The Beginnings of Piezoelectricity: A Study in Mundane Physics (Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science)

The Beginnings of Piezoelectricity, the first history of the subject, exhaustively examines how diverse influences led to the discovery of the phenomenon in 1880, and how they shaped subsequent research until the consolidation of an empirical and theoretical knowledge of the field circa 1895. Shaul Katzir’s historical account shows that this ‘mundane’ science was an intriguing intellectual and practical enterprise, which involved originality, surprises and controversies. Shaul Katzir is a historian of science. He teaches history of science [and general history] at Bar Ilan, Ben Gurion, and Tel Aviv universities, at the Hebrew university of Jerusalem and at the Academic College of Tel Aviv Jaffa.