RUTHERFORD, Ernest. Brooks. Soddy. Others.
RUTHERFORD, Ernest and H.T. Brooks. "Comparison of the Radiations from Radioactive Substances" AND Rutherford, with Frederick Soddy, "The Cause and Nature of Radioactivity: Part I" AND by Rutherford and Frederick Soddy, "The Cause and Nature of Radioactivity: Part II" in "The London, Edinburgh and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science", London, Taylor and Francis, 1902, sixth series, volume IV, viii,782pp, 6 plates. Newly and very skillfully rebound in half-calf and marbled boards; raised bands, lack and red spine labels. There is some foxing in the corner of the first 30pp or so, and also to the last 20pp. The text is generally clean and bright and crisp; the binding of course is new. [++] RUTHERFORD, Ernest and H.T. Brooks. "Comparison of the radiations from Radioactive Substances" pp 1-23; AND Rutherford and Frederick Soddy, "The Cause and Nature of Radioactivity: Part I" pp 370-396; AND (by Rutherford and Frederick Soddy) "The Cause and Nature of Radioactivity: Part II" pp 569-585. [++] "By this time Rutherford had recognized the need for skilled chemical assistance in his radioactivity investigations and had secured the services of a young chemistry demonstrator at McGill, Frederick Soddy. Together they removed most of the activity from a thorium compound, calling the active matter thorium X; but they too found that the X product lost its activity and that the thorium recovered its original level in a few weeks. Had Becquerels similar finding for uranium not been immediately at hand, they might have searched for errors in their work. In early 1902, however, they began to plot the activities as a function of time, seeing evidence of a fundamental relationship in the equality of the time for thorium X to decay to half value and thorium to double in activity. This work led directly to Rutherfords greatest achievement at McGill, for with Soddy he advanced the still-accepted explanation of radioactivity. Becquerel for several years had considered the phenomenon a form of long-lived phosphorescence, although by the first years of the twentieth century he spoke vaguely of a molecular transformation. Crookes, in the British tradition of visualized mechanical models, had suggested a modified Maxwell demon sitting on each uranium atom and extracting the excess energy from faster-moving air molecules, this energy then appearing as uranium radiation. The Curies had considered several possibilities but inclined strongly toward the concept of an unknown ethereal radiation the existence of which is manifested only through its action on the heaviest elements, which then emit alpha, beta, and gamma rays as secondary radiations. Perhaps the most prescient idea was offered by Elster and Geitelthat the energy exhibited by radioactive substances comes not from external sources but from within the atoms themselvesbut it was left to Rutherford and Soddy to add quantitative evidence to such speculation. Their iconoclastic theory, variously called transformation, transmutation, and disintegration, first appeared in 1902 and was refined in the following year. Although alchemy had long been exorcised from scientific chemistry, they declared that radioactivity is at once an atomic phenomenon and the accompaniment of a chemical change in which new kinds of matter are produced. The radioactive atoms decay, they argued, each decay signifying the transmutation of a parent into a daughter element, and each type of atom undergoing its transformation in a characteristic period. This insight set the course for their next several years of research, for the task was then to order all the known radioelements into decay series and to search for additional members of these families."--Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, online.
FARADAY, Michael.
FARADAY, Michael. "Thoughts on Ray Vibrations" in "The London, Edinburgh and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science", London, Richard and John E. Taylor, 1846, third series, vol 28, May 1846, pp 347-350 in the full vol-ume of viii, 576pp, The London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, published in London, Tay-lor & Francis, 1846, volume 28. viii, 576pp, with 9 plates. Newly and very skillfully rebound in half-calf and marbled boards; raised bands, black and red spine labels. This is a lovely copy of this volume there is some foxing on the plates, but the text itself is very clean and crisp; and of course the binding is new. FINE copy. [++] Also in this volume is a signifi-cant paper by Robert Mallet on earthquakes; Edward Sabine's paper suggesting a connection between the Gulf Stream and European weather; and work by James Dana on volcanism. Includes two other papers by Michael Faraday (2 other pa-pers), G.G. Stokes (two papers), Robert Hunt, Joseph Henry, J. Chalis (two papers), John Draper, and many others, including G. G. Stokes "On the Aberration of Light"; G. G. Stokes "Remarks on Professor Challis's Theoretical Explanation of the Aberration of Light ." AND: Rev. J. Challis "On the Aberration of Light, in Reply to Mr. Stokes", and much else. [++] On Faraday's "celebrated" (ALLEN, H. Faraday and the Quantum, in Nature 108, 341 342, 1921) ray vibration paper: "If a line of particles could be put under a strain, this line could then transmit energy either by the rapid breakdown and buildup of the strain or by vibrating transversally to the direction along which the strain was exerted. The first kind of vibration was that suggested by Faraday in 1838 to explain spark discharge, electrochemical decomposition, and ordinary electrical conduction. The second sort of vibration was tentatively put forward by Faraday in 1846 in his Thoughts on Ray Vibrations to account for the transmission of light through a vacuum without having recourse to a vibrating medium such as the luminiferous ether. In 1846 he was led, in his Thoughts on Ray Vibrations, to an embryonic form of the electromagnetic theory of light, later developed by James Clerk Maxwell. [In this essay] Faraday was, as it were, conducting a dialogue with himself, attempting to clarify his own ideas and to grasp the full implications of his own speculative hypotheses. These works therefore are of importance more because they reveal Faraday s mind to us than because they are important steps in the progress of electrical and magnetic science."--Complete Dictionary Scientific Biography online
Berzelius, Jons Jacob.
Berzelius, Jons Jacob. "Suite des experiences sur les proportions déterminées, d'après lesquelles les élémens de la nature inorganique s'unissent" in "Annales de Chimie, ou Recuil de Memoires Concernant la Chimie et les Arts qui en Depenedent". Paris, 1811, Klostermann fils, volume 80, with the Berzelius published in two parts in this volume on pp 5-37, 171-187 in the full volume of 336pp. Newly bound in half-calf on marbled boards, with nicely decorated spine. Lovely work. Crisp clean text. FINE copy. [++] "Not only did Berzelius have to design his apparatus, but he also had to work out new analytical methods, and in the planning of such methods he showed his chemical genius. He spent much time in the preliminary work for each analysis, so that when he performed the analysis itself he was sure of his results and seldom felt the need to repeat the work. He set himself the task to find the definite and simple proportions in which the constituents of inorganic nature are bound together. In general he based his work on oxygen compounds. His conviction of the importance of oxides had begun with his studies of Lavoisiers work and had been strengthened by his electrochemical experiments. He determined the ratio of metal to oxygen in a number of metallic oxides by reducing the oxide to the metal with hydrogen, or sometimes by converting the metal to its oxide. Similarly he determined the oxygen to sulfur ratio in sulfur dioxide and trioxide. From these results she went on to analyses of sulfates and other salts. He reported his analyses in terms of the positive and negative components; for example, for calcium sulfate as CaO and SO3. This method of reporting analytical results was long continued by analytical chemists. To his great delight all his analyses fitted into his original assumption of the validity of the law of constant proportions. His results permitted him to determine the atomic weights of the elements he studied, although at first he had no way of determining whether a given value or some multiple of it represented the true atomic weight."--Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, (Berzelius).
HEISENBERG, Werner. ALSO bound with papers by Max Born, Pascual Jordan, Guido Beck, and others.
HEISENBERG, W. "Ueber Quantentheorische Umdeutung Kinemtischer und Mechanischer Beziehungen", in "Zeitschrift für Physik,"July 25, 1925, volume 33, pp. 879-893. Offered in the entire volume of 950pp. First edition of Heisenberg's groundbreaking paper announcing the invention of quantum mechanics. [++] Also bound with: Max Born and Pascal Jordan: "Zur Quantentheorie aperiodischer Vorgänge", pp. 479-508. AND Pascual Jordan, "Zur Quantentheorie aperiodische Vorgange II pp 506-508. ALSO OF NOTE: Guido Beck, Zur theorie binarer Gravitationsfelder" pp 713-728 (Beck Vacua).[++] Newly bound in a very attractive and very sturdy black cloth. There are four small rubber stamps on the bottom of the title page, which is really the only detraction to this volume. FINE condition--crisp and strong. [++]"In 1925 Werner Heisenberg published his famous Umdeutung paper [the paper offered here] introducing matrix mechanics. This would be the beginning of modern quantum mechanics, which replaced the old quantum theory. In a supplement to "Nature" published in December of 1925, Bohr describes what he takes to be the relationship of the new quantum mechanics to his correspondence principle. He begins with a statement of the correspondence principle." "The demonstration of the asymptotic agreement between spectrum and motion gave rise to the formulation of the correspondence principle, according to which the possibility of every transition process connected with emission of radiation is conditioned by the presence of a corresponding harmonic component in the motion of the atom. Not only do the frequencies of the corresponding harmonic components agree asymptotically with the values obtained from the frequency condition in the limit where the energies of the stationary states converge, but also the amplitudes of the mechanical oscillatory components give in this limit an asymptotic measure for the probabilities of the transition processes on which the intensities of the observable spectral lines depend. (Bohr 1925, pp. 848-849; pp. 276 277)"--Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "Correspondence Principle". [++] Printing and the Mind of Man 417b.(Heisenberg).
PRIESTLY, Joseph. **Nevil Sidgwick's copy**
PRIESTLY, Joseph. Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air. London, printed for J. Johnson, 1775, volume 1, second edition. Xxiii, 323, two engraved plates. Volume one (of three) only is offered here, in the second edition, appearing one year after the publi-cation of the first edition, and in the same year as volume two, and preceding the 1777 printing of volume three. [++] This is a VERY skillful and excellent total rebins of this volume I had to look very closely at this to determine if this is a modern binding made to look like an orig-inal binding in excellent condition. Neverthess, it is a wonderfully rebound book. There is some modest foxing on the title page, as well as an older owner's name struck through in pen, also on the title. FINE condition. [++] A tiny and very fine "N.V. Sidgwick/Lincoln/Nov. 1902" ink inscription resides at the top right corner of the free endpapers. I do believe that this is Nevil Vincent Sidgwick, (1873-1952, Dsc 1901, Oxford) English theoretical chemist who made significant contributions to the theory of valency and chemical bonding. That "Lincoln" would refer to "Lincoln College, Oxford, where Sidgwick became a fellow in 1901 and where he remained for life. [++] "Priestley's first volume of Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air outlined several important discoveries: experiments that would eventual-ly lead to the discovery of photosynthesis and the discovery of several airs: "nitrous air" (nitric oxide, NO), "vapor of spirit of salt" (later called "acid air" or "marine acid air"; anhydrous hydrochloric acid, HCl), "alkaline air" (ammonia, NH3), "diminished" or "dephlogisticated nitrous air" (nitrous oxide, N2O), and "dephlogisticated air" (oxygen, O2). Priestley also developed the "nitrous air test", which tested for the "goodness of air": using a "pneumatic trough", he would mix nitrous air with a test sample, over water or mercury, and measure the de-crease in volume the principle of eudiometry. After a small history of the study of airs, he explained his own experiments in an open and sincere style: "whatever he knows or thinks he tells: doubts, perplexities, blunders are set down with the most refreshing candour." He also invented and described cheap and easy-to-assemble experimental apparatus. His colleagues therefore believed that they could easily repro-duce Priestley's experiments to verify them or to answer the questions that had puzzled him."--Wikipedia on Priestly
MENDELEEV, Dmitri Ivanovich. **Mendeleev's first Attempt at a system of elements, 1869**
MENDELEEV, Dmitri Ivanovich. "Versuch eines Systems der Elemente nach ihren Atomgewichten und chemischen Functionen" (An experiment on a system of elements based on their atomic weights and chemical similarities) in "Journal fur Praktische Chemie", Leipzig, Barth, 1868-1869, volume 105 and 106 bound together; xi,520;xi,508pp (1 plate). Newly rebound in leather-backed marbled boards, with new endpapers. The work is very stout and sturdy, and the binder has also done an excellent job in "antiquing" the volume so that it doesn't look perfectly new, though it certainly is. There are a few ownership stamps on the title page. Lovely copy. [++] "Mendeleev, first of all, is the undisputed champion of the periodic system.although he was not the first to develop a periodic system, his version is the one that created the biggest impact.his name is invariably and justifiably connected with the periodic system.as Darwin's name is synonymous with the theory of evolution and Einstein's with the theory of relativity."--Eric Scerri, The Periodic Table, its Story and Significance, Oxford 2007, p 101. [++] "Mendeleev's mature periodic system first appeared in print in 1869 in the Russian [in the "Zhurnal Russkogo Khimicheskogo Obshchestva" 1, no. 2-3 (1869), 35, 60-77] chemical literature, and a German abstract [the paper offered here] of the article appeared in the same year."--Eric Scerri, pg. 144. [++] This paper the first in a trio of papers that appeared in 1869--is almost not even an abstract, sharing about half the page with two other papers, though it does show the monumental thing, which are 66 elements arranged in columns by increasing atomic weight, and "noting recurring chemical properties across them".--Wikipedia (History of the Periodic Table). [++] Take notice of what would become famous predictions of Mendeleev for the expected atomic weights of yet-unknown elements, identified as question marks ("?=68 and "?=70") which would be gallium and germanium, to name two. (There are btw some slight differences between the Russian 1869 table and the German abstract of that paper later that same year. ALSO, the first English language translation of the Mendeleev tables appeared in "Science News" in 1871".
HEISENBERG, Werner and Hans Heinrich Euler
HEISENBERG, Werner and H. Euler, "Folerungen aus der Diracsche Theories des Positrons" ( Consequences of Dirac s Theory of Positrons ) in "Zeitschrift fur Physik", Berlin, Julius Springer, 1936, volume 98, pp 714-732, offered in the full volume ("1935-1936") of viii,794pp. Newly rebound in a rich black cloth. If it were not for the fthree rubber stamps on the title page this would be a gorgeous example that said, this is at least a FINE textblock and a NEW binding. [++] In this paper Heisenberg and Euler generalize Dirac's equation, describing the motion of an electron in a constant EM field, extending quantum field theory beyond electromagnetism. [++] "The seminal work of Heisenberg and Euler [the paper offered here], and Weisskopf produced the paradigm for the entire field of effective Lagrangians by computing the nonperturbative, renormalized, one-loop effective action for quantum electrodynamics (QED) in a classical electromagnetic background of constant field strength. This special soluble case of a constant field strength leads immediately to several important insights and applications."--Heisenberg-Euler Effective Lagrangians: Basics and Extensions, in Ian Kogan Memorial Volume, From Fields to Strings : Circumnavigating Theoretical Physics, M. Shifman, A. Vainshtein and J. Wheater, Eds., (World Scientific). [++] "In physics, the EulerHeisenberg Lagrangian describes the non-linear dynamics of electromagnetic fields in vacuum. It was first obtained by Werner Heisenberg and Hans Heinrich Euler [the paper offered here] in 1936. By treating the vacuum as a medium, it predicts rates of quantum electrodynamics (QED) light interaction processes."--Wikipedia. [++] See also: Early Quantum Electrodynamics: A Source Book, A. I. Miller, (Cambridge University Press, 1994).
ASTON, Frederick.
ASTON, Frederick. "A Positive Ray Spectrograph" in the "London, Edinburgh and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science", 1919, vol 38, sixth series, July-December 1919, pp 707-714 in the full bound volume of 752pp (with 9 plates), complete. Bound in a good, workable cloth binding with reinforced hinges. The spine lettering is about a third faded, and there's a bit of wear to the corners; there is also a perforated owner stamp on the title page. Not unhandsome, and still very sturdy and square. A solid, GOOD copy. [++] Aston was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1922 partially for this work: ".for his discovery, by means of his mass spectrograph, of isotopes, in a large number of non-radioactive elements, and for his enunciation of the whole-number rule."--Nobel Prize Committee. [++] "After it became clear that elements could have different isotopes, i.e., occur in different variants with different atomic weights, Francis Aston developed the mass spectrograph in 1919 to map the different isotopes. In the mass spectrograph, beams of atoms were generated in a tube with the aid of an electrical field. When the beams passed through an electrical and magnetic field, the lighter isotopes were bent more than the heavier ones. Aston came to the conclusion that the weight of the isotopes was very close to whole-number multiples of a unit."--[Ibid.]
BOHR, Niels.
BOHR, Niels. "On the Quantum Theory of Radiation and the Structure of the Atom" AND "On the Decrease of velocity of Swiftly Moving Electrified Particles passing through Matter" two papers in the "Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science," published by Taylor and Francis, London, 1915, 6th series, vol 30, pp. 394-415 and pp 581-612, in the full volume of vii,824pp. Bound in cloth, with reinforced hinges. Ex-library copy. No markings on spine but stamps on the page edges, plus a bookplate, and perforated stamp on title page and front free endpapers. Not pretty, but sturdy, and strong. A GOOD copy (with a little bit of charity). The first paper by Bohr is a very significant effort offering experimental evidence for the Bohr atom. [++] Also included in this volume are two papers by Rutherford et al and three papers by JJ Thomson: RUTHERFORD, E., J. BARNES and H. RICHARDSON, Maximum Frequency of the X Rays from a Coolidge Tube for Different Voltages, pp. 339-360; RUTHERFORRD, E. and J. BARNES, Efficiency of Production of X Rays from a Coolidge Tube, pp. 361-367. THOMSON, J.J., Conduction of Electricity through Metals, pp. 192-202; THOMSON, J.J., The Mobility of Negative Ions at Low Pressures. pp. 321-328; THOMSON, J.J., A Method of Finding the Coefficients of Absorption of the Different Constituents of a Beam of Heterogeneous Röntgen Rays, or the Periods and Coefficients of Damping of a Vibrating Dynamical System, pp. 780-783. Plus other papers by Bragg and Soddy, among others.
FRITTS, Charles. **First Operational Solar Cell!**
FRITTS, Charles. "A New Form of Selenium Cell" in American Journal of Science, 1883, Dana, New Haven, volume 23, pp 465-472 in the full volume of vii, 496, 3 folding plates. Newly rebound in calf-backed marbled boards, with new endpapers. Very pretty copy, with five small rubber stamps on the title page, including a 19th century stamp from the library at Carl Zeiss (Jena!). Lovely binding. FINE copy. "In 1875, English professor William Grylls Adams (1836 - 1915) and Richard Evans Day discovered that illuminating a junction between selenium and platinum produced a continuing flow of electricity, providing the first demonstration [1877] that an electric current could be produced by light.In 1883, using this discovery, American inventor Charles Fritts (1850-1903) demonstrated the first operational solar cell made from selenium deposited on a thin layer of gold. He published a brief summary of a presentation on his invention in A New Form of Selenium Cell (in American Journal of Science 26 pp. 465-472, 1883) [the paper offered here].Fritts demonstrated the feasibility but not the practicality of producing selenium solar cells, as their efficiency was less than 1%."--David Wenner, "The History of Physics Collection", p 607.
