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The ''Philosophical Magazine'' is one of the oldest
scientific journal
In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research.
Content
Articles in scientific journals are mostly written by active scientists such as s ...
s published in English. It was established by
Alexander Tilloch
Alexander Tilloch FSA (Scot) (28 February 1759 – 1825) was a Scottish journalist and inventor. He founded the ''Philosophical Magazine''.
Early life
The son of John Tilloch, a tobacco merchant and magistrate of Glasgow, he was born there on ...
in 1798;
[John Burnett]
"Tilloch, Alexander (1759–1825)"
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
, Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006, accessed 17 Feb 2010 in 1822
Richard Taylor became joint editor
[ and it has been published continuously by ]Taylor & Francis
Taylor & Francis Group is an international company originating in England that publishes books and academic journals. Its parts include Taylor & Francis, Routledge, F1000 (publisher), F1000 Research or Dovepress. It is a division of Informa ...
ever since.
Early history
The name of the journal dates from a period when "natural philosophy" embraced all aspects of science. The very first paper published in the journal carried the title "Account of Mr Cartwright's Patent Steam Engine". Other articles in the first volume include "Methods of discovering whether Wine has been adulterated with any Metals prejudicial to Health" and "Description of the Apparatus used by Lavoisier to produce Water from its component Parts, Oxygen and Hydrogen".
19th century
Early in the nineteenth century, classic papers by Humphry Davy
Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet, (17 December 177829 May 1829) was a British chemist and inventor who invented the Davy lamp and a very early form of arc lamp. He is also remembered for isolating, by using electricity, several elements for t ...
, Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday (; 22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867) was an English scientist who contributed to the study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. His main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic inducti ...
and James Prescott Joule
James Prescott Joule (; 24 December 1818 11 October 1889) was an English physicist, mathematician and brewer, born in Salford, Lancashire. Joule studied the nature of heat, and discovered its relationship to mechanical work (see energy). Th ...
appeared in the journal and in the 1860s James Clerk Maxwell
James Clerk Maxwell (13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879) was a Scottish mathematician and scientist responsible for the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, which was the first theory to describe electricity, magnetism and ligh ...
contributed several long articles, culminating in a paper containing the deduction that light is an electromagnetic wave
In physics, electromagnetic radiation (EMR) consists of waves of the electromagnetic (EM) field, which propagate through space and carry momentum and electromagnetic radiant energy. It includes radio waves, microwaves, infrared, (visib ...
or, as he put it himself, "We can scarcely avoid the inference that light consists in transverse undulations of the same medium which is the cause of electric and magnetic phenomena". The famous experimental paper of Albert A. Michelson
Albert Abraham Michelson FFRS HFRSE (surname pronunciation anglicized as "Michael-son", December 19, 1852 – May 9, 1931) was a German-born American physicist of Polish/Jewish origin, known for his work on measuring the speed of light and esp ...
and Edward Morley
Edward Williams Morley (January 29, 1838 – February 24, 1923) was an American scientist known for his precise and accurate measurement of the atomic weight of oxygen, and for the Michelson–Morley experiment.
Biography
Morley was born in New ...
was published in 1887 and this was followed ten years later by J. J. Thomson
Sir Joseph John Thomson (18 December 1856 – 30 August 1940) was a British physicist and Nobel Laureate in Physics, credited with the discovery of the electron, the first subatomic particle to be discovered.
In 1897, Thomson showed that ...
with article "Cathode Rays" – essentially the discovery of the electron
The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family,
and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have no kn ...
.
In 1814, the ''Philosophical Magazine'' merged with the ''Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, and the Arts
''A Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, and the Arts'', generally known as ''Nicholson's Journal'', was the first monthly scientific journal in Great Britain. William Nicholson began it in 1797 and was the editor until it merged with anoth ...
'', otherwise known as ''Nicholson's Journal'' (published by William Nicholson), to form ''The Philosophical Magazine and Journal''.[see the "Advertisement" at the start of Volume 42 of ''The Philosophical Magazine'' 31 December 1813 https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/53080#page/20/mode/1up announcing the merger.] Further mergers in 1827 with the ''Annals of Philosophy
''Annals of Philosophy; or, Magazine of Chemistry, Mineralology, Mechanics, Natural History, Agriculture and the Arts'' was a learned journal founded in 1813 by the Scottish chemist Thomas Thomson. It shortly became a leader in its field of comme ...
'', and in 1840 with ''The London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science'' (named the ''Edinburgh Journal of Science'' until 1832) led to the retitling of the journal as ''The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science''. In 1949, the title reverted to ''The Philosophical Magazine''.
20th century
In the early part of the 20th century, Ernest Rutherford was a frequent contributor. He once told a friend to "watch out for the next issue of ''Philosophical Magazine''; it is highly radioactive!" Aside from his work on understanding radioactivity, Rutherford proposed the experiments of Hans Geiger
Johannes Wilhelm "Hans" Geiger (; ; 30 September 1882 – 24 September 1945) was a German physicist. He is best known as the co-inventor of the detector component of the Geiger counter and for the Geiger–Marsden experiment which discover ...
and Ernest Marsden
Sir Ernest Marsden (19 February 1889 – 15 December 1970) was an English-New Zealand physicist. He is recognised internationally for his contributions to science while working under Ernest Rutherford, which led to the discovery of new theories ...
that verified his nuclear model of the atom
Every atom is composed of a nucleus and one or more electrons bound to the nucleus. The nucleus is made of one or more protons and a number of neutrons. Only the most common variety of hydrogen has no neutrons.
Every solid, liquid, gas, and ...
and led to Niels Bohr
Niels Henrik David Bohr (; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. B ...
's famous paper on planetary electrons, which was published in the journal in 1913. Another classic contribution from Rutherford was entitled "Collision of α Particles with Light Atoms. IV. An Anomalous Effect in Nitrogen" – an article describing no less than the discovery of the proton, which he named a year later.
In 1978 the journal was divided into two independent parts, ''Philosophical Magazine A'' and ''Philosophical Magazine B''. Part A published papers on structure
A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such as ...
, defects and mechanical properties while Part B focussed on statistical mechanics
In physics, statistical mechanics is a mathematical framework that applies statistical methods and probability theory to large assemblies of microscopic entities. It does not assume or postulate any natural laws, but explains the macroscopic be ...
, electronic
Electronic may refer to:
*Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor
* ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal
*Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device
*Electronic co ...
, optical
Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultravio ...
and magnetic
Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that are mediated by a magnetic field, which refers to the capacity to induce attractive and repulsive phenomena in other entities. Electric currents and the magnetic moments of elementary particle ...
properties.
Recent developments
Since the middle of the 20th century, the journal has focused on condensed matter physics
Condensed matter physics is the field of physics that deals with the macroscopic and microscopic physical properties of matter, especially the solid and liquid phases which arise from electromagnetic forces between atoms. More generally, the sub ...
and published significant papers on dislocations
In materials science, a dislocation or Taylor's dislocation is a linear crystallographic defect or irregularity within a crystal structure that contains an abrupt change in the arrangement of atoms. The movement of dislocations allow atoms to sl ...
, mechanical
Mechanical may refer to:
Machine
* Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement
* Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations of ...
properties of solids
Solid is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being liquid, gas, and plasma). The molecules in a solid are closely packed together and contain the least amount of kinetic energy. A solid is characterized by structural ...
, amorphous
In condensed matter physics and materials science, an amorphous solid (or non-crystalline solid, glassy solid) is a solid that lacks the long-range order that is characteristic of a crystal.
Etymology
The term comes from the Greek ''a'' ("wi ...
semiconductors and glasses
Glasses, also known as eyeglasses or spectacles, are vision eyewear, with lenses (clear or tinted) mounted in a frame that holds them in front of a person's eyes, typically utilizing a bridge over the nose and hinged arms (known as temples or ...
. As subject area evolved and it became more difficult to classify research into distinct areas, it was no longer considered necessary to publish the journal in two parts, so in 2003 parts A and B were re-merged. In its current form, 36 issues of the ''Philosophical Magazine'' are published each year, supplemented by 12 issues of ''Philosophical Magazine Letters''.
Editors
Previous editors of the ''Philosophical Magazine'' have been John Tyndall, J.J. Thomson
Sir Joseph John Thomson (18 December 1856 – 30 August 1940) was a British physicist and Nobel Laureate in Physics, credited with the discovery of the electron, the first subatomic particle to be discovered.
In 1897, Thomson showed that ...
, Sir Nevill Mott
Sir Nevill Francis Mott (30 September 1905 – 8 August 1996) was a British physicist who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1977 for his work on the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems, especially amorphous semiconductors ...
, and William Lawrence Bragg
Sir William Lawrence Bragg, (31 March 1890 – 1 July 1971) was an Australian-born British physicist and X-ray crystallographer, discoverer (1912) of Bragg's law of X-ray diffraction, which is basic for the determination of crystal structu ...
. The journal is currently edited by Edward A. Davis.
''Philosophical Magazine Letters''
In 1987, the sister journal ''Philosophical Magazine Letters'' was established with the aim of rapidly publishing short communications on all aspects of condensed matter physics
Condensed matter physics is the field of physics that deals with the macroscopic and microscopic physical properties of matter, especially the solid and liquid phases which arise from electromagnetic forces between atoms. More generally, the sub ...
. It is edited by Edward A. Davis and Peter Riseborough. This monthly journal had a 2014 impact factor of 1.087.
Series
Over its 200-year history, ''Philosophical Magazine'' has occasionally restarted its volume numbers at 1, designating a new "series" each time. The journal's series are as follows:
* ''Philosophical Magazine, Series 1'' (1798–1826), volumes 1 through 68
* ''Philosophical Magazine, Series 2'' (1827–1832), volumes 1 through 11
* ''Philosophical Magazine, Series 3'' (1832–1850), volumes 1 through 37
* ''Philosophical Magazine, Series 4'' (1851–1875), volumes 1 through 50
* ''Philosophical Magazine, Series 5'' (1876–1900), volumes 1 through 50
* ''Philosophical Magazine, Series 6'' (1901–1925), volumes 1 through 50
* ''Philosophical Magazine, Series 7'' (1926–1955), volumes 1 through 46
* ''Philosophical Magazine, Series 8'' (1955–present), volumes 1 through 95 (through December 2015)
If the renumbering had not occurred, the 2015 volume (series 8, volume 95) would have been volume 407.
References
External links
Digitised volumes at Biodiversity Heritage Library
(with links to Preceding and Succeeding series)
Digitised volumes of "The London, Edinburgh and Dublin philosophical magazine"
(3.Ser. 17.1840 - 37.1850; 4.Ser. 1.1851- 50.1875; 5.Ser. 1.1876-50.1900) at the Jena University Library
Philosophical Magazine
on Internet Archive.
* ''Philosophical Magazine Letters'' print:
* ''Philosophical Magazine Letters'' online:
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Physics journals
Multidisciplinary scientific journals
Publications established in 1798
English-language journals
Natural philosophy
Taylor & Francis academic journals
Journals published between 27 and 51 times per year