JF Ptak Science Books // Blog Bookstore

Rayleigh, Kelvin, Thomson, and others in the Philosophical Magazine, 1903

"The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science", printed in London, Taylor and Francis, vol VI, sixth series, July-December 1903, 8vo, viii, 732pp, 27 plates. Bound in dark blue cloth,  with reinforced hinges, making this a very sturdy copy in spite of its size.  This is a tight, crisp, sturdy copy. Very Good copy.  $200. There are several interesting papers in this volume, including work by Lord Rayleigh, Lord Kelvin, O.W. Richardson, J.J. Thomson, and others:

Lord Rayleigh, (John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, 1842-1919) "On the Work done by Forces Operative at one or more points of an Elastic Solid", pp 385-392;

Lord Rayleigh, "On the Production and Distribution of Sound", pp 289-302;

Lord Kelvin, (William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, 1824-1907) "On Electro-ethereal Theory of the Velocity of Light in Gases, Liquids, and Solids", pp 437-441;

O.W. Richardson, (Sir Owen Willans Richardson, 1879–1959, Nobel 1928, doctoral advisor to KT Compton, Davisson, and with J.J,. Thomson as his doctoral advisor) "On the Positive Ionization produced by Hot Platinum in Air at Low Pressures", pp 80-96, pp 267-8;

H.A. Wilson, (Harold Albert Wilson, 1874-1964), "On the Electric Intensity in the Uniform Positive Column in Air", pp 180-188;

James Jeans, (Sir James Hopwood Jeans, 1877–1946) "On the Vibrations set up in Molecules by Collisions", pp 279-287;

James Jeans, " On the Kinetic Theory of Gases", pp 720-722;

R.J. Strutt, (Robert John Strutt, 4th Baron Rayleigh, 1875-1947) "On an Experiment to Exhibit the Loss of Negative Electricity by Radium", pp 588-9; 

J.J. Thomson, (Sir Joseph John Thomson, 1856-1940, Nobel prize, plum pudding model, isotope, electron, etc.), "On the Magnetic Properties of Systems of Corpuscles describing Circular Orbits", pp 673-693; 

Several Great Papers in One Volume: Feynman, Dyson, Bardeen, Brattain

 

FEYNMAN,R.P. and others in the Physical Review, Volume 75, April -June 1949. Entire volume, pp 995-2012. Cloth, ex-library, clean spine, pocket at rear endpaper, blind stamped on title page; hinges somewhat broken, but repaired. Decent copy of a blockbuster volume. $950  Includes:

One of the major papers in the history of computing science:

• BARDEEN,  John and Walter Brattain:  Physical Principles Involved in Transistor Action, pp 1208-1226,  the work for which Bardeen shared the Nobel Prize for physics in 1972.

Also Feynman, Metropolis, and Teller:

• FEYNMAN,  Richard P. and N. Metropolis, and E. Teller.   "Equations of State of Elements Based on the  Generalized Fermi-Thomas Theory."  Lancaster:  American Physical Society,  1949.  The Physical Review vol 75 number 10, May 15, 1949.  Pp 1561-1573. From the PROLA part of the APS website: "The Fermi-Thomas model has been used to derive the equation of state of matter at high pressures and at various temperatures. Calculations have been carried out both without and with the exchange terms. Discussion of similarity transformations lead to the viral theorem and to correlation of solutions for different Z values." 

Also in this volume:

•  BARDEEN, “Pressure Change of Resistance of Tellurium”, Letter in Volume 75, No.11, June 1, 1949 at pp. 1777.

• FERMI, E. “On the Origin of the Cosmic Radiation”, pp 1169-1174

• DYSON, F. “S-Matrix in Quantum Electrodynamics", p 1736

• DYSON, F. "Radiation Theories of Tomonaga, Schwinger, and Feynman."

•  ALPHER, Ralph and Robert Herman, ”Remarks on the evolution of the expanding universe”, p. 1089.

Goldstein on Cathode Rays, Clausius, Pattison Muir, and others (1877)

London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, Volume IV, Fifth Series, July-December 1877. Very nice copy, half-calf with raised bands and tips. 3 plates, vii, 476pp. Very Good condition.  $350 This volume has interesting contributions by Goldstein, Clausius, Preston, Muir, Wiedemann, and others: 

Eugen Goldstein, "On Electric Discharges through Rarified Gases", pp 353-363, (the translation into English of his paper from May 1876 "Vorläufige Mittheilungen über elektrische Entladungen in verdünnten Gasen"); and with Reitlinger and von Urbanitzki, "On Some remarkable Phenomena in Geissler Tubes", which is a short note on page 240, which Golstein uses in his research and references in this article. It seems to me that what he is discussing is the Cathode Ray ("kathodenstrahlen"), which he names in 1876 (and which had been known since 1869 [Parkinson, Breakthroughs] though it seems as though he does not use the term here. ("Eugen Goldstein was an early investigator of discharge tubes, the discoverer of anode rays, and is sometimes credited with the discovery of the proton....In the 1870s Goldstein undertook his own investigations of discharge tubes, and named the light emissions studied by others Kathodenstrahlen, or cathode rays.  He discovered several important properties of cathode rays, which contributed to their later identification as the first subatomic particle, the electron..."--Wiki. 

Rudolf Clausius, "On a General Theorem respecting Electrical Influence", pp 454-458;

Serge Kern, "On a New Metal, Davyum", in the "Intelligence and Miscellaneous" section, pp 158-159 and 395-6;

G.H. Darwin, "On Fallible Measures of Variable quantities, and on the Treatment of Meteorological Observations", pp 1-14;

Bosanquet, "On the Theory of Sound", pp 25-40 AND pp 216-225;

Sylvanus P. Thompson, "On the Chromatic Aberration of the Eye in relation to the Perception of Distance", pp 48-61;

S. Tolver Preston, " On the Equilibrium of Pressure in Gases", pp 77-78; 

Pattison Muir, "On Chemical Classification", pp 81-100 and pp 187-206 and pp 257-271;

G. Wiedemann, "On the Magnetic Behavior of Chemical Compounds", pp 161-174 and pp 276-290 (the first translation into English);

S.Tolver Preston, "On Some Dynamical Conditions applicable to Le Sage's Theory of Gravitation", pp 206-213 and pp 364-375

And numerous other contributors.  

Summary of Goldstein's Work on Canal Rays, plus Geiger, Kelvin and an Appearance of "Proton" (1908)

The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, printed in London, Taylor and Francis, vol XV, sixth series, January-June 1908, 8vo, viii, 772pp, 19 plates. Bound in dark blue cloth,  with reinforced hinges, making this a very sturdy copy in spite of its size.  This is a tight, crisp, sturdy copy. Very Good copy.  $350

Eugen Goldstein, "On the Canal-Ray Group", pp 372-385 ("Eugen Goldstein was an early investigator of discharge tubes, the discoverer of anode rays, and is sometimes credited with the discovery of the proton....In the 1870s  Goldstein undertook his own investigations of discharge tubes, and named the light emissions studied by others Kathodenstrahlen, or cathode rays.  He discovered several important properties of cathode rays, which contributed to their later identification as the first subatomic particle, the electron..."--Wiki. This is a reprint of an article that appeared in 1902 in the Verhandl. d. Deutsch/ Physik Gesellsch..."which contains a condensed summary of many years' observations concerning canal rays since my first publication (1886) ont eh subject." Goldstein felt that his work in this area had so for been not much utilized, but hoped that this summary "prove to the reader that canal rays are a much more complicated phenomenon than generally admitted."--Goldstein, from the article. 

A.C. and W.E. Jessup, "On the Evolution and Devolution of the Elements", pp 21-55, with a very interesting folding plate. It is here where the word "proton" first appears in a scientific (non-biological) sense, though not in the way it became standardized by Rutherford in 1920 (first in Engineering and then very shortly thereafter in Nature.).  

("We might well suppose that in the nebulous stage of matter there are four substances, the first two being unknown upon earth, the third being hydrogen, and the fourth..being helium. It also seems probable that..no other elements exist in the early nebulæ; and..we are justified in assuming that hydrogen, the two unknown elements, and helium are the four original elements from which all the other elements form. To distinguish them from others we will term them protons."--OED)

Hans Geiger, another in his series of articles on his apparatus, "On the Irregularities in the Radiation from Radioactive Bodies", pp 539-548; 

(A name little seen but one which I really appreciate, a guy working in a number of different fields) Lewis Fry Richardson, "On a Freehand Graphic Way of Determining Stream Lines and Equipotentials", pp. 237-270 (a very long article for the PM);

 

C.G. Barkla, "On X-Rays and Scattered X-Rays", pp 288-297;

J. Joly, "On the Radioactivity of Sea Water", pp 385-393; 

Lord Kelvin, "On the Formation of Concrete Matter from Atomic Origins", pp 397-413;

Lord Rayleigh, "On the Further Measurements of wave-Lengths...", pp 548-559; 

William H. Bragg and J.P.V. Madsen, "On an Experimental Investigation of the Nature of (Gamma) Rays", pp 663-676;

Geiger and Rutherford/Improvement of the "Geiger Counter"

GEIGER, Hans and Ernest Rutherford.  "Photographic Registration of Alpha Particles", an article in Philosophical Magazine, October, 1912, vol 24, no. 142. Original front wrapper, spine cover mostly gone, and lacking rear wrapper; the text is crisp and bright, however. A Fair/Good copy, not common in the original form.   $175

This is the second apparatus constructed by Geiger and Rutherford, improving on the initial 1908 instrument (Rutherford E.; Geiger H. (1908). "An electrical method of counting the number of α particles from radioactive substances") and constructing one which gathered data froma wider field. See here for a bit of this early history (Physical Review, volume 6 series II, page 292, J.E. Shrader, 1915).   Also contains Rutherford's "Origins of Alpha Rays..."; a second paper by Geiger on the ranges of alpha particles; and also with O.W. Richardson and Karl T. Compton "On the photoelectric effect".   --All together, a wonderful issue.

On the Hot Big Bang (1948)

GAMOW, George.  "Origin of Elements and the Separation of Galaxies", in Physical Review, volume 74, no 4, 15 August 1948, pp 505-506, the issue offered in the original wrappers,  Fine copy.  $600

See: Cosmological Constants: Papers in Modern Cosmology, edited by Jeremy Bernstein and Gerald Feinberg. New York: Columbia University Press, p. 114, 1986; 385 citations (Science Abstracts)   "The hot universe is proposed to solves the nucleosynthesis problem", in V. F. Mukhanov, Physical Foundations of Cosmology, chapter 4; reprinted in A. Zee's  Unity of Forces in the Universe, Volume 2; "These two 1948 papers by Gamow laid out the foundation  for our present understanding of big-bang nucleosynthesis" --Rupert Anderson, The Cosmic Compendium: The Big Bang & the Early Universe, pg 56.

The following interesting quotes are from Phillip James Edwin Peebles, "Discovery of the Hot Big Bang, What Happened in 1948", in The European Physical Journal H, 2014. ("The idea that the universe is filled with the thermal radiation now termed the Cosmic Microwave Background was discussed in eleven publications in the year 1948..."):

• "Gamow’s (1948a) proposal that element formation in the early universe was mediated by a sea of thermal radiation."
• "The title of Gamow’s (1948) paper shows he was also thinking about the role of thermal radiation in galaxy formation after element buildup." p 212
• "...(Gamow) proposes that this marks the start of the growth of mass concentrations such as galaxies. Gamow also points out that the matter density and temperature, which he takes to be the same as the radiation temperature, determine the time-independent Jeans mass of the smallest gravitationally-assembled clouds of baryons (Gamow and Teller 1939). The modern theory adds many details, but we see here early recognition of the important role thermal radiation plays in cosmic structure formation..." p 214
• "The starting idea [in the Gamow paper, above] is that element formation in the early universe would have to have been a rapid non-equilibrium process."--pg 221

The First Systematic Introduction of Probability Factors in the Mathematics of Quantum Theory (1907)

Einstein, Albert. Three papers in one volume:  "Die Plancksche Theorie der Strahlung und die Theorie der spezifischen Warme” pp 180-190;  AND "Ueber die Gultigkeitsgrenze des Satzes vom thermodynamischen Gleichgewicht und uber die Moglichkeit einer neuen Bestimmung der Elementarquanta",  pp. 569-572; AND  WITH "Berichtigung zu meiner Arbeit: Die Plancksche Theorie der Strahlung...",  p. 800 in Annalen der Physik,  Vierte Folge, 4/22, 1907; viii,  1016pp, 4 plates, portrait.  Bound in modern black cloth (from ca. 1970). Very Good, fresh copy. Priced an order of mag in dollars above the sum of Einstein's numeric birthday: $330.00

"In 1907 Einstein pointed out how one could use the quantized energy of the oscillations of atoms in solids to account for departures from the rule of Dulong and Petit. This empirical rule, that the specific heat is the same for one mole of any element in solid form, was understood as a consequence of the theorem of equipartition of energy"--Dictionary of Scientific Biography. This first paper is marked by Einstein bibliographer Weil as being of particular importance. Refs: Weil 15*&16; Schlipp_Shields 16&17, Boni 15&16; d'Abro, Rise of Modern Physics II, pp 317ff. 

 

 

Early Work on the Foucault Pendulum Experiment, 1851.

Dufour, General Guillaume. "Sur les deviations apparaentes du plan d'oscillation du pendule dans l'experience de M. Foucault", with MM. Wartmann and Marignac.  Extract from Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Seances de l'Academie des Sciences, vol 33, 7 July 1851, pp 13-15 in he weekly issue of (1)-52.  Extracted from a larger bound volume, with the very uncommon original wrappers disbound but present. Good copy.  $135

The first great paper on the pendulum experiment by Jean Bernard Leon Foucault appeared five months earlier on February 3, 1851 in volume 32 of the CR,   "Demonstration physique du movement de rotation de la terre au moyen du pendule."    "After the well known original experiments with the pendulum made by Foucault those of General Dufour who was assisted by Messrs Wartmann and Marignac are the next in importance..." The Earth and Its Mechanism: Being an Account of the Various Proofs of the ...by Henry Worms,  p 104  (A table of 12 experiments testing the Foucault results appeared in the American Journal of Science in the same year (1851) volume 12, pp 398-406. )

One of the Foundation Papers in QED

Julian Schwinger, "On Radiative Corrections to Electron Scattering." In: the Physical Review, volume 75, number 5, March 1, 1949; in the Letters section, occupying pp 898-899.  We offer the entire weekly issue, pp 705-911.  This is a near-Fine copy, with a pair of short tears on the original paper spine.  Scarce in such nice shape. $250

 This appears as paper #14 (of 7 papers by Schwinger) of the 34 collected papers in his classic reference Selected Papers on Quantum Electrodynamics (1958).

Schwinger349. This appears as paper #14 (of 7 papers by Schwinger) of the 34 collected papers in his classic reference "Selected Papers on Quantum Electrodynamics" (1958). Schwinger was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1965 along with Feynman and Tomonaga "for...fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles". "Following the establishment of the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics, an initial relativistic theory was formulated for the interaction between charged particles and electromagnetic fields. However, partly because the electron's magnetic moment proved to be somewhat larger than expected, the theory had to be reformulated. Julian Schwinger solved this problem in 1948 through "renormalization" and thereby contributed to a new quantum electrodynamics."--Nobelprize.org

Very Early Review of Electromagnetism (Oersted, Davy, Ampere) 1821

JF Ptak Science Books

(Oersted, Davy, Ampere, Wollaston) The Quarterly Journal of Science, Literature, and the Arts.  London, John Murray, 1821, Volume X, iii,iii, 497pp, with four plates, including one map of Baffin Bay and another folding chart in the text block.  Half-calf, marbled boards. The hinges on the front and rear are a little rubbed and worn. Overall, a Very Good copy. This is an ex-libris copy from the Royal Society of Edinburgh, with their motto gilt-stamped in one of the spine panels (that being the only previous owner indication), also there are two small oval rubber stamps on the front paste down and title page with the society's name.  A nice copy.  Very good.  $600

(Oersted, Davy, Ampere, Wollaston), "On the Connexion of Electric and Magnetic Phenomena" pp 361-3, contains several paragraphs devoted to the new development of electromagnetism (which was "a new epoch in the history of physics"--Dictionary of Scientific Biography), with one or two paragraphs each of summaries of contributions by the major actors in the field, including Hans Oersted (who made the monumental discovery of the magnetic action of electricity and published in his paper "Experimenta circa efficariam cinflictus electrici in acum magneticam" in Journal für Chemie und Physik, v. 29  in 1820), Humphrey Davy (twice), Andre Ampere, and William Wollaston,  The Oersted paper began a scientific revolution and appeared in Journals in French, German, and English in the same year. So in this year, 1821, the Quarterly Journal reproduced the high points of these four scientists commenting  "No discovery has, for a long time, so strongly excited the attention of the philosophic world, as that of the magnetic phaenomena belonging to the Voltaic apparatus; we shall, therefore, endeavour to give our readers a short statement of what has been done in this department of scientific inquiry."

Also contained in this volume: 

Richard Chenevix (1774-1830, Irish chemist), "On a New Method of Secret Writing", pp 89-101 ("a method of writing so occult as to escape detection"), including examples

Michael Faraday, "On the Vapour of Mercury at Common Temperatures", 

Michael Faraday, "On the Spontaneous Evaporation of Mercury", pp 354-

Humphrey Davy, being a longish history of recent science read to the Royal Society in his function of president of that society, and of the society's role in the advancement of science, pp 380-389; 

Pierre-Jean Robiquet,(1780 – 1840, French chemist who did founding work in identifying amino acids), "Observations on Aroma, being the substance of a Paper read by M. Robiquet", pp 109-117;

J.F. Daniell. "On the New Hygrometer", pp 123-144;

W.P. Allison, "Observations on the Theory which ascribes Secretion and Animal Heat to the Agency of Nerves", pp 269-282