Anamorphosis of Bohr-Rosenfeld

Abstract

In 1933, Bohr and Rosenfeld published a famous article, “On the question of the measurability of electromagnetic field quantities”, which by many accounts became a milestone. Historiography, though, does not seem to have really grasped its impact. In this brief paper I will highlight how the work by Bohr and Rosenfeld had an important reception story also outside of QED, more specifically in quantum gravity attempts: in the USSR, at the hands of Bronstein (mid-1930s), and in the US, at the hands of Wheeler (mid-1950s).