, Dilworth, Blackett, Powell, Rutherford, Heisenberg, Rosbaud, Houtermans.
physics.hist-ph↗