The Price of Removing the Scaffolding: Maxwell wrote something about Ampère that years later would be done to him
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: In the history of physics, the name scaffolding has been given to whatever served to raise a theory and is afterwards removed because, it is said, it is no longer needed. This article documents, from the originals, what it cost Maxwell's theory when that method was applied to it: what was removed from it, who did it, with what argument, and how over the years it had to be recovered because it was understood that it was needed after all. It also records what Maxwell himself missed in Ampère, what he calls the traces of the scaffolding: the template with which Ampère himself had given shape to his work.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Author: Urán, María Florentina Mendoza
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7214339548