John William Nicholson / mathematical and astronomical papers, 1905-1916.  38 offprints, all in original wrappers.  [Sold]

The following from the Oxford University site, Mathematics at Balliol College, Modern:

"John Nicholson was Mathematics Tutor at Balliol from 1919-1931. Around 1912 Nicholson had been the first to realise that in quantum theory the angular momentum of particles must be quantised, and that this fact should make it possible to explain the spectra of atoms. Unfortunately, Rutherford's work on the structure of atoms was not yet complete, so Nicholson was forced to work with an incorrect model of the atom, and his results were correspondingly modest. When in the following year Bohr coupled Nicholson's idea of quantised angular momentum with Rutherford's planetary model of the atom everything fitted perfectly and provided the first theoretical understanding of Balmer's empirical spectral formulae. Nicholson felt that he never received the proper recognition for his contribution and increasingly consoled himself with the contents of the College cellar. By 1930 he was no longer capable of carrying out his tutorial duties, and he spent the last twenty-five years of his life, practically forgotten, in the Warneford Hospital."

He was also "Isaac Newton Student and Scholar of Trinity College" in 1907 at least, and recipient of the Adams Prize in 1919.  Interestingly he married Dorothy Maud Wrinch (1894-1976) in 1922--she was the fist female DSc of Oxford, had studied under Russell (and produced in some way the publication of the Tractatus, was an assistant to Jeffries and had in some ways made significant contributions to mathematics and biology. 

Nicholson's Papers:

• On Electrical Vibrations between Confocal Elliptic Cylinders... Philosophical Magazine, August 1905.
• The Symmetrical Vibrations of ethe Conducting Surfaces of Revolution,  PM, May 1906.
• A General Solution of the ElectromagneticRelations.  Philosophical Magazine, February 1907.
• A Type of Asymptotic Summation.  Messenger of Mathematics, 1907.
• The Asymptotic Expansion of Bessel Functions of High Order. PM, December 1907.
• The Scattering of Sound by Spheroids and Disks. PM, 1907.
• On Bessel Functions of Equal Argument and Order. Philosophical Magazine, August 1908.
• On the Relation of Airy's Integral to the Bessel Functions.  PM, July 1909
• Inductance and Resistance in Telephone and other Circuits. PM, September 1909. 
• The Accelerated Motion of an Electrified Sphere. Philosophical Magazine, 1910.
• The Asymptotic Expansion of Bessel Functions. PM, February, 1910.
• The Pressure of Radiation on Reflecting Spherical Particles. MNRAS, May 1910.
• Ont eh Size of the Tail-PArticles of Comets, and their Scattering Effect on Sunlgiht.  PM, April 1910.
• The Accelerated Motion of a Dielectric Sphere. PM, November 1910.
• The Approximate Calculation of Bessel Functions of Imaginary Argument. PM, December, 1910.
• On Bending of Electric Waves ROund a LArge Sphere. PM, APril 1910-Nov 1912.
• Note on the Optical Properties of Fused Metals. PM, August 1911.
• The  products of Bessel Functions.  Quarterly Journal of Pure and Applied Math, 1911.
• On the Number of Electrons concerned in Metallic Conduction.  PM, August, 1911.
• Notes on Bessel Functions.   Quarterly Journal of Pure and Applied Math, 1911
• A Type of Asymptotic Expansion of Legendre Functions.    Quarterly Journal of Pure and Applied Math,1911
• The Constitution of the Solar Corona, MNRAS Dec 1911 and Part II, June 1912 and Part III,Sept 1912
• A Possible Extension of the Spectrum of Hydrogen, MNRAS, May 1913.
• The Spectra if Wolf-Rayet Stars. MNRAS, December 1913. 
• The Physical Interpretation of the Spectrum of the Corona. The Observatory, February 1913.
• On the Nebular Line A3729.   Montly Notices RAS, May 1914
• Hydrogen and the Primary Constituents of Nebulae.  MNRAS, June 1914.
• High Frequnecy Spectra of teh Elements...PM, 1914.
• The Spectra of Hydrogen and Helium.  MNRAS, 1914. 
• The Nature of the Coronium Atom.  MNRAS, March 1916.
• On the Distribution of Intensity in Broadened Spectrum Lines. Phil Trans, June 28, 1916. (With T.R. Merton.)
• The Atomic Weights of the Elements in Nebulae.  MNRAS, Mar 1918.  
• On Intensity Relations in the Spectrum of Helium. Phil Trans, April 1918.  (With T.R. Merton.)

John William Nicholson, FRS (1 November 1881 – 3 October 1955) was an English mathematician.

John William Nicholson. 1881-1955Biogr. Mems Fell. R. Soc. November 1, 1956 2:209-214