Hans Christian Ørsted

Dan Ch. Christensen

Why I looked at this book

I knew of Ørsted as giving his name to one of the many units of electromagnetism, and I looked at this book because I'm always interested in biographies of scientists. The blurb for this book suggests, however, that Ørsted was much more than just another name in electromagnetism - he started the subject, as well as being a polymath, contributing to many areas of knowledge. I'm keen to find out more.

First impressions

The introduction indicates that this is likely to be much more than just a straightforward biography of Ørsted, looking at how he fitted in with the various philosophical ideas (in particular those of Kant) as well as looking at how other commentaries on Ørsted have questioned his priority in discovering electromagnetism. It's good that it helps to elucidate an importantg part of the development of scientific thought, but it's a long book and I'm worried that it might be rather a difficult read. I'm fairly sure, though, that it will be much easier than reading Kant's work, and if it gives me a better understanding of Kant's ideas then that will be a big plus.