A life of its own: The tenuous connection between Thales of Miletus and the study of electrostatic charging

Journal of Electrostatics

Volumn 70, Issue 3, 2012, Pages 309-311

  Iversen, Paul ^a   Lacks, Daniel J ^b  

^a CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b Case Western Reserve University   (United States)

Author keywords

History; Thales; Triboelectric

Indexed keywords

ELECTROSTATIC CHARGING; THALES; TRIBOELECTRIC;

EXPERIMENTS; HISTORY; PHILOSOPHICAL ASPECTS;

ELECTROSTATICS;

EID: 84859933553     PISSN: 03043886     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.elstat.2012.03.002     Document Type: Article

References (27)

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10. Millikan R.A., Gale H.G. Practical Physics 1920, Ginn and Company, Boston, pp. 225.
11. Kirk G.S., Raven J.E., Schofield M. The Presocratic Philosophers: a Critical History with a Selection of Texts 1983, 76-99. For a collection of sources on Thales, including Greek texts, English translation, and commentary, see, Cambridge. second ed.
12. Ibid, 76-77.
13. Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Prologue 13-14 and Book I (for online text and translation, see:). http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text%3fdoc%3dPerseus:text:1999.01.0258:book%3d1:chapter%3dprologue%26highlight%3dthales.
14. Herodotus, Histories 1.74.1-2 (for online text and translation, see). Herodotus was from Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum) on the coast of the Aegean Sea just south of Miletus; he wrote between ca. 450-430 B.C. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text%3fdoc%3dPerseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D74%3Asection%3D2.
15. Pliny the Elder, Natural History 2.9 (for online translation, see). http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text%3fdoc%3dPlin.%2bNat.%2b2.9%26amp;fromdoc%3dPerseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137.
16. Stephenson F.R., Fatoohi L.J. Thales' prediction of a solar eclipse. J. Hist. Astron. 1997, 28:279-282. On this eclipse, see.
17. Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 1.23.
18. O'Grady P.F. Thales of Miletus 2002, Ashgate Publishing Ltd., Aldershot, England.
19. Histories 3.115.1-2 (for online translation, see). http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text%3fdoc%3dPerseus:text:1999.01.0126:book%3d3:chapter%3d115%26highlight%3damber.
20. Aristotle, On the Soul 405a, lines 19-21. All translations appearing in this article are by P. Iversen.
21. For the definition and range of meanings, see aπομνημονευω in H.G. Liddell, R. Scott, H.S. Jones, R. McKenzie, Greek-English Lexicon, nineth ed. with a supplement, Oxford.
22. Snell B. Die Nachrichten über die Lehren des Thales und die Anfänge der griechischen Philosophie- und Literaturgeschichte. Philologus 1944, 96:170-182. For Aristotle's probable reliance upon Hippias, see.
23. Kirk G.S., Raven J.E., Schofield M. The Presocratic Philosophers: A Critical History With a Selection of Texts 1983, 95-98. For Thales' ideas that even apparently inanimate things can be "alive", see, Cambridge. second ed.
24. Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 1.24.
25. For Hippias, see Hippias [5] in Brill's New Pauly, edited by H. Cancik and H. Schneider, volume 6, HAT-JUS, Leiden-Boston, 344 (2005). It seems reasonable to posit that ultimately Pliny derived his Olympiad dating of Thales' life and the eclipse from Hippias via Apollodorus (for Apollodorus, see note 12).
26. Benjamin P. A History of Electricity 1898, John Wiley, NY.
27. Roller D., Roller D.H.D. Am. J. Phys. 1953, 21:343.