JF Ptak Science Books Archives - Rare Book Insider

JF Ptak Science Books

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Symmetries of Baryons and Mesons” in the Physical Review.

GELL-MANN, Murray. **Nobel Prize effort 1969** GELL-MANN, Murray. "Symmetries of Baryons and Mesons" in the Physical Review. American Institute of Physics; "The Physical Review", vol. 125, Number 3, 1 February 1962, pp. with the Gell-Mann on pp1067-1084 in the issue of pp1003-1130. [++] Name of previous owner in ink at front wrapper top; little bumps here and there at spine ends and front left corner. Very solid, VERY GOOD copy. The issue is housed in a custom, newly-made clamshell box, bound entirely in calf over boards (including the three interior folding flaps)--a lovely job. [++] First appearance of Gell-Mann's Nobel Prize (1969) effort of his "Eightfold Way". "Among [Gell-Mann's] contributions to physics was the eightfold way scheme that brought order out of the chaos created by the discovery of some 100 kinds of particles in collisions involving atomic nuclei. Gell-Mann subsequently found that all of those particles, including the neutron and proton, are composed of fundamental building blocks that he named quarks, with very unusual properties. That idea has since been fully confirmed by experiment. The quarks are permanently confined by forces coming from the exchange of gluons. He and others later constructed the quantum field theory of quarks and gluons, called quantum chromodynamics, which seems to account for all the nuclear particles and their strong interactions."--Nobel Prize Organization [++] Gell-Mann was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1969 "for his contributions and discoveries concerning the classification of elementary particles and their interactions". See the excellent Ezhela, "Particle Physics, One Hundred Years of Discoveries, an Annotated Chronological Bibliography," pp 186-187. [++] "Eightfold Way" from "Britannica": ".[is a] classification of subatomic particles known as hadrons into groups on the basis of their symmetrical properties, the number of members of each group being 1, 8 (most frequently), 10, or 27. The system was proposed in 1961 by the American physicist Murray Gell-Mann and the Israeli physicist Yuval Neʾeman. It is based on the mathematical symmetry group SU(3); however, the name of the system was suggested by analogy with the Eightfold Path of Buddhism because of the centrality of the number eight. One of the early triumphs of the Eightfold Way was the prediction of the existence of a heavy subatomic particle required to complete one of the groups. The particle, called omega-minus, was discovered in 1964. That same year, Gell-Mann set forth the concept of quarks as the physical basis for the classification system, thereby establishing the foundation for the modern quark model of hadrons."--Britannica
  • $1,200
  • $1,200
book (2)

Traite Physique et Historique de l’Aurore Borelae.

Mairan, Jean-Jacques D'Ortous (1678-1771). Mairan, Jean-Jacques D'Ortous (1678-1771). Traite Physique et Historique de l'Aurore Borelae. This work is offered as the entire volume of "Histoire de l'Academie Royale des Sciences Annee MDCCXXXI" published in Amsterdam by Pierre Mortier, 1735. (viii), 392pp, 168x100mm (6.75x 4"). 17 folding plates and one small folding table. Very nicely bound in full leather, with decorated six decorated spine panels. Very Good condition. Plates 6-8 and 10-12 and gorgeous representations of the aurorae, depicting it as best as possible as it would appear in nature. The small table (opposite p 278) is a chart of the aurorae borealis from 500 to 1731, listing the appearances by month (and then totaled), recording 229 occurrences. (Evidently in the 1754 edition this number is much increased upon further research to 1441 (through 1751).) [++] Mairan contributed a much shorter paper to the Academy (for 1726 and appearing in 1731) "Description de l'Aurore Boreale du 26 Septembre, et de celle du 19 Octobre, observees au Chateau de Breuillepont" running pp 283-308 in that volume (and illustrated with two lovely engraved folding plates). Conversely, there was also a much-expanded version that appeared in 1754, weighing in 584pp in quarto. To complicate this bibliographic foray a little further there was also a Paris 1733 edition of the same title as the one offered here, though in quarto, with 281pp and 15 plates. [++] "Mairan's "Physical and Historical Treatise on the Aurora Borealis" (1733) contains the first application of geophysical data to an astronomical problem."--Encyclopedia online. [++] "The aurora borealis is a spectacular phenomenon that have been recorded from the Assyrians and Babylonians.till nowadays. However, it is not until 1733 when Mairan (1733) suggested that the aurora could be caused by the solar atmosphere."--Chiara Bertolin et al. "An Early Mid-Latitude Aurora Observed by Rozier (Beausejour, 1780) [++] "Jean-Jacques Dortous de Mairan should be remembered principally for three things: his work on ice and on the aurora borealis; his lifelong obsession with Newton, despite his not undeserved reputation as a Cartesian; and lastly, his enormous influence on the development and spread of scientific culture in the eighteenth century because of his voluminous correspondence and his prominent position as secretary of the Academy of Sciences, the power center of the scientific establishment."--Complete DSB online. "Because of the fears generated by popular observations of northern lights in France in 1716, Mairan was commissioned by the Royal Academy of Sciences to give a rational explanation of the phenomenon. Unlike Edmond Halley, Mairan ascribed a major role to the Sun in the appearance of the aurora, and denied an electric or magnetic origin. During the 19th century, the cosmic theory of Mairan was discredited, for instance by François Arago and Alexander von Humboldt, who defended the atmospheric origin imagined by Halley. Finally, at the end of the 19th century, when aurora studies benefited from the recent discoveries of new radiations such as cathode rays, Mairan appeared as an important precursor of the new explanation of northern lights and the emergence of geophysics. We defend the idea that it was less the content of his theory than the historicity he gave to the aurora that enabled Mairan to construct this phenomenon as a scientific object, and thus remove it from the realm of marvels."--Stéphane Le Gars, "Dortous de Mairan and the Theory of Aurora Borealis: The Trajectory and Circulation of an Idea from 1733 to 1933" in Revue d histoire des sciences, volume 68, Issue 2, 2015, pages 311 to 333.
  • $750
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Isle of Tears. **Tale of German-American Impoundment in the USA in 1942**

Fred Karl Scheibe. Isle of Tears. Self-published? (Corona, Long Island?) "Printed in the USA", November 1942. 9" x 6.25", 13pp. Original wrappers. Provenance: Library of Congress. Includes a mimeo copy of the original card catalog card, which is very cool. Nice copy: LC surplus stamp on cover, and a 10mm perforated LC stamp on the title page. [++]WorldCat locates only SIX copies of this work (five copies in the U.S.). [++] I now very little of Mr Leibe outside the finding that he was German-born, and has what looks like 10 other printed/published works located in WorldCat. [++] This short story is an unusual one, telling the tale of German-American citizens being impounded during WWII. This story is mostly the interaction between a German-American family with two FBI agents relating to loyalty to the USA and whether there was a fealty to Germany. The second part of the pamphlet settles into an impoundment ("German American characters referred to as "internees") center on Ellis Island in the NYC harbor. I do not recall coming across a wartime story of internment sympathetic to the German Americans. I mean, I'm no expert, just some guy wit a lot of exposure to this sort of material and reporting years of experience. (For the record something on the order of 30,000 German-American were impounded during WWII; something like 10,000 Italian-Americans and 120,000 Japanese-Americans were also impounded during the war.) [++] "By the time of WWII, the United States had a large population of ethnic Germans. Among residents of the United States in 1940, more than 1.2 million persons had been born in Germany, 5 million had two native-German parents, and 6 million had one native-German parent. Many more had distant German ancestry. During WWII, the United States detained at least 11,000 ethnic Germans, overwhelmingly German nationals between the years 1940 and 1948 in two designated camps at Fort Douglas, Utah, and Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. The government examined the cases of German nationals individually, and detained relatively few in internment camps run by the Department of Justice, as related to its responsibilities under the Alien Enemies Act."--Wikipedia
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Mémoire sur les Combinaisons du Phosphore, et particulièrement sur celles de ce corps avec l’hydrogène” in “Annales de Chimie et de Physique.”

Dumas, Jean Baptiste André. "Mémoire sur les Combinaisons du Phosphore, et particulièrement sur celles de ce corps avec l'hydrogène" in "Annales de Chimie et de Physique, Par MM. Gay-Lussac et Arago," Paris, Crochard, 1826 (February), volume 31, 113-223, folding plate, with the Dumas on pp113-153. Original wrappers. Nice copy. VG condition. 135.00 [++] "Dumas was one of the leading chemists in France in the mid-19th century.  He is best known for the “Dumas method” of determining atomic and molecular weights and for determining the atomic weights of thirty chemical elements.  Eventually his method was superseded by other techniques, including mass spectroscopy. Dumas is also known for the “Dumas method” of determining the amount of nitrogen in chemical substances. This method is still widely used, especially to determine the protein content of foods, because it is relatively fast and easy to use and fully automatable."--Society of Catholic Scientists. [++]"Jean Baptiste André Dumas (1800-1884) was a French chemist, best known for his works on organic analysis and synthesis, as well as the determination of atomic weights and molecular weights by measuring vapor densities. He also developed a method for the analysis of nitrogen in compounds."-_Wikipedia "In 1826 he devised a method of measuring vapour density. He went on to discover various organic compounds, including anthracene (1832), urethane (1833), and methanol (1834), which led him in 1840 to propose the theory of types (functional groups)."--ibid. Additionally "He was a masterful teacher, serving as mentor to many important French chemists, including Auguste Laurent, Charles-Adolphe Wurtz, and Louis Pasteur"--Britannica See: Jane Woodward, "Jean Baptiste André Dumas" Journal of Chemical Education 1951 28 (12), 630.