This is an English translation of the original German edition published in 2005. It is a history of early electrodynamics from 1820 through the end of the nineteenth century. The author focuses on research practice, reconstructed from laboratory notes, diaries, letters, and interactions with instrument makers, within the context of the larger questions of how scientific knowledge is generated and stabilized; how experimental, conceptual, and theoretical activities are connected; and how validity is established and accepted. His third major theme incorporates the ideas of “New Experimentalism,” which seeks to broaden the discussion beyond the traditional view that the only meaning of experiment lies in testing hypothesis or theories.
