"The remarkable result was obtained that this relation is independent of the nature of the resonator, and in particular of its coefficient of damping—a result which... introduced the simplification that the energy of the radiation could be replaced by the energy of the resonator, so that a simple system of one degree of freedom could be substituted for a complicated system having many degrees of freedom."
January 1, 1970
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Origin_and_Development_of_the_Quantum_Theory