What can take place of a particular interpretation? 
Only another interpretation - nothing else.

We now come to Daniel Danin‘s book titled Probabilities of the Quantum World.

The book traces the history of ideas in the conceptual development of Quantum Mechanics.

The opening chapter talks about how in the 1960s a group of scientists in Berkeley began an ambitious project to document the experiences of people who were still alive at that time and were part of the Quantum revolution. This group included eminent historian and philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn and John Archibald Wheeler. Over the next three years this group did over 150 interviews with the remaining people.

“The quantum theory is very much like some victories” joked one of them:  ”for a month or two you are laughing and then you cry for long years.”

The book in the first two chapters tells you about struggles of Max Planck, Niels Bohr, Einstein at the beginning of the Quantum Revolution. The book has much to do with discussions of the Solvay Congress which led to many fruitful ideas of Quantum Mechanics. The historical roots of ideas of the Copenhagen interpretation are also discussed.

“Can quantum mechanics describe the fact that the electron is only approximately present at a given point and travels at a given velocity only approximately, and how far can we reduce this approximateness!”

You can get the book here.

Update: Jan 2020 Have added a new improved and a very clean scan at 600dpi.

All credits to the original uploader.

Update: Added Internet Archive link | 07 December 2015

Note: The scan quality is poor (though file size is large) maybe 100 dpi or less. OCR is not reliable and the text may be barely readable at times, definitely not so good for printing. If you have a better version please post.

And do post alternative links!

Sorry folks for the earlier  false post, it got published by error.

Contents:

Introductory Chapter – The archive of the Unforgettable Time 7

Chapter One – Two Beginnings – 23

Chapter Two – Two More Beginnings – 52

Chapter Three – An encounter of ideas – 85

Chapter Four – A road in darkness – 118

Chapter Five – Ideas and Passions – 153

Chapter Six – The route to summit 195

Concluding Chapter – There is no end – 247

Further Reading – 270

If you become really interested in the history of Quantum Mechanics or want a more detailed work there are a few other books that can be recommended:

Thirty Years That Shook Physics – The Story of Quantum Theory – George Gamow (Gamow being one of the participants in the game writes with his usual wit and also illustrated the book himself. The cover page has an interesting photo with Landau, Bohr’s sons, Gamow (on a bike), and Teller. The book is still in print, republished by Dover ~ Rs. 650/- )

And a series (in 6 Vols.) of detailed and scholarly books by Jagdish Mehra and Helmut Rechenberg (unfortunately many out of print or are insanely expensive. some are ~ Rs. 18K!). BTW Jagdish Mehra is one of the only six Indians mentioned on the Wolfram Scientists, others being H. J. Bhabha, S. N. Bose, Brahmagupta, S. Chandrasekhar,  S. Ramanujan.

The Historical Development of Quantum Theory, Vol. 1: The Quantum Theory of Planck, Einstein, Bohr and Sommerfeld. Its Foundation and the Rise of Its Difficulties (1900-1925).

The Historical Development of Quantum Theory, Vol. 2: The Discovery of Quantum Mechanics, 1925.

The Historical Development of Quantum Theory, Vol. 3: The Formulation of Matrix Mechanics and Its Modifications 1925-1926.

The Historical Development of Quantum Theory, Vol. 4: The Fundamental Equations of Quantum Mechanics 1925-1926. The Reception of the New Quantum Mechanics.

The Historical Development of Quantum Theory, Vol. 5: Erwin Schrödinger and the Rise of Wave Mechanics. Part 1: Schrödinger in Vienna and Zurich 1887-1925.

The Historical Development of Quantum Theory, Vol. 5: Erwin Schrödinger and the Rise of Wave Mechanics. Part 2: The creation of Wave Mechanics, Early Response and Applications 1925-1926.

The Historical Development of Quantum Theory, Vol. 6: The Completion of Quantum Mechanics, 1926-1941, Part 1: The probabilistic Interpretation and the Empirical and Mathematical Foundation of Quantum Mechanics, 1926-1936.

The Historical Development of Quantum Theory, Vol. 6: The Completion of Quantum Mechanics, 1926-1941, Part 2: The Conceptual Completion of Quantum Mechanics.

Danin’s book was translated from the Russian by Oleg Glebov and Vitaly Kisin and was first published by Mir in 1983.