Philosophical Magazine
Encyclopedia
The Philosophical Magazine is one of the oldest scientific journals
published in English. Initiated by Alexander Tilloch
in 1798, in 1822 Richard Taylor
became joint editor and it has been published continuously by Taylor & Francis
ever since; it was the journal of choice for such luminaries as Faraday, Joule, Maxwell, J.J. Thomson, Rayleigh and Rutherford. Indeed, the development of science
over more than 200 years can be comprehensively traced in its pages.
, chemistry
, astronomy
, medicine
, botany
, biology
and geology
, in addition to natural phenomena of many kinds, for instance earthquakes, volcanic eruptions
, lightning
strikes and aurora
. The very first paper published in the journal carried the title ‘Account of Mr Cartright’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’.
, Michael Faraday
and James Prescott Joule
enlivened the journal’s pages, and in the 1860s, James Clerk Maxwell
contributed several long articles, culminating in a paper containing the deduction that light is an electromagnetic wave 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 and Edward Morley
was published in 1887 and this was followed ten years later by J.J. Thomson’s article ‘Cathode Rays’ – essentially the discovery of the electron
.
In 1814, the Philosophical Magazine merged with the Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and the Arts, otherwise known as Nicholson's Journal (published by William Nicholson
), to form The Philosophical Magazine and Journal. Further mergers with the Annals of Philosophy and The Edinburgh Journal of Science led to the retitling of the journal in 1840, to "The London, Edinburgh and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science". In 1949, the title reverted to The Philosophical Magazine.
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 and Ernest Marsden
that verified his nuclear model of the atom
and led to Niels Bohr
’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 first artificial transmutation
of an element
.
In 1978 the journal was divided into two independent parts, Philosophical Magazine A and Philosophical Magazine B. Part A published papers on structure
, defects and mechanical properties while Part B focussed on statistical mechanics
, electronic
, optical and magnetic properties.
and published significant papers on dislocations, mechanical
properties of solids, amorphous semiconductors and glasses
. 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 Philosophical Magazine are published each year, supplemented by 12 issues of Philosophical Magazine Letters.
, J.J. Thomson, Sir Nevill Mott and William Lawrence Bragg
previously occupying this role. The journal is currently edited by Lindsay Greer and Kevin M. Knowles of the University of Cambridge
and Peter Riseborough of Temple University
, Philadelphia.
. Phil Mag Letters is edited by E. A. Davis, who is also General and Co-ordinating Editor for both parts of the journal. This monthly journal has (print) and (web), and its 2010 impact factor is 1.262.
If the renumbering had not occurred, the 2009 volume (series 8, volume 89) would have been volume 401.
Scientific journal
In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research. There are thousands of scientific journals in publication, and many more have been published at various points in the past...
published in English. Initiated by Alexander Tilloch
Alexander Tilloch
-Early life:The son of John Tilloch, a tobacco merchant and magistrate of Glasgow, he was born there on 28 February 1759. He was educated at Glasgow University, and turned his attention to printing. In 1781 he began work on stereotypes. In 1725 William Ged had obtained a privilege for a development...
in 1798, in 1822 Richard Taylor
Richard Taylor (editor)
Richard Taylor was an English naturalist and publisher of scientific journals. He became joint editor of the Philosophical Magazine in 1822 and went of to publish the Annals of Natural History in 1838. He edited and published Scientific Memoirs, Selected from the Transactions of Foreign Academies...
became joint editor and it has been published continuously by Taylor & Francis
Taylor & Francis
Taylor & Francis Group is an international company originating in the United Kingdom which publishes books and academic journals. It is a division of Informa plc, a United Kingdom-based publisher and conference company.- Overview :...
ever since; it was the journal of choice for such luminaries as Faraday, Joule, Maxwell, J.J. Thomson, Rayleigh and Rutherford. Indeed, the development of science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
over more than 200 years can be comprehensively traced in its pages.
Early history
The name of the journal dates from a period when ‘natural philosophy’ embraced all aspects of science: physicsPhysics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
, astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
, medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
, botany
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
, biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
and geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
, in addition to natural phenomena of many kinds, for instance earthquakes, volcanic eruptions
Volcanic Eruptions
Volcanic Eruptions is a company owned by Crispin Glover. The company produces and issues Glover's work: It has released two films to date, What Is It? and its sequel, It is Fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE . Its current plans include releasing the final film in the trilogy titled It Is Mine...
, lightning
Lightning
Lightning is an atmospheric electrostatic discharge accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...
strikes and aurora
Aurora (astronomy)
An aurora is a natural light display in the sky particularly in the high latitude regions, caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere...
. The very first paper published in the journal carried the title ‘Account of Mr Cartright’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 DavyHumphry Davy
Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet FRS MRIA was a British chemist and inventor. He is probably best remembered today for his discoveries of several alkali and alkaline earth metals, as well as contributions to the discoveries of the elemental nature of chlorine and iodine...
, Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday, FRS was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry....
and James Prescott Joule
James Prescott Joule
James Prescott Joule FRS was an English physicist and brewer, born in Salford, Lancashire. Joule studied the nature of heat, and discovered its relationship to mechanical work . This led to the theory of conservation of energy, which led to the development of the first law of thermodynamics. The...
enlivened the journal’s pages, and in the 1860s, James Clerk Maxwell
James Clerk Maxwell
James Clerk Maxwell of Glenlair was a Scottish physicist and mathematician. His most prominent achievement was formulating classical electromagnetic theory. This united all previously unrelated observations, experiments and equations of electricity, magnetism and optics into a consistent theory...
contributed several long articles, culminating in a paper containing the deduction that light is an electromagnetic wave 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 and Edward Morley
Edward Morley
Edward Williams Morley was an American scientist famous for the Michelson–Morley experiment.-Biography:...
was published in 1887 and this was followed ten years later by J.J. Thomson’s article ‘Cathode Rays’ – essentially the discovery of the electron
Electron
The electron is a subatomic particle with a negative elementary electric charge. It has no known components or substructure; in other words, it is generally thought to be an elementary particle. An electron has a mass that is approximately 1/1836 that of the proton...
.
In 1814, the Philosophical Magazine merged with the Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and the Arts, otherwise known as Nicholson's Journal (published by William Nicholson
William Nicholson (chemist)
William Nicholson was a renowned English chemist and writer on "natural philosophy" and chemistry, as well as a translator, journalist, publisher, scientist, and inventor.-Early life:...
), to form The Philosophical Magazine and Journal. Further mergers with the Annals of Philosophy and The Edinburgh Journal of Science led to the retitling of the journal in 1840, to "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 RutherfordErnest Rutherford
Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson OM, FRS was a New Zealand-born British chemist and physicist who became known as the father of nuclear physics...
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 and Ernest Marsden
Ernest Marsden
Sir Ernest Marsden was an English-New Zealand physicist. He was born in East Lancashire, living in Rishton and educated at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn, where an inter-house trophy rewarding academic excellence bears his name.He met Ernest Rutherford at the University of Manchester...
that verified his nuclear model of the atom
Atom
The atom is a basic unit of matter that consists of a dense central nucleus surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged electrons. The atomic nucleus contains a mix of positively charged protons and electrically neutral neutrons...
and led to Niels Bohr
Niels Bohr
Niels Henrik David Bohr was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. Bohr mentored and collaborated with many of the top physicists of the century at his institute in...
’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 first artificial transmutation
Nuclear transmutation
Nuclear transmutation is the conversion of one chemical element or isotope into another. In other words, atoms of one element can be changed into atoms of other element by 'transmutation'...
of an element
Chemical element
A chemical element is a pure chemical substance consisting of one type of atom distinguished by its atomic number, which is the number of protons in its nucleus. Familiar examples of elements include carbon, oxygen, aluminum, iron, copper, gold, mercury, and lead.As of November 2011, 118 elements...
.
In 1978 the journal was divided into two independent parts, Philosophical Magazine A and Philosophical Magazine B. Part A published papers on structure
Structure
Structure is a fundamental, tangible or intangible notion referring to the recognition, observation, nature, and permanence of patterns and relationships of entities. This notion may itself be an object, such as a built structure, or an attribute, such as the structure of society...
, defects and mechanical properties while Part B focussed on statistical mechanics
Statistical mechanics
Statistical mechanics or statistical thermodynamicsThe terms statistical mechanics and statistical thermodynamics are used interchangeably...
, electronic
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
, optical and magnetic properties.
The Journal today
Since the middle of the 20th century, “Phil Mag”, as the journal is affectionately known, has focussed on condensed matter physicsCondensed matter physics
Condensed matter physics deals with the physical properties of condensed phases of matter. These properties appear when a number of atoms at the supramolecular and macromolecular scale interact strongly and adhere to each other or are otherwise highly concentrated in a system. The most familiar...
and published significant papers on dislocations, mechanical
Mechanics
Mechanics is the branch of physics concerned with the behavior of physical bodies when subjected to forces or displacements, and the subsequent effects of the bodies on their environment....
properties of solids, amorphous semiconductors and glasses
Glasses
Glasses, also known as eyeglasses , spectacles or simply specs , are frames bearing lenses worn in front of the eyes. They are normally used for vision correction or eye protection. Safety glasses are a kind of eye protection against flying debris or against visible and near visible light 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 Philosophical Magazine are published each year, supplemented by 12 issues of Philosophical Magazine Letters.
Editors
The Philosophical Magazine has a tradition of appointing distinguished and editors, with John TyndallJohn Tyndall
John Tyndall FRS was a prominent Irish 19th century physicist. His initial scientific fame arose in the 1850s from his study of diamagnetism. Later he studied thermal radiation, and produced a number of discoveries about processes in the atmosphere...
, J.J. Thomson, Sir Nevill Mott and William Lawrence Bragg
William Lawrence Bragg
Sir William Lawrence Bragg CH OBE MC FRS was an Australian-born British physicist and X-ray crystallographer, discoverer of the Bragg law of X-ray diffraction, which is basic for the determination of crystal structure. He was joint winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1915. He was knighted...
previously occupying this role. The journal is currently edited by Lindsay Greer and Kevin M. Knowles of the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
and Peter Riseborough of Temple University
Temple University
Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...
, Philadelphia.
Philosophical Magazine Letters
In 1987, the sister journal Philosophical Magazine Letters was launched with the aim of rapidly publishing short communications on all aspects of condensed matter physicsCondensed matter physics
Condensed matter physics deals with the physical properties of condensed phases of matter. These properties appear when a number of atoms at the supramolecular and macromolecular scale interact strongly and adhere to each other or are otherwise highly concentrated in a system. The most familiar...
. Phil Mag Letters is edited by E. A. Davis, who is also General and Co-ordinating Editor for both parts of the journal. This monthly journal has (print) and (web), and its 2010 impact factor is 1.262.
Series
Over its 200-year history, Philosophical Magazine has occasionally restarted its volume numbers at 1, designating a new "series" each time.http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t713695589~link=cover 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 89 (through December 2009)
If the renumbering had not occurred, the 2009 volume (series 8, volume 89) would have been volume 401.
External links
- Philosophical Magazine
- Philosophical Magazine Letters
- 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