The new century

Abstract

Chapter 5 is a discussion of the rise of Dutch physics around 1900 based on three speeches, by Lorentz, Haga, and Zeeman, on the flourishing state of Dutch physics at the universities of Leiden, Amsterdam, and Groningen. All three speeches deal with the promise of the electromagnetic theory, electricity, and atomism and show that the electromagnetic world view was the center of attention in 1900. Dutch science was promoted by a new type of secondary education, the expansion of physics at Dutch universities, the modernization of the university curriculum, and the new, more individualistic view of science as a pursuit in its own right. Competition from places like Göttingen and Copenhagen gradually diminished the role of Leiden in physics, leading to the end of this “second golden age.”