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Book Category: Chemistry

Breakthrough Papers in Color Photography (1891-1906), Gabriel Lippmann (Nobel for this work in 1908)
LIPPMANN, Gabriel. A suite of papers on breakthrough research establishing color photograpy, 1891-1906, all published in the Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l’Académie des Sciences.

Lippmann was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for this accomplishment (“”for his method of reproducing colours photographically based on the phenomenon of interference”) in 1908 (the only Nobel awarded for work in photography).
- (1) “La photographie des couleurs” in Comptes Rendus , Vol. 112, No. 5, February 2, 1891, pp. 274-275;
- (2)”Sur la photographie des couleurs [deuxième note]” in CR Vol. 114, No. 17, April 25, 1892, pp. 961-962;
- (3) “Photographies colorées du spectre sur albumine et sur gélatine bichromatées” in CR Vol. 115, No. 17 October 24, 1892, p. 575;
- (4) “Sur la theorie de la photographie des couleurs simples et composees par la methode interferentielle” in CR Vol. 118, No. 3, January 15, 1894, pp. 92-102
- (5)“De divers principes sur lesquels on peut fonder la photographie direct des couleurs…” in CR Vol 130, 1900, pp 278 (this being a very brief one-paragraph note);
- (6) “Remarques generales sur la photographie interferentielles des coulleurs”, in CR Vol 143, No. 5, July 30 1906, pp 273-4.
Of the 80+ papers Lippmann published in the CR for the 1885-1910 period this is the extent of his publications there on color photography, save for one short note that appears in volume 140–unfortunately that one is the very next article in the issue bearing the famous Poincare “relativity” paper of 1905.

All six are offered in their complete weekly issues, all extracted from larger bound volumes of the CR. The issues from volumes 112, 115, and 143 are offered with their original wrappers. GOOD copies. $950

“Gabriel Lippmann, professor of mathematical physics at the Sorbonne invented, demonstrated and mathematically formulated the process of interference colour photography, also known as interferential photography, or Lippmann photography, in the years 1891-1894…Few photographers today are familiar with the name Gabriel Lippmann (1845-1921), even fewer have seen a Lippmann colour photograph. Lippmann was awarded the 1908 Nobel Prize in Physics for his invention of Interference Photography, an early colour technique exploiting the phenomenon of optical standing waves. Lippmann’s prize represents the only time this prestigious award has been given for a photographic invention “–”Lippmann Colour Photography”, Dr. Hans I. Bjelkhagen, alternativephotography.com

“In 1891, Professor Gabriel Lippmann demonstrated to the French Académie des Sciences interference colour photographs of the spectrum and of stained glass windows, taken by a modification of Wiener’s method. An exceedingly fine grained, virtually transparent emulsion of silver bromide in an albumen coating on a glass plate was exposed in contact with a film of mercury, with the glass plate towards the lens. The mercury, in optical contact with the emulsion, reflected light which had passed through the emulsion back on itself, producing the standing waves and layered exposure predicted by Zenker. The developed plate appeared to be a conventional negative by transmitted light, but when viewed at a suitable angle, by reflected light the image appeared as a brilliantly coloured positive.”–(Coe, Brian (1978): Colour Photography – The first hundred years 1840-1940.

“One of our most distinguished physicists, M. Gabriel Lippmann, Member of the Institute and Professor in the Faculty of Sciences, has accomplished a memorable experiment in photographing the solar spectrum. At the meeting of the Academy of Sciences M. Lippmann presented to his, colleagues several photographs, of the solar spectrum, with the colors fixed upon the sensitized plate with their exact sheadings and brilliancy… The way so brilliantly opened by M. Lippmann must lead to important work, and the first results of the discoverer, which we are happy to be able to present here, assure a brilliant future to the art of photography in color. “- Photography in Colors. In: The American Journal of Photography, 12, pp. 180-183, translated from La Nature, February 14, 1891, which appeared 12 days after the CR printing.

Earlier work in this area was carried out by Seebeck (1810), Herschel (1839), Ed. Becquerel (1848) and others though “…the process was never of practical value”…”In 1891 G. Lippmann of Paris succeeded in carrying through these suggestions with an albumen emulsion of exceedingly fine grains.”– Evans, Ralph Merrill; Hanson, W.T., Jr.; Brewer, W. Lyle (1953): Principles of Color Photography. New York: Wiley, pp. 275-278.
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On Weather and Vegetation 1897

John CLAYTON. Effects of the Weather upon Vegetation A Lecture given by…to the Bradford Naturalists Society March 1st 1897. Byles & Sons Bradford 18978×5″, with a photograph. In the original wrappers. Provenance: from the Library of Congress Pamphlet Collection, with their deacquisition rubber stamp on the inside cover, and a 6mm “LC” perforated stamp on the title page. Otherwise a very nice copy. $120

“THIS is one of the most instructive and original lectures that we have seen for a long time Mr Clayton is evidently a keen painstaking and very original investigator and instead of the lecture being a series of platitudes and quotations as is generally the case it is almost wholly the result of investigations carried out with great care and patience during many years As is it published at a nominal price we merely specify a few of the points treated such as the relation of tree girth to amount of foliage relative growth of plants in sun and in shade followed by considerations as to the sunshine recorded in different parts of England and its influence on crops percolation gauges why trees split in times of frost and the relation between the elongation of twigs and their increase in girth When a well printed pamphlet gives information almost wholly original on all these points for sixpence we need not advise our botanical and agricultural readers what course to pursue…”–a review of the pamphlet in Meteorological Magazine, volume 32, pg 56, 1897.

“BOOK NOTICE We have hitherto omitted to notice an admirable paper by Mr JoHN CLAYTON entitled Effects of the Weather upon Vegetation being a lecture delivered to the Bradford Naturalists Society on the 1st of March 1897 it was printed in Bradford and is sixpence We presume it is obtainable of the author or of the printers Wm Byles and Sons Mr Clayton is one of our most thoughtful botanists and anything that he writes is well worth reading the present paper being no exception A collotype photograph of a thorn hedge forms a frontispiece Experiments with bean plants in shade and in sunshine made in 1891 and 1892 are discussed and the results stated and the effects of sunshine shade shower are investigated.”–The Naturalist, London, 1898.

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The First Record of the Electrical Activity of the Spontaneously Beating Heart (1876)
Marey Etienne J. 3 foundation papers in the history of cardiology and the electrocardiogram, all from the same volume of the Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Seances de l’Acadamie des sciences volume 82, 1876. All offered in their original weekly issues, removed from the larger bound volume. Nice, crisp copies. The 3 issues: $400

These issue include:

(1) “Des Mouvements que produit le couer lorsqu’il est soumis a des excitations artificielles” in Comptes Rendus… vol 82 no. 7 pp 408-411 in the issue of pp 397-428.

=> In this same issue is bound: Dmitri Mendeleeff, “Des ecarts dans les lois relatives aux gaz”, same issue, pp 412-415. This is one of the first papers written by Mendeleeff in the area of aerodynamics.

It is fun to note that Marey and Mendeleeff are found on the same page of the index and just happen to appear one after the other in the 1550pp volume!

On Marey:
- “Marey (a superb instrumentalist and experimenter and physician who will in a few years make pioneering breakthroughs in the study of locomotion and become a founder of cinematography) was the first to record the electrical activity of the spontaneously beating (tortoise) heart”, a premier breakthrough in the long line of the history of this graphical presentation, leading to Willem Einthoven (1860 – 1927) who invented and published on the first practical electrocardiogram in 1902, and who began transmitting electrocardiograms from hospital to his laboratory in 1905, for which he received the Nobel Prize.
- “Marey uses the electrometer to record the electrical activity of an exposed [frog’s] heart.”–“A (not so) brief history of electrocardiography”
- “Discovery of the waveform of the cardiac signal is due to Marey in France in 1876. With the assistance of Lippmann, a physicist, Marey was the first to record the electrical activity of the spontaneously beating tortoise heart, for which they devised the capillary electrometer that consisted of a mercury–sulfuric acid interface in a capillary tube. A current traversing this interface altered the charge distribution and, therefore, the contour of the meniscus. Continuous photography of the change in the meniscus provided an analog record of the cardiac voltage.”–in Cardiovascular Engineering: An International Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2, June 2002, “The First Electronic Electrocardiograph”, by Geddes and Roeder.
AND WITH:

(2) “Des variations electriques des muscles et du couer en particulier etudies au moyen de l’electrometre de M Lippman”, in Comptes Rendus, 1876, volume 82, pp 975-977. The full weekly issue extracted from a larger bound volume. The Lippmann reference in the title is to the French physicist Gabriel Lippmann who in 1872 invented a capillary electrometer which Marey employed. “It is a thin glass tube with a column of mercury beneath sulphuric acid. The mercury meniscus moves with varying electrical potential and is observed through a microscope.”

AND WITH:

(3) “Le Couer eprouve, a chaque phase de sea revolution, des changements de temperature qui modifient son excitabilite”, Comptes Rendus, vol 82, pp 499-501, with EKG illustration. 28 February 1876, vol 82 no. 9, in the issue of pp 469-528.
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JF Ptak

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Review of the First English Edition of a Great Classic in Chemistry (1891)

(Mendeleleeff) “Mendeleeff’s Principles of Chemistry. The Principles of Chemistry…Translated from Russian (fifth edition) by George Kamensky, edited by A.J. Greenaway…” by “T.E.T”. This is a book review of the English version of this great classic, appearing in Nature, volume 45, April 7, 1892, pp 529-30 in the issue of pp 529-552. Original wrappers, removed from a larger bound volume. Very Good copy. $75

From the opening paragraph: “All English-speaking chemists will cordially welcome the appearance of this book, if for no other reason than because its author in its preparation was led to the recognition of that fundamental principle of chemistry with which his name will always be associated—the principle which is embodied in what is now known as the periodic law. This fact alone would serve to stamp the book as one of the classics of chemical science. But, even apart from this circumstance, the work has very remarkable, and, indeed, exceptional, merits. Probably no scientific treatise ever more strikingly reflected the personality of its author. We have absolutely nothing like it in our language. In grasp of principles, in philosophic breadth, in copiousness of detail, in richness of speculation and suggestion, it is altogether unique among chemical manuals.”

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JF Ptak

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Foundation Stone of Electrochemistry (1808)

Foundation Stone of Electrochemistry

DAVY, Humphrey. “Ueber die chemischen Wirkungen der Electricitat” AND “Ueber die chemischen Wirkungen der Electricitat…Zeite Halfte”. Both in Annalen der Physik, volume 28, 1808, parts I and II, appearing on pp 1-43 (part 1) and (161)-202 (part II).

Both are offered in the full volume of (vi), 496pp, in four sections, each section with the original wrappers bound in.

These are the first appearances in German of Davy’s major paper that appeared in November 1806 and December 1807 as the Bakerian Lectures before the Royal Society. Bound in cloth-backed boards.

Provenance: Deutsche Akademie der Luftfahtforschung; then the USAAF library at Wright Patterson, and finally to the Library of Congress. Stamped “Wright Field Library, Dayton, Ohio” on the top and bottom of the textblock. Very nice, fresh copy. $950

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JF Ptak

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Molecular Architecture and Medical Progress, 1946

PAULING, Linus. “Molecular Architecture and Medical Progress, a Radio Talk by Dr. Linus Pauling”, published by the United States Rubber Company, 1946, 9×6″ pamphlet, 1 sheet folded making 3pp of text.

This is formerly one of the U.S. Copyright Deposit copy, with their small stamps at the bottom of the inside front cover, via the Library of Congress. Fine copy. $75 See full text at Linus Pauling/Day-by-day, October 18, 1946.

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JF Ptak

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Bunsen and Kirchhoff, 1860
Bunsen, Robert & Gutav Kirchhoff. “Chemische Analyse durch Spectralbeobachtungen”, in Annalen der Physik volume 110, no. 6, pp 161-189 (1860) First edition. The discovery of cesium by Bunsen via spectroscopic analysis led to Kirchhoff’s “black-body” radiation (and otherwise at this time known as black radiation) discovery. Very nice copy. The entire volume of 660pp (with 8 engraved plates) is offered: $500
- Condition: Ex-libris Deutsche Akademie der Luftfahrtforschung, then Wright Patterson Field Library (USAF), then Library of Congress. Library markings: small gilt-stamped “Akademie der Luftfahrtforschung”, page edges stamped “Wright Field Library/Dayton, Ohio” on top and bottom. Contents quite nice
“Bunsen was exploring the possibility of analyzing salts on the basis of the distinctive colors they gave to flames containing them; he had tried with some success to use colored pieces of glass or solutions to distinguish similarly colored flames. Kirchhoff pointed out that a much finer and surer distinction could be obtained from the characteristic spectra of such colored flames; unknown to him, the approach had been tried before, if only in a dilettantish way. By rigorous experimentation, however, Bunsen and Kirchhoff soon put the method on a firm basis. The burner invented by Bunsen gave a flame of very high temperature and low luminosity, which emitted line spectra of great sharpness The power and importance of spectral analysis became immediately apparent: its very first systematic application to alkali compounds led Bunsen to the discovery of two new alkaline elements, cesium and rubidium.” [Dictionary of Scientific Biography (online), Vol. VII]
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JF Ptak

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