A Significant Alteration and Correct in Chasing the Speed of Light (1882)

Michelson, A.A. “Sur le mouvement relatif de la terre et de l'éther”, in Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de L'Academie des Sciences, 20 February 1882, vol 94, no 8, the Michelson on pp 520-523 in the weekly issue of pp. 473-548. Offered as an extract with no spine covering, from a larger bound volume. Nice, fresh issue. $150

With a round, black rubber stamp from the Port de Toulon (library or tax stamp, I cannot tell).

This is a report from Michelson correcting an error affecting the performance of the interferometer described and tested in the 1881 paper on ether drag (that appeared in the American Journal of Science", Third series vol. XXII, 1881) leading to the iconic experiments on the speed of light (with Edward Morley beginning in 1885) in 1887 and 1888 (and etc., these preceded by the three efforts of Fizeau, Foucault, and Cornu, as well as Simon Newcomb).

See: Gerald Holton, “Einstein, Michelson, and the ‘Crucial Experiment,’” in Isis, 60, no. 202 (Summer 1969), 133–197.