Redi, Francesco
THIRD EDITION OF FRANCESCO REDI'S MASTERPIECE REFUTING SPONTANEOUS REGENERATION, first published in 1668. "A milestone in the history of modern science," Redi's book outlines the first series of experiments to disprove 'spontaneous generation' -- "a theory also known as Aristotelian abiogenesis" (Wikipedia). Redi's seminal work includes 39 particularly gorgeous copperplate engravings. "At the time, [the] prevailing wisdom was that maggots arose spontaneously from rotting meat"; in other words, that nonliving matter could generate the production of living organisms" (ibid). In his experiments, Redi captured maggots and waited for them to metamorphose, becoming flies. "Also, when dead flies or maggots were put in sealed jars with dead animals or veal, no maggots appeared, but when the same thing was done with living flies, maggots did" (Wikipedia). Redi compared two groups of meat: "the first left exposed to insects, and the second group covered by a barrier of gauze. In the exposed meat, flies laid eggs, which quickly hatched into maggots. On the gauze-covered meat, no maggots appeared, but Redi observed fly eggs on the outer surface of the gauze" (Benecke, A Brief History of Forensic Entomology). Knowing full well the terrible fates of out-spoken scientists like Giordino Bruno and Galileo Galilei, Redi was careful to express his new views in a manner that would not contradict to theological tradition of the Church; hence, his interpretations were always based on biblical passages, such as his famous adage: omne vivum ex vivo ('All life comes from life')" (Wikipedia). Francesco Redi was an Italian physician, naturalist, and poet; this work, as said, is the first Latin edition, the second edition overall. CONDITION & DETAILS: Florenz: Onofri. 1674. Quarto (9.5 x 7 inches; 238 x 175mm). Complete. [4], 136, [39], 1. 39 engravings total (29 numbered; 10 unnumbered; 3 folding). Vellum bound with the title written on the spine in an early hand. A large section of the vellum has been cut from the rear board and is missing. The binding and its stitching, however, remain very solid. Vellum has some creasing, but is still handsome. Consistent with its age, minor foxing and aging.
Nambu, Y. and Jona-Lasinio G.
TWO VOLUME BOUND FIRST EDITIONS of two of three papers that led to Yoichiro Nambu's 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous symmetry breaking in subatomic physics" (Nobel Prize Committee). Nambu's work "was an important precursor to the theory that unifies electromagnetic and weak forces, and similar symmetry breaking is central to most modern particle physics theories" (Schirber, "Nobel Focus: Particle Physics Gets a Break," Phys. Rev. Focus 22, 2008). According to the model put forth in these papers, "the Lagrangian [method] which describes a physical system may be invariant under a symmetry group which is â??spontaneously broken' by the physical states of the theory" (Kantorovich, Scientific Discovery: Logic and Tinkering, 237). In short, Nambu's work "showed how to connect the highly symmetric, massless particles that appear in the underlying particle theories with the massive particles observed in the real world" (ibid). While Nambu's model was later superseded, his idea was "later incorporated into the. Higgs mechanism" (ibid). Nambu's "work was deep and original and he was well-ahead of his time," (ibid quoting Helen Quinn, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center). ALSO INCLUDED IN VOLUME 124: Brans and Dicke's "Mach's Principle and a Relativistic Theory of Gravitation" (pp. 925-935). "The Brans-Dicke theory of gravity is the best-known example of the class of theories called "scalar-tensor" theories because they contain both scalars and tensors in the field equations relating the curvature of space to the matter in the universe. In Brans-Dicke, the gravitational constant becomes a variable, and the resulting scalar field has kinetic energy" (History of Physics: The Wenner Collection). CONDITION & DETAILS: Lancaster: American Physical Society. Two complete volumes, identically bound in brown buckram, gilt-lettered at the spine. Ex-libris with no spine markings whatsoever. Pictorial bookplate of the Bridgeport Library on the front pastedown; stamp on title page and rear flyleaf. 4to (10.5 x 8 inches; 263 x 200mm). Tightly and solidly bound; bright and clean inside and out. Near fine condition.
Rabi, I. [Isidor]
FIRST EDITION OF RABI'S DESCRIPTION OF HIS THEORETICAL IDEA OF HOW TO MEASURE NUCLEAR SPIN, an idea that would lead to the determination of the signs of magnetic moments via his magnetic resonance method, the most significant improvement in molecular and atomic beam techniques to date" (Gonolis, Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings). Rabi received the 1944 Nobel Prize "for his resonance method for recording the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei." The scientific community knew that "nuclei have intrinsic spins and magnetic moments. The magnetic moment has both a magnitude and a sign. [But] in 1935, the sign was missing. The sign of a magnetic moment can be either plus or minus: if the spin and the magnetic moment have the same space-quantized direction, the sign of the moment is plus; if these directions are opposed, the sign is minus. [But] as beamlets of a particular atom were refocused into the detector, the same pattern was observed regardless of whether the sign of the atom's moment was plus or minus. The problem of determining the signs was something like trying to determine whether someone's right hand or left hand is pushing the front-door buzzer" (Rigden, Rabi, 92). Theoretical in nature, Rabi's paper analyzes experiments carried out in Otto Stern's Hamburg lab. As Stern had written: "The purpose of [the experiments] had been to answer a question that went back to the days of the old quantum theory, the days when the idea of space quantization strained credulity. The question was, Can an atom that is â??clinging' to a magnetic field with some particular space-quantized orientation be shaken loose? Can an atom be made to change its orientation" (ibid). Of the idea for this paper, Rabi wrote:"One day I was walking up the hill on Claremont Avenue and I was thinking about it [the sign of the nuclear magnetic moment] kinesthetically with my body. Here's the moment and its wobbling around in the direction of the field and [to find] the sign was to find out in which sense it was wobbling. To do this, I have to add another field which goes with it or against it." "The whole resonance method goes back to this. His intuition was sound, and atoms did reorient in such a way that the signs of their magnetic moment could be determined" (Rigden, 93). Rabi's theory supposed that the effects of the spins of the nuclei, along with those of the electrons had to be considered in weak magnetic fields where the nuclear and electron angular momenta were significantly coupled together (Zeller). In his own words, Rabi believed it theoretically "possible to measure the sign of nuclear magnetic moment vector with respect to the spin vector" (Rabi, 324). Rabi's paper, this paper, "presented a theory that became the basis for the magnetic resonance method, determination of the signs of magnetic moments. [It] inaugurated a new era of precision: the experimental and theoretical difficulties that limited the precision of earlier results no longer existed" (Rigden, 94). "After WW II, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) became a workhorse for physical and chemical analysis. Still later, Rabi's discovery was extended to Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), a powerful medical diagnostic tool, which is now used in medical centres the world over. In subsequent decades, the molecular beam method has been widely adopted by the physics and physical chemistry communities world wide, and about 20 Nobel Prizes were awarded for work based on the molecular beam method (Bonolis). CONDITION: 4to. Full volume. Bound in brown buckram. Ex-libris bearing bearing pictorial bookplate on paste down. Stamp on ffp, rffp & title page, the usual. Discreet gilt numbers at foot of spine. Tightly bound and clean. Very good.
Valtat, Raymond WITH Louis Couffignal
Full volume. FIRST EDITION OF VALTAT'S DESCRIPTION OF HIS PATENTED CALCULATING MACHINE FOUNDED ON THE CONVERSION OF DECIMAL INPUT INTO BINARY INPUT PRIOR TO CALCULATION. Valtat here notes "that binary digits could be represented either mechanically or electrically. He also stated that in an electric circuit the switch "on" would equal 1 and the switch "off" would equal 0" (Jeremy Norman, History of Science). As noted below, some instead credit Louis Couffignal who in 1936 and in this same volume, wrote of employing binary notation in a calculating machine. Couffignal "argues the utility of representing numbers by binary notation in computers and discusses the design of electrical calculators" (Aiken, Proposed Automatic Calculating Machines, 10). A Frenchman, Raymond Valtat (1898-1986) patented his calculator in 1932, but this 1936 paper is his first written account of his invention. In this paper, Valtat finally explains his thought and methodology, strongly advocating for the usage of the binary system in calculating apparatus over that of the decimal system. The scholarship on the invention of the first binary-based calculating machine is confusing. The discovery is sometimes credited to Claude Shannon's master's thesis published in 1938 but written in 1937. Some credit Konrad Zuse who working in Germany, applied for a patent on a binary calculating machine in 1936. Others credit Louis Couffignal who in 1936 also wrote of employing binary notation in a calculating machine. Valtat, however, "may have been the first to propose a binary-based calculating machine" - this because though he did not publish until 1936, he applied for his patent in 1932, thus predating both Zuse and Shannon (Norman; Ptak). Randell 1982a, 519-20. Origins of Cyberspace 397. CONDITION & DETAILS: Complete volume. Ex-libris stamp on the rear of the first page; slight ghosting at the spine where a spine level has been removed. Illustrated throughout, including the Pouillet paper. 4to (11 x 8 inches; 275 x 200mm). Continuously paginated: pp. 1225-2331. Full blue cloth binding, gilt-lettered at the spine; ghosting from the removal of a label at the spine; stamp on the rear of the title page.
Mendeleev, Dmitri. [Mendelejeff, Mendeléev, Mendeleyev, Mendeléeff]
FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST OF MENDELEEV'S PREDICTED ELEMENTS TO BE IDENTIFIED, thereby confirming "the validity of the periodic system of elements" Mendeleev had designed (Niaz, Critical Appraisal of Physical Science, 62). "The confirmation of this prediction may certainly be called the culminating point in the history of the periodic system" (ibid). In 1869 "Mendeleev published a periodic table. Mendeleev also arranged the elements known at the time in order ofrelative atomic mass, but he did some other things that made his table much more successful. He realised that the physical and chemical properties of elements were related to their atomic mass in a 'periodic' way, and arranged them so that groups of elements with similar properties fell into vertical columns in his table. "Sometimes this method of arranging elements meant there were gaps in his horizontal rows or 'periods'. But instead of seeing this as a problem, Mendeleev thought it simply meant that the elements which belonged in the gaps had not yet been discovered. He was also able to work out the atomic mass of the missing elements, and so predict their properties. And when theywerediscovered, Mendeleev turned out to be right. "The discovery of the three elements predicted by Mendeleev was of decisive importance in the acceptance of his law. In 1875 Lecoq de Boisbaudran, knowing nothing of Mendeleev's work, discovered by spectroscopic methods a new metal, which he named gallium. Both in the nature of its discovery and in a number of its properties gallium coincided with Mendeleev's prediction for eka-aluminum, but its specific weight at first seemed to be less than predicted. "Although Lecoq de Boisbaudran objected to this interpretation, he made a second determination of the specific weight of gallium and confirmed that such was indeed the case. From that moment the periodic law was no longer a mere hypothesis, and the scientific world was astounded to note that Mendeleev, the theorist, had seen the properties of a new element more clearly than the chemist who had empirically discovered it. From this time, too, Mendeleev's work came to be more widely known" (Dictionary of Scientific Biography). CONDITION & DETAILS: Complete volume. Ex-libris bearing only a deaccessioned stamp on the back of the title page and slight ghosting at the spine where a spine level has been removed. 4to (11 x 8 inches; 275 x 200mm). [6], 1450, [2]. Bound in clean full blue cloth, gilt-lettered at the spine. Solidly and tightly bound. Very occasional toning, otherwise clean and bright throughout.
Schrödinger, Erwin [Schrodinger; Schroedinger]
FIRST EDITION, FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT OF ERWIN SCHRODINGER'S SEMINAL THOUGHT EXPERIMENT KNOWN AS "SCHRODINGER'S CAT," present here in all three papers.This is not an ex-library copy. In May of 1935, Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen's published a paper (the famous EPR paper) on quantum entanglement that argued, in part, that quantum mechanics was not a complete physical theory. After its publication, and in a series of letters between Einstein and Schrodinger, Schrodinger became intrigued by what Einstein believed was an absurd contradiction in the application of Heisenberg and Bohr's Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics to the world of tangible objects. The experiment Schrodinger designed - as famous in physics as it is in philosophy -- illustrates the conflict Einstein and Schrodinger perceived between what quantum theory argues is true about the nature and behavior of matter on the microscopic level, and what we observe to be true about the nature and behavior of matter on the macroscopic level. Rather than an everyday object Einstein had discussed, however, Schrodinger applied his depiction of the absurdity of the Copenhagen interpretation to something living - to a cat. In the experiment, Schrodinger wrote: "A cat is penned up in a steel chamber, along with the following device (which must be secured against direct interference by the cat): in a Geiger counter, there is a tiny bit of radioactive substance, so small that perhaps in the course of the hour, one of the atoms decays, but also, with equal probability, perhaps none; if it happens, the counter tube discharges, and through a relay releases a hammer that shatters a small flask of hydrocyanic acid. If one has left this entire system to itself for an hour, one would say that the cat still lives if meanwhile no atom has decayed. The psi-function of the entire system would express this by having in it the living and dead cat (pardon the expression) mixed or smeared out in equal parts." To Schrodinger, the Copenhagen interpretation insinuates that the cat remains both alive and dead until the box is opened. "Schrödinger did not wish to promote the idea of dead-and-alive cats as a serious possibility; quite the reverse. The thought experiment serves to illustrate the bizarreness of quantum mechanics and the mathematics necessary to describe quantum states. Intended as a critique of just the Copenhagen interpretation, the Schrödinger cat thought experiment remains a topical touchstone for all interpretations of quantum mechanics. How each interpretation deals with Schrödinger's cat is often used as a way of illustrating and comparing each interpretation's particular features, strengths, and weaknesses" (Wikipedia). CONDITION & DETAILS: Berlin: Julius Springer. 4to (10.5 x 7 .75 inches; 262 x 194mm). 870pp. This volume is NOT an ex-library copy and there are no stamps whatsoever. Rebacked in black with a paper label at the spine; marbled paper boards. Slight toning to a few pages. Very good condition.
Cormack, Allen
FIRST EDITIONS IN ORIGINAL PAPER WRAPS OF PART II ONLY OF ALLAN CORMACK'S SEMINAL INVENTION OF A MATHEMATICAL TECHNIQUE FOR COMPUTER-ASSISTED X-RAY TOMOGRAPHY (CAT Scans) - TOGETHER, THESE TWO PAPERS DOCUMENT THE INVENTION OF THE CAT SCAN. Cormack's work produced the most revolutionary development in the field of radiography since the discover of the x-ray by Rontgen in 1895. In 1979, Cormack and Godfrey Hounsfield received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for their work in "the development of computer assisted tomography" (Nobel Prize Committee). "This was the first time that researchers trained not in the medical sciences but in mathematics and engineering received the Nobel Prize in Medicine" (Grolier Medical Hundred, 365). Cormack's work as a theoretical physicist with a special interest in computer tomography and math drove his interest in and invention of a mathematical technique for computer-assisted X-ray tomography. Cormack's papers contain the first description of the mathematical theory of axial tomography, the method by which the varying X-ray absorption rates of tissues in the human body can be used to construct a detailed picture of the organs and soft tissues. Computerized axial tomography, otherwise known as the CAT scan, is a process by which X-rays can be concentrated on specific sections of the human body at a variety of angles. Once this information is analyzed by a computer, it is combined to reproduce images of internal structures previously unviewable by medical technology. Cormack was the first to analyze the possibility of such an examination of a biological system, and in these papers, developed the equations needed for computer-assisted x-ray reconstruction of pictures of the human brain and body. CONDITION & DETAILS: Individual issue original wrappers, October 1964. American Institute of Applied Physics. (10.5 X 8 inches; 263 x 200mm). Fine condition. Clean and bright inside and out.
DeWitt, Bryce
FIRST EDITION of Bryce DeWitt's first paper on quantum gravity, including the introduction of both the Wheeler-DeWitt equation and canonical quantum gravity. "Quantum gravity attempts to unify quantum mechanics (which describes the behavior of electromagnetism, the weak interaction and the strong interaction) with general relativity (the theory of gravity)" (Wenner Collection). NOTE that we separately offer the 1st ed. in original wraps of all three parts of Bryce DeWitt's paper on quantum gravity, including the introduction of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation. In this work, DeWitt, known as the father of quantum gravity, formed important calculations on quantum gravity highly controversial and important to modern theoretical physics. The Wheeler-DeWitt "equation expresses the expectation that the total energy of a closed universe vanishes" (Liebscher, Cosmology, 269). It is a "cosmic Schrodinger equation" that describes the whole universe - both atoms and galaxies - in a unified manner. Although controversial, the equation does in fact unify deep properties of both quantum theory and general relativity. "The Wheeler-DeWitt equation is a functional differential equation on the space of three dimensional spatial metrics. It is ill defined in the general case, but very important in theoretical physics, especially in quantum gravity. The equation has the form of an operator acting on a wave functional, the functional reduces to a function in cosmology. Contrary to the general case, the Wheeler-DeWitt equation is well defined in mini-superspaces like the configuration space of cosmological theories" (Wikipedia). CONDITION & DETAILS: Lancaster: The American Physical Society. Vol. 160, Number 5, 25 August 1967, pp. 1113-1148 (DeWitt paper). Full volume pp. 719-1611. Fully indexed. Additionally, there are 36 pages of separately culled abstracts. Ex-libris bearing only a small stamps on the front & rear flypapers & text block. There are no spine markings. 4to (10.5 x 8 inches; 263 x 200mm). Bound in pristine brown buckram, gilt-lettered at the spine. Near fine condition inside and out.
Lockyer, J. Norman
RARE OFFPRINT OF JOSEPH LOCKYER'S DISCOVERY OF HELIUM ON THE SUN. ORIGINAL PAPER WRAPS, FINE CONDITION. 6 PLATES. An "offprint" is a separately published and bound issue of the journal paper in question. Usually these are printed for the given authors and for authors to give to colleagues. Because they are rare, offprints are considered more desirable that either the original issue of the journal in paper wraps or bound. Helium was the first chemical element discovered on an extraterrestrial body -- in this case, the sun -- prior to its discovery on the Earth. Lockyer's discovery of helium also represents the first element discovered via spectroscopy. Though rare on the Earth, helium is the second most abundant element in the universe, comprising 24% of known baryonic matter by weight. Lockyer discovered helium on the sun in 1868 when he adapted his 6-inch telescope to utilize a spectroscope and while using it to carry out electromagnetic spectroscopic observations of the sun during an eclipse, he discovered a yellow line never seen before in the laboratory. Unable to reproduce the line in his lab, Lockyer made the bold suggestion that the line was the 'fingerprint' of an element, an element he named 'helium' for Helios, the Greek God of the Sun. Lockyer's finding -- the only element to be discovered in space before it was discovered on Earth -- was the first element to be discovered by spectroscopy. As Lockyer tried to make sense of his initial discovery of a yellow line, he reasoned that "because the bright yellow line was close to the D1 and D2 lines of sodium, it [should be] designated D3. In order to identify the lines in his spectral data, Lockyer enlisted the help of the prominent British chemist, Edward Frankland. Their laboratory work showed that the majority of the observed solar lines were due to hydrogen, though often modified by changes in temperature and pressure. The D3 line, however, could not be reproduced in the laboratory" (Jensen, "Why Helium Ends in 'ium'?) . While Lockyer was ridiculed for his discovery for many years, in 1895, twenty-five years after Lockyer's initial discovery, William Ramsay confirmed the existence of Helium when he managed to isolate it from another mineral. In 1897, Lockyer was finally knighted for his discovery of helium. CONDITION & DETAILS: London: The Royal Society. Offprint from The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Vol. 165, Pt. 2. 1876. [Printed in 1876]. Continuously paginated, pp. 577-586. 4to. (300 x 225mm; 12 x 9 in.). ILLUSTRATIONS: 6 plates EXTERIOR: Bound in original paper wraps. Tightly bound. Near fine condition.
Einstein, Albert and Paul Ehrenfest
This paper, "On the Quantum Theory of the Radiative Equilibrium" introduces the expression "negative irradiance" ("negative Einstrahlung") for the emission of a quantum by action of irradiance (Calaprice, 121). Following his work on general relativity in 1916, Einstein continued searching for new ways in which the existence of photons might lead to observable derivations from the classical picture" (Pais, p. 413). In 1922, after six years of experimental and theoretical work, Arthur H. Compton discovered what came to be called the Compton effect; Peter Debye also discovered this independently and virtually simultaneously. Pauli then used Compton & Deby's work to extend Einstein's 1917 work to the case of radiation in equilibrium with free electrons (Pais, 414). "Pauli examined the requirements of detailed balance under Lorentz transformations and found that scattering of light by free electrons must include a term of a form which we would now call stimulated emission . . . Einstein and Ehrenfest then showed that Pauli's results could be obtained by an extension of [Einstein's] 1917 paper with the unnecessary specialization to discrete energy levels removed . . . "The core of Einstein's argument is that the scattering process should be broken into two parts: the absorption of energy from radiation of frequency 1 and the emission of energy as radiation of frequency 2" Lewis, "Einstein's derivation of Planck's radiation law," AJP, 1973, 38-44. Weil, Einstein Bibliography, 138; Pais, Subtle is the Lord, 21, 413; Lewis, "Einstein's derivation of Planck's radiation law," AJP, 1973, 38-44; Calaprice, Einstein Almanac 121. ALSO INCLUDED IN VOLUME 19 ARE PAPERS BY: Hertz, Meitner, Lande, Hertzfeld, Joos, Kossel, Lande, Sommerfeld, Seeliger, Wentzel, Raschevsky, Ebert, and Toussaint among many others. ALSO INCLUDED IN VOLUME 20 ARE PAPERS BY: Pauli, Ornstein, Raschevsky, Bothe, Walter, Hermann, and Przibram among many others. CONDITION: Berlin: Julius Springer. Volumes 19 & 20 bound as one. [iv], 415pp + [v], 426pp. NOT EX-LIBRARY. Solidly and cleanly bound in blue cloth, gilt-lettered at the spine. Bright and clean inside and out. Very good + condition.
Feynman, Richard WITH Hahn, E.L.
FIRST EDITION of Feynman's proof of the validity of his 1949 "reformation of quantum mechanics itself," work that would "elegantly rewrite quantum theory" (American National Biography; Peacock, The Quantum Revolution, 102). ALSO included is Erwin Hahn's "Spin Echoes," the first detection and report of spin echoes in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). FEYNMAN PAPER: In this, the third paper in his pivotal reformulation of quantum mechanics, Feynman provides the mathematical "proof of the validity of the [his] rules for calculations of amplitudes in quantum electrodynamics. Feynman's paper rigorously proved that his treatment of "the problem of molecular forces from a thoroughly quantum-mechanical point of view" was accurate (DSB). Feynman had arrived "at a simple means of calculating the energy of a molecular system that continues to guide quantum chemists" (ibid). In 1965 Feynman was awarded the Nobel Prize along with Schwinger and Tomonaga "for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles" (Particle Physics, One Hundred Years of Discoveries, 113). HAHN PAPER: Erwin Hahn's "Spin Echoes," relays the first detection and report of spin echoes in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)."In magnetic resonance, a spin echo is the refocusing of spin magnetization by a pulse of resonant electromagnetic radiation. Modern NMR and magnetic resonance imaging make use of this effect. Echo phenomena are important features of coherent spectroscopy which have been used in fields other than magnetic resonance including laser spectroscopy and neutron scattering" (Wikipedia). In 1950, Hahn, then a graduate student, was experimenting with NMR using pulsed RF energy and observed echo signals, hereafter called 'Spin Echo' or 'Hahn Echo' signals. We also separately offer this paper in its original wrappers. CONDITION & DETAILS: Lancaster: American Physical Society, Volume 80, October to December 1950. Bound in green buckram. NOT EX-LIBRARY. Tightly and solidly bound. Bright and clean inside and out. Near fine condition.
Einstein, A. [Albert]
FIRST EDITION, COMMERCIAL OFFPRINT ISSUE, OF EINSTEIN'S THEORY OF THE LIGHT PROPAGATION IN DISPERSIVE MEDIA. WEIL 120. "After 1917 Einstein firmly believed that light-quanta were here to stay [thus] it is not surprising that he would look for new ways in which the existence of photons might lead to observable deviation from the classical picture. In this he did not succeed. At one point, in 1921, he thought he had found a new quantum criterion, but it soon turned out to be a false lead [as demonstrated in this paper]" (Schilpp-Shields 162). That paper â?? the one offered here â?? is Einstein's evidence that his 1921 efforts were incorrect. In it, Einstein introduces a calculation on the topic and explains why [his] earlier proposed experiment had not been well considered because it could not predict a good choice between two theoretical alternatives" (Calaprice, Einstein Encyclopedia, 98). CONDITION & DETAILS: Berlin: Koniglich Akademie der Wissenschaften. Commercial offprint from Sitzungsberichte der Koniglich preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, III, 1916, pp. 18-22. Octavo (252 x 179 mm). Original printed wrappers. Pristine inside and out. Fine.
FIRST ed., ORIGINAL WRAPPERS, THE GENOME ISSUE featuring features articles on technological developments in genome research, clinical applications, and concerns regarding the social impact of rapidly accumulating genetic information. The following papers are included: Fraser, C. M. et al., "The Minimal Gene Complement of Mycoplasma genitalium," provided a model of the minimum number of genes needed for independent existence. And "Mycoplasma genitalium genome, report the complete sequencing of the bacterium with the smallest known genome of any self-replicating organism. Goffeau, Andre, "Life with 482 Genes," discusses the achievement of the above. Crystal, Ronald et al. "Transfer of Genes to Humans: Early Lessons and Obstacles to Success," provides an overview of relevant clinical trials and concludes that the therapeutic transfer of genes into humans is feasible and should be pursued. [Two separate reports also in this issue describe efforts to apply gene therapy to people with ADA-SCID, a hereditary, usually fatal disease resulting in a nonfunctioning immune system]. Hudson, K. L. et al., "Genetic Discrimination and Health Insurance," and "Genetic Discrimination and Health Insurance: An Urgent Need for Reform," present a series of recommendations for state and federal policymakers including recommendations and definitions suggest that genetic information, including family histories, not be used to establish insurance premiums or eligibility. Olson, Maynard et al., "A Time to Sequence," argues for an early move to large-scale sequencing of human DNA. Plasterk, Ronald and Robert Waterson, et al.,present a wall chart [included in this issue] summarizing progress in the project to characterize the genome of the nematode C. elegans. A significant portion of the complete C. elegans DNA sequence has been determined, and its potential for yielding clues to understanding developmental, cell, and neurobiology is already unfolding. Other Relevant Articles. Other genome-related articles include a story on a new strategy with the potential to analyze proteins directly and see how they change with disease, a report on a chromosome 4 physical map of the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana, and two reports describing new approaches to monitoring gene expression. CONDITION & DETAILS: American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1995, Science, Volume 270, Number 5235 : pages 349-548 with illustrations including large wall chart with small tear. Original wrappers, minor wear at edges and remnants of paper from prior attempt to remove address label. Other than the small tear in the wall chart, the interior is pristine. Over all good + condition.
Ferrel, William
1st edition of FERREL'S 19th CENTURY "MAGNUM OPUS" PROPOSING THE FIRST COMPREHENSIVE PHYSICAL THEORY OF THE ATMOSPHERE. Considered "the first really powerful intellect to focus sustained attention on meteorology," the American meteorologist, William Ferrel here provides "the first general formulation of the equations of motion for a body moving with respect to the rotating earth and drew from them the consequences for atmospheric and oceanic circulation" (Dictionary of Scientific Biography IV, 592). In other words, Ferrel is the first to depict mathematically the influence of the various forces (such as gravity, rotation, and friction) upon the earth's surface, as well as how those forces then impact atmospheric air currents and tidal currents in the ocean (Williams, Shy Genius). The papers offered here were published in their entirety in seven chapters over these two separate volumes. Shortened versions of the first four chapters (edited for a non-scientific audience) were published in the American Journal of Science in 1861; the final three in 1882. The eminent American meteorologist Cleveland Abbe never forgot first encountering Ferrel's work. "It gave me at once the strong conviction that a successful attack had at last been made on the complex mechanics of the atmosphere," he wrote. "I have often said that the memoir [the work offered here] is to meteorology what the 'Principia' was to astronomy. The allusion was less extravagant than it might seem, for Ferrel was a celestial mechanic in the tradition of Pierre-Simon Laplace and Sir Isaac Newton. There was what Abbe called "an intellectual inheritance" (ibid). Ferrel was at the forefront of an era in which science that was changing - and rapidly. "Transitioning from observational weather forecasting to mathematical weather forecasting required meteorologists to recognize that the laws of physics could apply to weather, discover the forces that drive wind movements, and apply the equations of physics to these forces and the resulting movements of air" (Wenner, History of Physics). At the time, no meteorologist understood, navigated, or applied physics to mathematical weather forecasting better than did Ferrel. Ferrel demonstrated the deflective force of the Earth's rotation and its fundamental place in shaping the behavior of global winds and the currents of the ocean. In a work considered "remarkable for its clarity," Ferrel applied the Coriolis effect, in concert with the principles of thermodynamics and fluid mechanics, to establish "the first general formulation of the equations of motion for a body moving with respect to the rotating earth and drew from them the consequences for atmospheric and oceanic circulation" (DSB). Put another way, Ferrel's "work demonstrated that it is the tendency of rising warm air, as it rotates due to the Coriolis effect, to pull in air from more equatorial, warmer regions and transport it poleward. It is this rotation which creates the complex curvatures in the frontal systems separating the cooler Arctic/Antarctic air polewards from the warmer tropical air towards the equator" (Wiki). Based firmly in mathematical analysis, Ferrel's work "made explicit the notion of an inertial circle of motion on the earth and used it to explain the gyratory nature of storms. [He] developed a general quantitative theory of relative motion on the earth's surface and applied it to winds and currents. Now known as Ferrel's law, [it states that] â??if a body is moving in any direction, there is a force, arising from the earth's rotation, which always deflects it to the right in the northern hemisphere, and to the left in the southern'" (ibid). Ferrel's work includes many in-text illustrations. CONDITION: 2 volumes. 4to. Handsomely rebound in gilt-ruled green cloth boards over a black, gilt-lettered spine. Note: Runkle's name appears on the spine because the journal is often referred to as Runkle's Mathematical Monthly. Bright & clean throughout. Very good co
Quetelet, Adolphe [Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet]
FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS OF A LARGE & IMPORTANT STUDY BY ADOLPHE QUETELET ON THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE IN BELGIUM. Quetelet was one of the founders of sociology and his "impact on nineteenth century thinking can in a certain sense be compared with Descartes's in the seventeenth century" (DSB XI, p.237). Adolphe Quetelet (1796-1874) was a mathematician, astronomer, statistician, and sociologist known for his application of statistics and probability theory to social phenomena. He was the founder of the Brussels Observatory and the first to apply the statistical normal distribution to characteristics of human populations. His goal was to understand the statistical laws underlying such phenomena as crime rates, marriage rates or suicide rates. He wanted to explain the values of these variables by other social factors. In 1835 Quetelet's work ushered in a new era in statistics began. It presented a new technique of statistics or, rather, the first technique at all. The material was thoughtfully elaborated, arranged according to certain preestablished principles, and made comparable . Quetelet's average man became a slogan in nineteenth-century discussions on social science" (ibid). NOTE: This copy bears a somewhat unusual inscription on the front wrap, one that we can only partially make out. The translation of it is "Homage from the __________ family in praise of Lagrange." See photograph. Lagrange, of course, is likely Joseph-Louis Lagrange, the Italian mathematician (later naturalized French), physicist and astronomer who made significant contributions to the fields of analysis, number theory, and both classical and celestial mechanics. CONDITION & DETAILS: Bruxelles: H. Thiry-Van Buggenhoudt. 4to. Complete. Unusual in full original paper wraps. 754pp., fully indexed. Text in French. The text block is split and the spine paper is chipped. The interior is bright and clean. Wide margins. Good+ condition.
Faraday, Michael
First printing of a letter extracted from Comptes Rendus of a letter from Michael Faraday to another chemist Jean-Baptiste Dumas. In it, Faraday very clearly writes of his then nascent thoughts regarding the relationship between light, magnetism, and electricity, here specifically describing the magnetic rotation of light. Though published in 1846, Faraday's letter was written in 1845. It relays, in embryonic form, his soon to be announced - and quite remarkable -- discovery from his careful examination of the polarization of light as it passed through a transparent material in the presence of a magnetic field. Faraday "observed that linearly polarized light propagating through matter parallel to a static magnetic field, experiences a rotation of the plane of polarization. The effect is small, but he was an exceptional experimenter and he unambiguously identified the phenomenon. The rotation of the plane of polarization is still called the Faraday Rotation (Teach Spin). Building on this and other discoveries, by 1864 Faraday was able to announce his electro-magnetic theory of light, predicting that both light and radio waves are electric and magnetic phenomena. Faraday, the greatest experimentalist in electricity and magnetism of the 19th century and one of the greatest experimental physicists of all time, corresponded regularly with Dumas, who himself made contributions to organic chemistry. CONDITION: 4to. Extract of pages 92-134 (inclusive of papers by Biot, Cauchy, Chasles, Liouville, Poggiale, Guettet, and presentations by Agassiz, Schimper, and Durocher). The Faraday appears pp. 113-115. The extract is in perfect condition and is housed in a simple red paper wrap.
Foucault, Leon; George Boole
FIRST DESCRIPTION IN ENGLISH of FOUCAULT'S 1st MECHANICAL DEMONSTRATION OF THE EARTH'S ROTATION, FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM. Also included is BOOLE'S FIRST PAPER ON THE LOGIC OF PROBABILITY. FOUCAULT: Copernicus explained the daily diurnal rotation of the earth on its polar axis in 1543, however it was Foucault, 300 years later, who first demonstrated it. "On February 3, 1851, a 32-year-old Frenchmanâ??who'd dropped out of medical school and dabbled in photographyâ??definitively demonstrated that the Earth indeed rotated, surprising the Parisian scientific establishment. Acting on a hunch, Léon Foucault determined he could use a pendulum to illustrate the effect of the Earth's movement. He called together a group of scientists, enticing them with a note declaring, "You are invited to see the Earth turn." Foucault hung a pendulum from the ceiling of the Meridian Room of the Paris Observatory. As it swept through the air, it traced a pattern that effectively proved the world was spinning about an axis. "According to the American Physical Society, Foucault suspended from the Pantheon's lofty dome a 61-pound brass bob on a 220-foot cable. As it swung back and forth, the pointed end of the bob traced lines in sand that had been poured on a wooden platform. Over time, the angle of these lines changed, suggesting to audience members that the direction of the pendulum's travel was shifting under the influence of an unperceived rotational motionâ??that of Earth. Foucault's pendulum had moved according to his sine law which predicts how much a pendulum's path will distort each day based on its latitude (Smithsonian). Foucault stated his sine law as: The rate of rotation of the pendulum can be stated mathematically as equal to the rate of rotation of the Earth times the sine of the number of degrees of latitude. "Absent any exterior forces, a pendulum would swing back and forth in a single plane foreverâ??there would be no gradual angular shift. But the Earth is rotating, so the story isn't that simple. Since all points on Earth's surface rotate as a unit, it follows that those located on the wider portions of the planetâ??nearer to the equatorâ??must cover more meters each second (i.e., go faster) to "keep up" with the points tracing smaller circles each day at the extreme northern and southern latitudes. Though they don't feel it, a person standing in Ecuador, is moving with appreciably higher velocity than one in Iceland" (ibid). The Foucault paper in this volume includes the English translation of his first paper published in French; it also contains an extensive description of his demonstration as described by those present (and at which some fainted). BOOLE: 1st edition of Boole's first paper on probability, here applying his theory of probabilities to the problem of the distribution of fixed stars. This work first "seems to be the first mention, by any author, of the close connection, both in essence and in form, between logic and probability and indeed of the dependence of the theory of probability on an underlying mathematical theory of logic" (MacHale, George Boole. A Prelude to the Digital Age). As Boole stated: "Although the immediate business of the theory of probabilities is with the frequency of the occurrence of events, and although it therefore borrows some of its elements from the science of number, yet as the expression of the occurrence of those events, and also of the relations, of whatever kind, which connect them, is the office of language, the common instrument of reason, so the theory of probabilities must bear some definite relation to logic" (p. 524). This paper marks the beginning of his seminal later work, Laws of Thought. CONDITION: Complete. Octavo. Bears only tiny ex-libris tamp on title page. Rebound in three-quarter morocco over contemporary marbled boards; marbled endpapers. Gilt-lettered & tooled spine; 5 compartments. Bright and clean throughout. Fine condition.
Kerr, Roy
FIRST EDITION OF KERR'S LANDMARK 1963 PAPER DESCRIBING THE MATHEMATICS OF ROATATING BLACK HOLES, A WORK THAT EXACTLY SOLVED EINSTEIN'S EQUATIONS OF GENERAL RELATIVITY. Not infrequently, Kerr's achievement is described without hyperbole as the most important exact solution to any equations in physics. "In 2022, it was mathematically demonstrated that the equilibrium found by Kerr was stable and thus black holesâ??which were the solution to Einstein's equation of 1915â??were stable" (Wikipedia). As said, researchers finally proved Kerr's black holes stable in 2022. This meant, essentially, that if shaken, they settle back into a form like the one they began with. The opposite situation â?? a mathematical instability â?? would not have proved Kerr wrong, but it "would have posed a deep conundrum to theoretical physicists and would have suggested the need to modify, at some fundamental level, Einstein's theory of gravitation" (Quanta; T. Damour, Institute of French Advanced Scientific Studies). In a series of lectures in Berlin in 1915, Einstein introduced his theory of general relativity using equations to demonstrate that energy and matter affect the shape of space-time, causing it to curve. In the paper offered here, the New Zealand mathematician Roy Kerr achieved something that had eluded scientists for 47 years - he found the solution of Einstein's general relativity equations which describes the geometry of empty spacetime around a rotating black hole. Einstein's field equations are highly non-linear, making finding exact solutions very difficult to find. All prior solutions to Einstein's general relativity equations involved static masses - non-rotating ones. Given that virtually all stars rotate, it was likely that most or all black holes also rotate. Kerr's work provided a realistic model of a rotating star that becomes a black hole; he discovered an exact solution to Einstein's field equations (now called the Kerr Metric). "A Kerr black hole does not collapse to a point, but instead into aspinning ring of neutrons. The ring is circulating so rapidly (because of the conservation of angular momentum) that centrifugal force keeps the black hole from completely collapsing under gravity, avoiding a singularity. Kerr black holes have a second horizon outside the event horizon, a flattened sphere now called the "ergosphere" within which everything, including light, is caused to rotate by the curvature of spacetime" (Wenner Collection). The Nobel Laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar wrote about the importance of Kerr's achievement, saying "In my entire scientific life, extending over forty-five years, the most shattering experience has been the realization that an exact solution of Einstein's equations of general relativity, discovered by the New Zealand mathematician, Roy Kerr, provides the absolutely exact representation of untold numbers of massive black holes that populate the universe" (Chadrasekhar, Truth and Beauty: Aesthetics and Motivations in Science). Kerr's achievement in finding an exact solution for the rotating case, for Einstein's equations of General Relativity, was something many doubted could be done; it was a revolution in astrophysics. It certainly ushered in one. CONDITION & DETAILS: New York: American Physical Society. Volume 11, July to December 1963. Full volume. Ex-libris with only a blind stamp to the rear ffp. and a discreet (see photo) stamp at foot of spine. 4to (10.5 x 8 inches; 263 x 200mm). [4], pp. 576, [2]. Bound in green buckram showing only very slight wear. The interior is pristine. Near fine.
Feynman, Richard
FIRST EDITION, FULL VOLUME in PRISTINE CONDITION, OF FEYNMAN'S NOBEL PRIZE WINNING PATH-INTEGRAL FORMALISM, A "REFORMATION OF QUANTUM MECHANICS ITSELF" (American National Biography). Feynman's path-integral formulation of quantum mechanics lead physicists out of the morass of endless calculations and provided them with the simplest, most elegant, most powerful - to say nothing of the most revolutionary - method for solving the fundamental equations of quantum mechanics. Feynman's "path-integral formulation of quantum mechanics is a description of quantum theory that generalizes the action principle of classical mechanics. It replaces the classical notion of a single, unique trajectory for a quantum particle or system" with the idea that the evolution of a quantum system is determined as a sum over - or integration of -- all the possible trajectories that would take that system from the initial to the final state of its dynamical evolution (Wenner Collection). While Feynman's approach, as ever, was intuitive, his idea of summing over all paths has been characterized simply as "everything that can happen does happen." Richard Feynman "had unusual mathematical skill, but his greatest virtues as a physicist were his physical intuition and his delight in finding simple and elegant approaches to problems that had baffled everyone else" (Peacock, The Quantum Revolution, 102). There are three pivotal formulations of quantum mechanics: Heisenberg's matrix formulation, Schrödinger's wave equation formulation, and Feynman's path-integral formulation. Feynman began work on his path-integral formulation because, as he often said, "he could not understand standard quantum theory and had to recreate it on his own" (ibid). Feynman introduced his path-integral method in the paper offered here, describing it as a "space-time approach to non-relativistic quantum mechanics" that was meant to provide an alternative to the "very well-established formulation of quantum mechanical time-evolution based on the Schrodinger and the Heisenberg pictures of quantum mechanics" (Prugovecki, Principles of Quantum), 88). "Ultimately what distinguished Feynman's approach from the standard formalism lay not in outcomes, but in. his "conceptual approach. Heisenberg and Bohr had argued vehemently during the 1920s that quantum mechanics spelled the end for any type of visualization of the atomic domain" (DSB, XXI, 21). Feynman response was the path-integral formulation, "an intuitive approach built around picturing the paths of particles through space and time" (ibid). His formulation represented a different way of thinking "that is probably as visualizable as any theory of quantum fields is ever going to be" - and in part because it could be delineated, could be diagrammed, it has spurred the study of and illuminated some of the deepest aspects of quantum mechanics" (Peacock). Later in life and while speaking of both that with his path-integral formulation, quantum theory was simpler than classical theory, as well as of those "deepest aspects of quantum mechanics," Feynman "who understood quantum theory as well as anyone, said, "I still get nervous with it.I cannot define the real problem, therefore I suspect there's no real problem, but I'm not sure there's no real problem. The problem is not with using the theory â?? making calculations, applying it to engineering tasks â?? but in understanding what it means. What does it tell us about the world?" (Gleick, What is Real? ). In 1965, Feynman (with Tomonaga and Schwinger) won the 1965 Nobel Prize for "fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles" (Nobel Foundation). CONDITION: Lancaster, PA, American Physical Society, 1948. 4to. Handsome complete volume. Rebound in ¾ gilt-tooled brown cloth over marbled boards. Black cloth, gilt-lettered labels. Not a library book; clean & bright with no markings whatsoever inside & out. Near fine condition.
Hubble, Edwin
FIRST EDITION OF THE SEMINAL PAPER IN WHICH HUBBLE PRESENTS HIS CLASSIFICATION OF GALAXIES, ESTIMATES THEIR MEAN DENSITIES, & DERIVES FOR THE FIRST TIME THE MEAN MASS DENSITY IN GALAXIES IN THE UNIVERSE AS A WHOLE. THE PAPER IS "A MORE OR LESS COMPLETE DESCRIPTION OF GALAXIES AS EXTRAGALACTIC SYSTEMS. & IS THE FIRST APPLICATION OF THE IDEAS OF RELATIVISTIC COSMOLOGY TO THE UNIVERSE OF GALAXIES" (Carnegie Astrophysics Series, 2, 2004). This forty-eight-page paper includes three plates & many tables. In this paper, Hubble "determined the mean density of nebulae in space and applied this result in the theory of general relativity to get the radius of curvature of the finite universe - â??600 times the distance at which normal nebulae can be detected with the 100-inch reflector.' This calculation represented the boldest probe of the universe yet made and [that] greatly stimulated theoretical work in cosmology" (Mayall, Hubble: A Biographical Memoir, National Academy of Sciences). The prophetic last sentence of this paper reads: "with reasonable increases in the speed of the plates and size of telescopes, it may become possible to observe an appreciable fraction of the Einstein universe" (Hubble, 369). And he was right. Just three years later, Hubble would use the observational evidence collected for this 1926 paper to help formulate Hubble's law which, in stating that galaxies move away from each other at a speed proportional to their distance, effectively validated solutions to the equations of general relativity in which the universe is in motion. While developing the morphological classification of galaxies he presents in this paper, "Hubble discovered an odd fact: Almost every galaxy he observed appeared to be moving away from the Earth. He knew this because the light coming from the galaxies exhibited redshift. Building on the work of Vesto Slipher, who measured the redshifts associated with galaxies more than a decade earlier, Hubble. discovered [in his own data] a rough proportionality between the distances and redshifts of the galaxies studied" (Google Classroom). In other words, in 1926, Hubble already had "a pretty good idea that [the] data showed a linear relationship between redshift and distance - that redshift is proportional to distance, so that if one galaxy has twice as big a redshift as another, it is twice as far away. Indeed, he must have had some idea of this already in 1926., but he was extremely cautious about putting this conclusion down in print" (Gribin, The Birth of Time). Three years later when he was ready, Hubble formulated Hubble's law, showing that "galaxies are receding away from us with a velocity that is proportional to their distance from us: more distant galaxies recede faster than nearby galaxies. It was proof that the Universe is expanding," an idea that has "made as great a change in man's conception of the universe as the Copernican revolution 400 years before" (PNAS 112, 11; DSB). CONDITION & DETAILS: Complete. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Complete. Ex-libris marking on the front flyleaf and pastedown. NO spine markings whatsoever. 4to (9.75 x 6.75 inches). [5], vi, [374], 4. Nineteen plates and in-text illustrations throughout. Tightly bound in red buckram. Gilt-lettered at the spine. Light spotting at foot of spine, otherwise bright & clean. Very good +.
Russell, Henry Norris
FIRST EDITION OF A WORK IN WHICH THE AMERICAN ASTRONOMER HENRY NORRIS RUSSELL CONCLUDES THAT HYDROGEN & HELIUM ARE THE LARGEST CONSTITUENTS OF THE SUN. Russell's conclusions aren't disputed, but they were shared and not wholly original to him. Russell was assigned to review the doctoral thesis of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, the first woman ever granted a PhD in astronomy. He was, at the time, director of the Princeton Observatory and a strong proponent of the idea that the Earth and the Sun had the same composition. He returned Payne-Gaposchkin's dissertation with honest compliments on her approach and a lone complaint: "It is clearly impossible that hydrogen should be a million times more abundant than the metals. "Without Russell's blessing, the thesis would not be accepted and so Payne-Gaposchkin did what she felt she had to do. In the final version of her thesis, she disowned that part of her work by writing "The enormous abundance derived for [hydrogen and helium] is almost certainly not real" (Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, Physics World, March 2022). In 1929, though, Russell derived the same results by different means. He then published his own derivation of the stellar abundance, citing Payne-Gaposchkin's work and noting that his results for all the elements including the great abundance of hydrogen agreed remarkably well with hers. He wrote: "[t]he most important previous determination of the abundance of the elements by astrophysical means is that by Miss Payne" (ibid). Without saying so directly, Russell's paper affirmed that Payne-Gaposchkin's analysis was correct, and that she was the first to discover that the Sun is mostly made of hydrogen." Nevertheless, Russell is generally credited for the conclusion and the weight of Russell's support convinced other scientists who, like him, had assumed that the composition of the sun is very similar to that of the earth. CONDITION & DETAILS: Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Complete. Ex-libris marking on the front flyleaf and pastedown. NO spine markings whatsoever. 4to (9.75 x 6.75 inches). [5], vi, [334], 4. Twelve plates and in-text illustrations throughout. Tightly bound in red buckram. Gilt-lettered at the spine. Bright and clean throughout. Very good +.
Hubble, Edwin; Hale, George Ellery
FIRST EDITION OF HUBBLE'S FORMULATION OF A LAW (NOW KNOWN AS THE HUBBLE-REYNOLDS LAW) THAT GIVES THE OBSERVED SURFACE BRIGHTNESS PROFILE OF ELLIPTICAL GALAXIES AS A FUNCTION OF PROJECTED RADIAL DISTANCE. HUBBLE: The law was first formulated by John Henry Reynolds in 1913 from his observations of galaxies (then still known as nebulae). It was later re-derived by Hubble in 1930 specifically in observations of elliptical galaxies. The Hubble-Reynolds empirical law of observational cosmology states that the velocities at which galaxies in theuniverse recede from one another is directly proportional to the distances between them. "This law, remarkable because of its simplicity, predicts a deficit of light close to the center and more light in the outer envelope of a galaxy" (Matzner, Dictionary of Geophysics, 230). HALE: The purpose of Hale's paper was "to describe in detail some of the rapid motions of hydrogen flocculi near sun-spots" (Hale, Abstract, p. 73). A spectrohelioscope is a type of solar telescope Hale invented in 1924 that allowed the Sun to be viewed in a selected wavelength of light. "It is one of the ingenious features of Dr. Hale's design for his spectrohelioscope that flocculi with large radial velocities, especially differential velocities along their length, can be picked up and their velocities quickly measured by means of the â??line-shifter'" ( Nature, 126, page 70 (1930). CONDITION & DETAILS: Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Complete. Ex-libris marking on the front flyleaf and pastedown. NO spine markings whatsoever. 4to (9.75 x 6.75 inches). [5], vi, [358], 4. Twelve plates and in-text illustrations throughout. Tightly bound in red buckram. Gilt-lettered at the spine. Bright and clean throughout. Very good +.
Kapteyn, J. C. [Jacobus Cornelius]
FIRST EDITION OF THE 1st APPEARANCE IN PRINT OF THE TERM "DARK MATTER" & FIRST SUGGESTION OF ITS EXISTENCE. This paper, First Attempt at a Theory of the Arrangement and Motion of the Sidereal System, represents a culmination of Kapteyn's life work and he died shortly before its publication. In it, he uses the term dark matter to denote invisible matter the existence of which is otherwise suggested by only by gravity. He further suggests that when his theory is perfected it may be possible to determine the amount of dark matter from its gravitational effect. Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn (1851-1922) was a Dutch astronomer who extensively studied the Milky Way and who discovered evidence of galactic rotation. "In the beginning of the 20th century little was known about the overall structure of the Milky Way system. One unsolved problem was the possible existence of absorbing material near the plane of the Galaxy, which distorts distance estimates of stars. [When Kapteyn began his study of the problem] he used the latest observational data to compute a dynamical model of the Galaxy. To calculate the gravitational potential, the Galaxy was represented by 10 concentric ellipsoids of constant density and axial ratio 1/5.1. These ellipsoids were not related to any stellar population, and used only to express the changes of the mean density of the Galaxy. The Sun was placed near the centre of the Galaxy. Using kinematical data and star count Kapteyn was able to estimate the total spatial density of visible stars, as well as the total dynamical density. He noticed that these two quantities can differ due to the possible presence of some dark matter or faint stars. Kapteyn wrote: "We therefore have the means of estimating the mass of dark matter in the universe. As matters stand at present it appears at once that this mass cannot be excessive" (Einasto, Dark Matter and Cosmic Web Story, 88). CONDITION & DETAILS: Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Complete. Ex-libris marking on the front flyleaf and pastedown. NO spine markings whatsoever. 4to (9.75 x 6.75 inches). [4], vi, [418], 4. Seven plates and in-text illustrations throughout. Tightly bound in red buckram. Gilt-lettered at the spine. Bright and clean throughout. Very good +.
Cayley, Arthur WITH Appel, Kenneth and Haken, Wolfgang WITH Robertson, Neil et al. WITH Gonthier, Georges
THE FOUR-COLOUR (Color) PROBLEM (OR THEOREM) IS "THE FIRST MAJOR THEOREM TO BE PROVED USING A COMPUTER" (Lamb, Having Fun with the 4-Color Theorem, Scientific American, March 1, 2013). Because the problem had "resisted the attempts of able mathematicians for over a century.when it was successfully proved in 1976 the â??computer proof' was controversial [because] it did not allow scrutiny in the conventional way" (Crilly, Notes and Records of the Royal Society, 22 Sept. 2005). "The Four-Color Theorem states that any map in a plane can be colored using four-colors in such a way that regions sharing a common boundary (other than a single point) do not share the same color. The problem, or question, is well-known in mathematics and is certainly the most famous problem in the field of "discrete" mathematics. Included in a custom case are first editions of the first printed paper of the problem, this by Arthur Cayley in 1879, and three papers by Appel and Haken (an announcement of the proof (which took over 100 years) and two papers presenting the proof in detail, and the papers describing the two following proofs. "Six colors can be proven to suffice. and this number can easily be reduced to five, but reducing the number of colors all the way to four proved very difficult. [In a paper also included in this boxed set], the result was finally obtained by Appel and Haken (1977), who constructed a computer-assisted proof that four colors were sufficient" (ibid). This was the first major theorem proven using a computer. Appel and Haken's "proof reduced the infinitude of possible maps to 1,936 reducible configurations (later reduced to 1,476)" and then wrote a computer program to check each case, something that took over 1000 hours (Xiang, A formal Proof of the Four-Color Theorem, 2009). However, because part of the proof consisted of an exhaustive analysis of many discrete cases by means of a computer, some mathematicians doubted the proof's veracity because it could not be checked by normal means. In other words, did a computer proof count? By the 1990's, computer aided solutions were more widely accepted and Appel and Haken's proof was confirmed via general theorem proving software, in both 1997 and again in 2008. In 1997, Robertson et al [in a paper included in this box] created a quadratic-time algorithm, greatly simplifying and improving upon that of Appel and Haken. In 2005, Gonthiers formalized a proof of the theorem by using the proof assistant called Coq, a widely-used general purpose utility, which can be `verified experimentally. He didn't publish it until 2008 [in a paper included in this boxed set]. The theorem is now generally agreed to be proven. ALSO INCLUDED THOUGH NOT IN THE CLAMSHELL CASE: Solution of the Four Color Map Problem" by Kenneth Appel and Wolfgang Haken (Scientific American 237 Issue 4 pp. 108-121, October 1977) and "The Philosophical lImplications of the Four-Color Problem" by E. R. Swart (The American Mathematical Monthly 87 No. 9 pp. 697-707, November 1990). NOTE: The Four-Color Problem is sometimes referred to as Guthrie's Problem. CONDITION & DETAILS: Cayley in Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society: handsomely re-bound (with title page) April issue in marbled paper over calf, near fine condition. Appel and Haken in Illinois Journal of Mathematics: handsomely rebound in grey and black, gilt lettered on the front board and inclusive of both Appel and Haken papers, fine condition. Georges Gonthier in Notices of the American Mathematical Society; original paper wrappers; near fine condition. "The Four Colour Theorem" by Neil Robertson et al. in Journal of Combinatorial Theory; handsomely rebound, small cancelation stamp on the rear of the title page; fine condition.
