Search Results: Authors starting with F from Atticus Rare Books

London: Royal Society, 1849. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION OF TWO IMPORTANT PAPERS BY MICHAEL FARADAY, EACH PUBLISHED AS PART OF HIS LANDMARK TWENTY-NINE PAPER "EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCHES IN ELECTRICITY" SERIES. Also included, a significant paper by Thomas Graham on the motion of gases; also, an important paper by Gideon Mantell on the iguanodon. Handsomely bound, the volume is complete with Parts 1 & 2 and includes 43 plates. FARADAY: Faraday discusses magneto-crystallic force and the abnormal behavior of various crystals in a magnetic field. Faraday "hoped that when ‘properly understood' the various phenomena examined in terms of their magnecrystallic, crystallographic and optic axes would come under ‘one law [that] will include all these phenomena'" (Kox, No Truth Except in the Details). Faraday was an English chemist and physicist often thought to be the best experimentalist in the history of science. During Faraday's earlier experiments on electro-magnetical theory he had "observed some… Read More

London, 1925. 1st Edition. ORIGINAL WRAPPERS. FIRST EDITION of the issue of Nature including a centenary "Special Benzene Supplement" celebrating Faraday's 1825 discovery of benzene. Faraday's [discovery] of the compound benzene... became his greatest contribution in chemistry (Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 5, 531). "We are presenting a supplement containing the principal addresses which were delivered in the Royal Institution during the celebration of Faraday's discovery of benzene... The fame of Faraday rests almost entirely upon his striking contributions to scientific knowledge... His discoveries were more revolutionary, both in their effects on the development of theory and in their subsequent practical applications. In the latter connexion we refer more particularly to his discoveries of magneto-electric induction and of benzene. The electrical industries, together with the industries based upon benzene, constitute overwhelming proof—if proof be needed—of the value of research in… Read More

Paris: Bachelier. First printing of a letter extracted from Comptes Rendus of a letter from Michael Faraday to another chemist Jean-Baptiste Dumas. In it, Faraday very clearly writes of his then nascent thoughts regarding the relationship between light, magnetism, and electricity, here specifically describing the magnetic rotation of light. Though published in 1846, Faraday's letter was written in 1845. It relays, in embryonic form, his soon to be announced - and quite remarkable -- discovery from his careful examination of the polarization of light as it passed through a transparent material in the presence of a magnetic field. Faraday "observed that linearly polarized light propagating through matter parallel to a static magnetic field, experiences a rotation of the plane of polarization. The effect is small, but he was an exceptional experimenter and he unambiguously identified the phenomenon. The rotation of the plane of polarization is still called the Faraday Rotation (Teach Spin). Building… Read More

Philadelphia: Franklin Institute, 1853. 1st Edition. 1853 PAPER BY MICHAEL FARADAY (reprinted from the London Athenaeum) PROVING THAT THE SUPERNATURAL PHENOMENA OF TABLE-TURNING HAPPENS AS THE RESULT OF PARTICIPANTS UNCONSCIOUSLY MOVING THE TABLES THEMSELVES. This remains the accepted explanation today. "Table-turning was among the many supernatural phenomena that caught the public's attention during the 19th century. Similar to the movement of the planchette during a Ouija board séance, a table would begin moving among the participants sitting around it. "Michael Faraday came out in public against table-turning and all supernatural séance activities. He censured both the public and the British education system for buying into it. But many continued to attribute these table movements to an invisible force, like electricity or magnetism. "Always the scientist, Faraday tried using a variety of insulators, such as wood and rubber, to interfere with the table's movement, and observed no difference… Read More

Two volumes. First printed in the Philosophical Transactions in the same year, the eleventh series presents Faraday's researches on electro-statical induction. This series was "undertaken with a view to test an idea which he had long possessed, that the forces of attraction and repulsion exercised by free electricity are not the resultant of actions exercised at a distance, but are propagated by means of molecular action among the contiguous particles of the insulating medium surrounding the electrified bodies, which he therefore calls the dielectric. By this idea he [was] led to some very remarkable views upon induction, or in fact upon electrical action in general" (Thomson, Phil Mag, July 1854, p. 50). Itwas in the area of experimental electricity that Michael Faraday accomplished his life's most important work as well as the work for which he is best known. In 1831, experimental science was transformed when his experiments proved that frictional electricity from the clouds was the same as animal… Read More

London: Royal Society, 1859. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION OF THE "FIRST PUBLISHED ACCOUNT OF THE APPLICATION OF A MECHANICAL CALCULATOR TO PROBLEMS IN HEALTH OR BIOLOGY" (Hook & Norman, Origins of Cyberspace 2002, Nos. 77 & 85). Complete extract (inclusive of plate) in fine condition. William Farr, widely regarded as one of the founders of medical statistics and a pioneer in the quantitative study of morbidity and mortality, was a 19th century British epidemiologist and chief statistician of the General Register Office, England's central statistical office. Farr was fascinated by Charles Babbage and had long been interested in applying a calculating machine like Babbage's Difference Engine to compute life tables. On "Farr's recommendation, the British government authorized in 1857 the sum of £1200 for the Scheutz Engine no. 3 to be constructed by the firm of Bryan Donkin, a manufacturer of machinery, including those for the color printing of bank notes and stamps. Costs overran and Donkin… Read More

FIRST EDITION of the "Fermi Interaction," -- his seminal quantum mechanical description of the first complete theory of beta decay. "A particularly elegant theory and paper, Fermi's work is regarded as classic and remains highly influential to this day" (Peacock, The Quantum Revolution, 94). "In 1930, Pauli postulated the existence of the neutrino to explain the continuous distribution of energy of the electrons emitted in beta decay. ["Fermi in 1931 jocularly dubbed the new particle the ‘neutrino.'" (ibid.)] Only with the emission of a third particle could momentum and energy be conserved" (Nave). Assuming the existence of the neutrino which Pauli had suggested to preserve the principle of conservation of energy, Fermi treated the ejection of electrons and neutrinos from a nucleus by a method similar to the radiation theory of photon emission from atoms. Treating the beta decay as a transition that depended upon the strength of coupling between the initial and final states, Fermi developed a… Read More

London: Macmillan & Sons, 1934. 1st Edition. JOURNAL ISSUE, FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT IN ENGLISH BY FERMI OF RADIOACTIVITY INDUCED BY SLOW NEUTRONS. The letter marks the beginning of Fermi's experimental researches in nuclear physics. In 1938 Fermi was awarded "for his demonstrations of the existence of new radioactive elements produced by neutron irradiation, and for his related discovery of nuclear reactions brought about by slow neutrons." When news reached Fermi "of the Joliot-Curies' discovery of new radioactive isotopes, which were produced by the bombardment of light elements with particles, it occurred to Fermi that neutrons would be useful projectiles because they are not repelled by the electric charge of the nucleus and should be able to enter even the heaviest nuclei" (Brandi, The Harvest of the Century, 239). "In March, Fermi demonstrated that neutrons were the most effective inducers of radioactivity in elements heavier than phosphorus. The finding enhanced the Italian physicist's fame as… Read More

Berlin: Vieweg und Springer, 1924. 1st Edition. BOUND FIRST EDITION OF FERMI'S "VERY BEAUTIFUL & SUGGESTIVE" PAPER ON THE IMPACT BETWEEN ELECTRICALLY CHARGED PARTICLES & ATOMS (Bohr Quote, Stolzenburg, Emergence of Quantum Mechanics, 71). ALSO FIRST EDITION OF WENTZEL'S QUANTUM THEORETICAL TREATMENT OF DISPERSION. Volume bears the ownership stamp of Friedrich Hermann Hund, a physicist well-known for his work on atoms and molecules. "In statistical mechanics [Fermi] had written subtle papers on the ergodic hypothesis and on quantum theory. [In this paper] he developed an original form of analyzing collisions of charged particles" (History of Science: The Wenner Collection). Here Fermi "attempted to explain the retardation of swiftly moving particles by resolving the electric field of the charged particles into its harmonics, then comparing it with a radiation field having a suitable frequence distribution" (Stolzenburg). As Bohr understood it, Fermi wanted "to develop a theory of the stopping of… Read More

New York: Ivison, Phinney, & Co, 1860. 1st edition of FERREL'S 19th CENTURY "MAGNUM OPUS" PROPOSING THE FIRST COMPREHENSIVE PHYSICAL THEORY OF THE ATMOSPHERE. Considered "the first really powerful intellect to focus sustained attention on meteorology," the American meteorologist, William Ferrel here provides "the first general formulation of the equations of motion for a body moving with respect to the rotating earth and drew from them the consequences for atmospheric and oceanic circulation" (Dictionary of Scientific Biography IV, 592). In other words, Ferrel is the first to depict mathematically the influence of the various forces (such as gravity, rotation, and friction) upon the earth's surface, as well as how those forces then impact atmospheric air currents and tidal currents in the ocean (Williams, Shy Genius). The papers offered here were published in their entirety in seven chapters over these two separate volumes. Shortened versions of the first four chapters (edited for a non-scientific… Read More

Lancaster: American Physical Society, 1950. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION of Feynman's proof of the validity of his 1949 "reformation of quantum mechanics itself," work that would "elegantly rewrite quantum theory" (American National Biography; Peacock, The Quantum Revolution, 102). ALSO included is Erwin Hahn's "Spin Echoes," the first detection and report of spin echoes in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). FEYNMAN PAPER: In this, the third paper in his pivotal reformulation of quantum mechanics, Feynman provides the mathematical "proof of the validity of the [his] rules for calculations of amplitudes in quantum electrodynamics. Feynman's paper rigorously proved that his treatment of "the problem of molecular forces from a thoroughly quantum-mechanical point of view" was accurate (DSB). Feynman had arrived "at a simple means of calculating the energy of a molecular system that continues to guide quantum chemists" (ibid). In 1965 Feynman was awarded the Nobel Prize along with Schwinger and Tomonaga… Read More

Lancaster: American Institute of Physics, 1957. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL PRINTED WRAPS OF FEYNMAN'S ONLY PAPER ON SUPERCONDUCTIVITY IN PRISTINE CLAMSHELL CASE. Feynman's work did not unravel the mysteries of superconductivity, but it significantly impacted all work in the field, including the eventual and seminal BCS Theory "‘in which electrons, through interaction with lattice vibrations, form Cooper pairs, which move in a coordinated manner, rather than randomly as in a normal conductor, allowing electricity to flow with no resistance'" (APS Physics). Feynman's paper was first a lecture at the International Congress on Theoretical Physics held in Seattle in September 1956. This issue is entirely dedicated to the work presented at the congress and, apart from the Feynman, is inclusive of an important series of papers. It is worth noting that the congress took place and this journal was printed just prior to Bardeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer's announcement of their fully developed… Read More

Lancaster, PA: American Physical Society, 1948. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION, FULL VOLUME in PRISTINE CONDITION, OF FEYNMAN'S NOBEL PRIZE WINNING PATH-INTEGRAL FORMALISM, A "REFORMATION OF QUANTUM MECHANICS ITSELF" (American National Biography). Feynman's path-integral formulation of quantum mechanics lead physicists out of the morass of endless calculations and provided them with the simplest, most elegant, most powerful - to say nothing of the most revolutionary - method for solving the fundamental equations of quantum mechanics. Feynman's "path-integral formulation of quantum mechanics is a description of quantum theory that generalizes the action principle of classical mechanics. It replaces the classical notion of a single, unique trajectory for a quantum particle or system" with the idea that the evolution of a quantum system is determined as a sum over - or integration of -- all the possible trajectories that would take that system from the initial to the final state of its dynamical evolution… Read More

FULL VOLUME 1st EDITION OF THREE LANDMARK PAPERS, each of seminal import in the history of physics. FEYNMAN'S "Forces in molecules" is the first edition of Feynman's undergraduate thesis, the paper that began to establish his name in physics. Published when he was just twenty-one, his work here a fundamental discovery "that has played an important role in theoretical chemistry and condensed matter physics" (Selected Papers, p. 1). This extraordinary work documents the first steps in original research of one of the most brilliant minds of the twentieth century. Feynman showed in this paper that "the force on an atom's nucleus is no more or less than the electrical force from the surrounding field of charged electrons - the electrostatic force. Once the distribution of charge has been calculated quantum mechanically, then from that point forward quantum mechanics disappears from the picture. The problem becomes classical; the nuclei can be treated as static points of mass and charge. Feynman's… Read More

Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1855. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION OF A "SEMINAL" WORK, FICK'S CLASSICAL EQUATION OF DIFFUSION (Philibert, Fick, Einstein, Before and Beyond, 2005, 3). The laws Fick presents in this paper remain "the empirical foundations of many phenomena in the macroscopic world" and were of significant import to Einstein (Lepri, Thermal Transport, 305). Also included are two papers by Helmholtz on optics (see end of write-up). "Today, Fick's Laws form the core of our understanding of diffusion in solids, liquids, and gases (in the absence of bulk fluid motion in the latter two cases)" (Philbert, 5). While this paper also appeared in translation in the Phil Mag (and we offer that work separately, "On Liquid Diffusion") this German original includes ideas that "do not appear in the translation (Philbert, 4). Specifically, "Fick [here makes] allusion to the atomic theory, as accepted by most of the physicists as an aide to get "an insight, a description and a discovery", allowing a… Read More

Leipzig, 1899. 1st Edition. 1st EDITION OF A SEMINAL PAPER BY FINSTERWALDER ON GLACIER PHOTOGRAMMETRY, the science of making measurements from photographs. The input to photogrammetry is photographs, and the output is typically a map, a drawing, a measurement. MODERN SATELLITE POSITIONING TECHNIQUES IN CLIMATE RESEARCH ARE BUILT ON THE PHOTOGRAMMETRY TECHNIQUES & INNOVATIONS FINSTERWALDER RELAYS IN THESE PAPERS. The data and images he gathered are also still in use today. This volume also contains the 1st EDITION OF THE FIRST DESCRIPTION OF P-ADIC NUMBERS (Hensel). More information about this follows further down. [Note that this paper is sometimes incorrectly cited as having been published in 1897. As confirmed by the journal itself, pagination, title, etc., it was not. The 1899 publication offered here is the first]. FINSTERWALDER: Beginning in 1890, "the Bavarian mathematician and geodeticist Sebastian Finsterwalder started a project to re-photograph Swiss glaciers from balloons, enabling him… Read More

Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1916. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION, FULL VOLUME, OF LUDWIG FLAMM'S REALIZATION THAT EINSTEIN'S FIELD EQUATIONS ALLOWED A SECOND SOLUTION. FLAMM'S SOLUTION IS NOW KNOWN AS A ‘WHITE HOLE'. Flamm's paper also first theorized the existence of wormholes (though not by name). In 1916, Ludwig Flamm, an obscure Austrian physicist, was examining Karl Schwarzchild's solution to Einstein's field equations. Schwarzchild's metric admits negative and positive square root solutions for Einstein's geometry and describes the gravitational field around "a spherically symmetric non-rotating mass. If the mass is adequately dense, the solution describes a particular form of the phenomenon now called a black hole - the Schwarzschild black hole" (306physics). "Flamm realized that Einstein's equations allowed a second solution, [now] known as a white hole, and that the two solutions, describing two different regions of space time were connected by a space time conduit. Because Einstein's theory has… Read More

2nd APPEARANCE IN PRINT OF TWO IMPORTANT PAPERS, FLEMING ON HIS VALVE & BARKLA'S 1st IN-DEPTH PAPER SHOWING THAT X-RAYS SCATTERED BY VARIOUS ELEMENTS PRODUCED BEAMS OF CHARACTERISTIC PENETRATION. Both papers were first read before The Physical Society of London on 23 March 1906; each was then printed in the July 1906 edition of The Proceedings of The Physical Society of London. Following that publication, they appeared in the volume offered here, the 1906 Phil Mag. NOTE: We separately offer the first printed edition, papers the July 1906 edition of Proceedings of The Physical Society of London in original wraps and inclusive of both papers. In 1904, J. A. Fleming rectified wireless signals using a diode based on the Edison effect, the unilateral flow of current between two electrodes in a vacuum tube; this was the first known use of the Edison effect. Fleming called his invention an "oscillation valve" because it acted in similarly to a valve in a pump that allows gas or water to move in only one… Read More

London: Taylor and Francis, 1906. 1st Edition. ORIGINAL WRAPPERS. FIRST APPEARANCE IN PRINT OF TWO IMPORTANT PAPERS, FLEMING ON HIS VALVE & BARKLA'S 1st IN-DEPTH PAPER SHOWING THAT X-RAYS SCATTERED BY VARIOUS ELEMENTS PRODUCED BEAMS OF CHARACTERISTIC PENETRATION. Both papers were first read before The Physical Society of London on 23 March 1906; each was then printed in the July 1906 edition The Physical Society of London, Proceedings - the issue offered here. NOTE: Following the publication offered here, each paper was reprinted in the 1906 Phil Mag. We offer that volume separately. In 1904, J. A. Fleming rectified wireless signals using a diode based on the Edison effect, the unilateral flow of current between two electrodes in a vacuum tube; this was the first known use of the Edison effect. Fleming called his invention an "oscillation valve" because it acted in similarly to a valve in a pump that allows gas or water to move in only one direction. Fleming had "discovered that thermionic… Read More

Lancaster: American Institute of Physics, 1940. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL PRINTED WRAPS OF THE FIRST OBSERVATION OF SPONTANEOUS FISSION. Spontaneous fission is a type of radioactive decay in which certain unstable nuclei of heavier elements split into two nearly equal fragments (of lighter elements) and in so doing liberate a large amount of energy. In 1938, Otto Hahn and the nuclear chemist Fritz Strassmann discovered nuclear fission, the discovery of fission by neutrons [We offer that paper separately]. "They demonstrated the presence of radioactive barium, lanthanum and cesium among the products of neutron bombardment of uranium-a phenomenon that seemed to contradict all previous experiences of nuclear physics" (Norman). It was left to Meitner and Frisch to explain the phenomena and introduce the term nuclear fission. [We also offer that paper separately]. Flerov and Petrzhak were asked by the Soviet nuclear physicist Igor Kurchatov, later known as the father of the Soviet atomic… Read More