München 2019 – scientific programme

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GP: Fachverband Geschichte der Physik

GP 10: Understanding tools from the recent past

GP 10.2: Talk

Wednesday, March 20, 2019, 12:00–12:30, HS 9

Films of Flows. The Film camera as a Tool in Fluid Dynamics. — •Mario Schulze and Sarine Waltenspül — Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, Zürich, Schweiz

In the course of the 20th century, a lot of research effort was put into scientific film, yet there has not been much historical research in that field so far. Concerning the film camera as tool of physics fundamental questions remain largely unanswered: What did physicists expect by using film cameras? Which obstacles had occurred before the film camera was recognized as a scientific instrument? In our contribution, we would like to start filling this void and examine what happened when, in the 1910s and 1920s, film was implemented in the field of fluid dynamics, at a time when photos were a common method to visualize flows. In particular, we focus on the first experiments with film by Ludwig Prandtl and his coworkers at renowned Göttingen Institute for fluid dynamics (Aerodynamische Versuchsanstalt der Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft). The case of Göttingen shows that films just like photos occupied a precarious position between qualitative imaging and quantitative measurement. However, the film camera in particular was implemented only with a considerable unease regarding its publication, measurability and visuality before becoming a standard tool in fluid dynamics in the 1950s and 1960s. In our presentation we explore the epistemic potential of the film camera and discuss why film produced this unease and why nonetheless so much effort was put into its use.