Search Results: Authors starting with R from Atticus Rare Books

Lancaster: American Physical Society, 1939. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPS OF ISIDOR RABI'S INVENTION OF "A MOLECULAR BEAM MAGNETIC RESONANCE METHOD IBY USING TWO MAGNETS IN SUCCESSION TO PRODUCE INHOMOGENEOUS" (Krems, Cold Molecules, p. 510). "The importance of the role that atomic and molecular beams have played in physics and chemistry cannot be overstated... In Rabi's setup, the deflection of particles caused by the first magnet was compensated for by the second magnet such that the particles were directed on a sigmoidal pathe to the detector. A transition to 'other states of space quantization,' induced between the two magnetic sections could be detected via the resulting reduction of the detector signal" (ibid). In 1938 and in another paper, Rabi briefly reported the use of NMR to measure the nuclear magnetic moment; this, the 1939 paper, is the second and more complete report. CONDITION & DETAILS: Lancaster: American Physical Society. Quarto (11.25 x 8.25 inches; 275 x 200mm).… Read More

Lancaster: American Institute of Physics, 1936. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION OF RABI'S DESCRIPTION OF HIS THEORETICAL IDEA OF HOW TO MEASURE NUCLEAR SPIN, an idea that would lead to the determination of the signs of magnetic moments via his magnetic resonance method, the most significant improvement in molecular and atomic beam techniques to date" (Gonolis, Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings). Rabi received the 1944 Nobel Prize "for his resonance method for recording the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei." The scientific community knew that "nuclei have intrinsic spins and magnetic moments. The magnetic moment has both a magnitude and a sign. [But] in 1935, the sign was missing. The sign of a magnetic moment can be either plus or minus: if the spin and the magnetic moment have the same space-quantized direction, the sign of the moment is plus; if these directions are opposed, the sign is minus... [But] as beamlets of a particular atom were refocused into the detector, the same pattern was observed… Read More

Lancaster: American Institute of Physics, 1950. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPS OF JAMES RAINWATER'S INFLUENTIAL, NOBEL PRIZE WINNING PAPER ON THE ASYMMETRICAL SHAPES OF CERTAIN ATOMIC NUCLEI. In 1975 the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Aage Bohr, Ben Mottelson, and James Rainwater for "The discovery of the connection between collective motion and particle motion in atomic nuclei and the development of the theory of the structure of the atomic nucleus based on the connection" (Nobel Prize Portal). This is the first paper noted in "Who's Who of Nobel Prize Winners" (Sherby) as the primary work for which Rainwater was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. In 1949, Rainwater learned of Marie Mayer's success "in explaining many nuclear phenomena including spins, magnetic moments, isomeric states, etc. on the basis of a single particle model for the separate nucleons in a spherical nucleus" (Rainwater, Phys Rev, 79, 1950, p. 432). He later wrote: Mayer's thoughts [fit] my belief that a… Read More

London: Harrison & Sons, 1929. 1st Edition. FIRST AMERICAN PRINTING OF A "REMARKABLE" PAPER THAT WON RAMAN THE 1930 NOBLE PRIZE FOR ‘THE RAMAN EFFECT' (Jayasooriya, An Introduction to Laser Spectroscopy, 77). In announcing the prize, the Nobel Prize Committee, noted that the prize was awarded "for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him" (Nobel Prize Committee). It is worthy of note that "in the first seven years after its discovery, the Raman Effect was the subject of more than 700 papers in the scientific literature" (American Chemical Society Portal). Note that this paper appeared in the Indian Journal of Physics one year prior to its publication here. Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was born at Tiruchirappalli in Southern India and his co-author, K. S. Krishna was, like Raman, one of the most distinguished scientists of the 20th century — Indian or otherwise. "Raman spectroscopy is the study of inelastic scattering of light. The inelasticity… Read More

1896. 1st Edition. John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh (1842-1919), was an English theoretical and experimental physicist who "made seminal contributions to theoretically defining the resolving power of gratings, prisms, telescopes and microscopes" (Lord Rayleigh: A Scientific Life, The Optical Society, June 2009). He was also head of the Royal Society, winning the 1904 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his investigations of the densities of the most important gases and for his discovery of argon in connection with these studies" (Nobel Prize Committee). In the paper offered here, his 1896 publication on the theory of optical images as applied to microscopes, Rayleigh "discusses extensively the resolution of microscopes. He is the first to deal with illuminated objects as well as with self-luminous objects. He also distinguishes between different phase relationships of the illuminated objects. Lord Rayleigh extends his investigations to different objects (points, lines, gratings) and different… Read More

London: Taylor & Francis, 1900. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION OF RAYLEIGH'S FORMULA TO DESCRIBE THE INTENSITY DISTRIBUTION OF BLACKBODY RADIATION. Also included: two papers in which Rutherford 1st described the phenomenon of half-life as well as a 2nd in which he further describes those experiments, one of which provided the first indication that the emanation might be a gas by determining that the emanation could be dispersed by a flow of air. RAYLEIGH "The claim that black-body radiation should conform to the distribution law that has since been variously attributed to Rayleigh and Jeans was not made until 1905. But the main conceptual foundations for that claim can be found in a two-page note published by Rayleigh in the June 1900 issue of the Phil Mag [this paper]" (Kuhn, Black-Body Theory, 144). Here Rayleigh argued "that, at least for long wavelengths, the spectral energy density should rise linearly with temperature for fixed wavelengths" (Brandt, Harvest of the Century, 31). At the end of… Read More

Florence: Onofri, 1674. THIRD EDITION OF FRANCESCO REDI'S MASTERPIECE REFUTING SPONTANEOUS REGENERATION, first published in 1668. "A milestone in the history of modern science," Redi's book outlines the first series of experiments to disprove 'spontaneous generation' -- "a theory also known as Aristotelian abiogenesis" (Wikipedia). Francesco Redi was an Italian physician, naturalist, and poet. Redi's seminal work includes 39 particularly gorgeous copperplate engravings. "At the time, [the] prevailing wisdom was that maggots arose spontaneously from rotting meat"; in other words, that nonliving matter could generate the production of living organisms" (ibid). In his experiments, Redi captured maggots and waited for them to metamorphose, becoming flies. "Also, when dead flies or maggots were put in sealed jars with dead animals or veal, no maggots appeared, but when the same thing was done with living flies, maggots did" (Wikipedia). Redi compared two groups of meat: "the first left exposed to… Read More

London: Macmillian & Sons, 1968. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION, bound full volume, OF REES & SCIAMA'S PREDICTION OF WHAT IS NOW CALLED THE "REES-SCIAMA EFFECT," an important correlation between galaxy density (the number of galaxies per square degree) and the temperature of the CMB in different parts of the universe. The effect is a nonlinear anistropy in the CMB caused by large scale density inhomogeneities in the universe such as quasar clusters. "The CMB radiation is a direct relic of the early universe. It is a unique and deep probe of both the thermal history of the early universe and the primordial perturbations in the matter distribution" (Tuluie, "Cosmic Microwave Background" AJ, 1996, 15). In this paper, English physicists Martin Rees and Dennis Sciama argue and predict that these large scale density inhomogeneities and their "effect on the angular distribution of the cosmic black-body radiation" are the result of perturbations caused by photon passing through an inhomogeneous, expanding… Read More

New York: American Physical Society, 2000. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION ISSUES IN ORIGINAL WRAPS TWO PAPERS BY HÄNSCH & HALL FOR THEIR NOBEL PRIZE WINNING WORK ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF LASER-BASED PRECISION SPECTROSCOPY AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT OF THE FREQUENCY COMB TECHNIQUE. American physicist John Lewis "Jan" Hall and German physicist Theodor Wolfgang Hänsch shared one half of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics for these "contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique. Their laser-based precision spectroscopy meant that atoms could again be employed as references to stabilize the frequency of laser light. In other words, scientists could now "tune a laser wavelength to an optical transition within an atom" (Hessmo, "Laser-based precision spectroscopy and the optical frequency comb technique", Heidelberg, 15 October, 2005). Precision spectroscopy is the ability to measure a frequency accurately. Precision laser spectroscopy creates… Read More

Leipzig: Barth, 1916. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION, OFFPRINT IN ORIGINAL PAPER WRAPS OF THE FIRST SOLUTION OF EINSTEIN'S EQUATION FOR THE METRIC OF A CHARGED POINT MASS. Überreicht vom Verfasser' (Presented by the Author) appears in print on the front wrap. Hans Jacob Reissner, a German aeronautical engineer with a passion for mathematical physics, solves Einstein's equation for an electrically charged rotating axially symmetric body. "In 1915 Einstein completed his general theory of relativity. It did not take long before the first non-trivial exact solution for the Einstein field equations was found by Karl Schwarzschild in 1916 which corresponds to the gravitational field of a spherically symmetric object" (Nordebo, The Reissner-Nordström Metric, 3). Soon after Schwarzschild's finding, Reissner (in 1916 and in this paper) generalized Schwarzschild's solution to include an electrically charged object. In 1918, Gunnar Nordström, a Finnish theoretical physicist, "independently developed what is… Read More

Leipzig: von Wilhelm Engelmann. 1st Edition. EXTREMELY RARE FOLIO FIRST EDITIONS OF BOTH VOLUMES of Johann Repsold's massive and lavishly-illustrated reference work on astronomical instruments and the history of astronomy. The volumes were issued separately, Volume I in 1908 and Volume II in 1914; together they house 323 plates of uncommon astronomical instruments and their components. Volume I is a detailed survey and analysis of the development of astronomy, including astronomers and instrument makers from the years 1450 to 1830. Volume II surveys the bulk of 19th century advancements, covering the years 1830 to 1900. Johann Adolf Repsold (1838-1919) was the son and grandson of two pioneering German instrument makers. "Johann Adolf Repsold's own designs contributed significantly to the progress of contemporary astronomy... He also wrote important biographical and technical works on the history of astronomy" (Dictionary of Scientific Biography, XI, p. 378). Among the astronomers and instrument… Read More

London: Royal Astronomical Society, 1957. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION OF WOLFGANG RINDLER'S 'EVENT HORIZON' PAPER, a concept Alan Guth cites and employs as an important part of his 'Inflationary Universe' theory. Guth needed to solve what was known as 'the horizon problem' in order to further his theory. Guth explained the problem in his seminal 1981 paper: "The standard model of hot big-bang cosmology requires initial conditions which are problematic in two ways: (1) The early universe is assumed to be highly homogeneous, in spite of the fact that separated regions were causally disconnected (horizon problem) and (2) the initial value of the Hubble constant must be fine tuned to extraordinary accuracy (flatness problem)" (Guth 1981, 347). "By simply examining the horizon as a function of epoch, Rindler showed that as we go back in time, a smaller and smaller fraction of all of the photons in the universe could be observed... none was within the horizon. Thus as we go back in time a larger and… Read More

Halle: Rengerschen Buchhandlung10, 1803. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION, FULL VOLUME WITH ORIGINAL FRONT WRAP BOUND IN, OF THE FIRST FULLY DEVELOPED PAPER DESCRIBING RITTER'S DISCOVERY OF ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION. Ritter had ‘announced' the discovery in a half page letter in the 1802 Annalen. In discovering ultraviolet light, or light without heat, Ritter had discovered an analog to Herschel's infrared light, or heat without light (Kittler, Optical Media, 123). Ultraviolet radiation is in the part of the electromagnetic spectrum where wavelengths are shorter than that of visible light but longer than X-rays, specifically, it is composed of three types of rays and has a wavelength from 10nm to 400 nm (Wikipedia). In 1800, William Herschel discovered infrared light. To test the temperatures of differently colored light, Herschel channeled sunlight through a prism. The prism split the colors into a rainbow whose colors Herschel had directed to each fall on a different thermometers. The experiment made… Read More

Minneapolis: American Physical Society, 1929. 1st Edition. BOUND FULL VOLUME, 1st ed. OF ROBERTSON'S SEMINAL MODIFICATION OF THE HEISENBERG UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE. The Heisenberg relations were quickly taken up, discussed, and sought to be extended or modified by many physicists, including Schrodinger, Condon, and Robertson. Robertson, a Princeton physicist better known for his work in cosmology, in 1929 (in this paper) proved a more general version of the uncertainty relation, valid for any pair of conjugate variables, not just position and momentum (Kragh, Quantum Generations, p. 208. It is one of the most important and commonly used general form of the uncertainty principle and is known as "the Robertson uncertainty relation" (Wikipedia). Separately we offer this in its original wraps. Werner Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is, at its core, the principle that the momentum and position of a particle cannot both be precisely determined at the same time. It stands at the heart of quantum… Read More

London: Taylor and Francis, 1869. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING OF THE FIRST DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE GREAT MELBOURNE TELESCOPE built by Thomas Grubb of Dublin in 1868 and erected at Melbourne Observatory in 1869. The paper is accompanied by 10 lithographed plates. The telescope erected was a reflector telescope with a speculum (metal) mirror of 48 inches in diameter; at the time it was the second largest telescope in the world and the largest in the southern hemisphere. Upon examination of the telescope at completion, Lord Rosse, Dr. Robinson, and Warren de la Rue expressed their opinion in a report that the telescope was a masterpiece of astronomical mechanism. Many important observations were carried out with the telescope, including those of Nebulae; it was also the first instrument to document gravitational lens light refraction. CONDITION & DETAILS: London: Taylor and Francis. Extracted from The Philosophical Transactions. 4to. pp. 127-161. 10 lithographed plates depicting the… Read More

Leipzig: Barth-Verlag, 1898. 1st Edition. IN RARE ORIGINAL WRAPS, THE 1898 FIRST COMPLETE EDITION OF RONTGEN'S ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE X-RAY, INCLUSIVE OF ALL 3 PAPERS and housed in a custom cloth box. For this work, Rontgen was awarded the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901. "Their importance in surgery, medicine, and metallurgy is well known. Incomparably the most important part of Rontgen's experiments, however, is his discovery of matter in a new form, which has completely revolutionized the study of chemistry and physics" (Printing and the Mind of Man, 380). "Herald[ing] the age of modern physics and revolutionized diagnostic medicine", the importance of Rontgen's discovery was quickly understood (Curley, The 100 Most Influential Inventors of All Time, Britannica Guide,128). Laue and the Braggs would go on to use X-rays to show us the atomic structure of crystals. Mosely used them to reconstruct the periodic table of the elements. Becquerel was directly inspired by Rontgen's… Read More

1910. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST PRINTED H-R DIAGRAM, probably the most important diagram in stellar astrophysics" (Evans, The Curious Astronomer, 2014). In the volume offered, the German physicist Hans Rosenberg published "The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (or H-R diagram) -- a scatter diagram showing the relationship between the "intrinsic luminosity" of stars (a measure of their energy output) and their temperatures (as indicated by their "spectral type" or color). The diagram presents stellar evolution—a star begins its life in one place on the chart and moves across the chart during its lifetime" (History of Physics: Wenner Collection). "The same type of diagram is still used today as a means of showing the stars in clusters without having to initially know their distance and luminosity" (Wikipedia). CONDITION & DETAILS: Complete. Includes volumes 181-186. 4to. Tightly bound in red cloth and calf, scuffed at the edges. Ex-libris with very minimal markings, and none at the spine.… Read More

American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1973. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPS OF THE ROSENHAN EXPERIMENT, A HIGHLY INFLUENTIAL EXPERIMENT CONDUCTED TO DETERMINE THE VALIDITY OF PSYCHIATRIC DIAGNOSIS. Rosenhan, psychologist and professor at Stanford, "sent eight ‘sane' people to twelve psychiatric institutions. The pseudo-patients complained ‘they had been hearing voices' and were admitted to psychiatric wards. Save one, all the rest were diagnosed with schizophrenia and discharged from the hospital less than a few months [later] because their symptoms were determined to be ‘in remission'" (Tamao, The Politics of Psychiatric Experience, 71). The study concluded that "it is clear that we cannot distinguish the sane from the insane in psychiatric hospitals," and vehemently argued about the dangers of dehumanization and the type of labeling that takes place in psychiatric institutions. The core of the experiment was just that: could mental health professionals… Read More

Leipzig: Barth, 1913. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS OF ROSENTHAL'S IMPORTANT PROOF THAT THAT THE ERGODIC HYPOTHESIS IS INCORRECT FOR ANY MECHANICAL SYSTEM. In 1913, German mathematician Artur Rosenthal (1887-1959) set out to answer the question "Can a mechanical system eventually pass through ever point on the energy surface in its phase space? Provoked little more than politely-stifled yawns from phsicists, but introduced a major new branch of mathematical research (Brush, Milestones in Mathematical Results, Transport Theory and Statistical Physics, 1, 1971). His work (along with Plancheral's) "closed the first phase of a discussion of the foundations of statistical mechanics in which Maxwell, Boltzmann, and Ehrenfest were major participants" (ibid). Ergodic theory is a branch of mathematics examining dynamical systems with an invariant measure and related problems, its development was motivated by problems of statistical physics. It developed as something of an offshoot from the… Read More

London: Taylor and Francis, 1873. 1st Edition. First edition, complete extract, of an investigation on the radiation of heat from the moon, the law of its absorption by our atmosphere, and its variation in amount with the lunar phases -- subjects that would occupy Lord Rosse's attention for the greater part of his life. As the Bakerian Lecture before the Royal Society, Lord Rosse first delivered this work before the Royal Society on March 27th, 1873. This paper is the text of that lecture. Lord Rosse wrote: "The less rapid decrease of the Moon's heat than of her light on going farther from Full Moon, and the increase of percentage of heat transmitted by glass towards the time of Full Moon, may probably be explained on the assumption that when the Sun's heat and light strike the Moon's surface the whole of the former and only a certain proportion of the latter, depending on the intrinsic reflecting power or ‘Albedo' of the surface, leave it again; and consequently the shaded portions, which are… Read More