At the heart of the book are historical studies of four sets of experiments in modem physics: Millikan's oildrop experiments, which established the quantization and magnitude of the charge on the electron; the experiments that in 1964 and 1965 established the CP (charge-parity) noninvariance of the decays of K particles; the 1957 experiments that established the nonconservation of parity; and the measurements made between 1928 and 1930 by R.T. Cox and Carl T. Chase, which might have also established the nonconservation of parity but didn't.
The traditional neglect of experiment is legitimized by the assumption that experimentation is somehow trivial and unproblematic, that scientists just set up their apparatus according to principles laid down in advance, and that incontestable facts simply pop out. Franklin's studies expose the naiveté of this view. They exemplify the complexity and uncertainty, the space for doubt, inherent in the performance and interpretation of experiments. They ...
