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On the Fire-Damp of Coal Mines, and on Methods of Lighting the Mines So as to Prevent Its...

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1st Edition. FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT AND DESCRIPTION of an invention some have argued rescued the Industrial Revolution, Humphrey Davy's Safety Lamp (this published prior to Davy's own 1818 book on the subject). "Two great events amazed Britain in 1815: the victory of Wellington over Napoleon and the victory of Davy over mine gases. The Industrial Revolution was in danger of stalling in the early 19th c. due to the dangers in mining with contemporary lamps that used flame and ignited explosions. A disaster near Newcastle in 1812 killed 101 miners, and more than two-thirds of the coal mines in England were considered too dangerous to work because of their levels of coal gas. "In 1815 Davy was invited by the Chairman of a 'Society for Preventing Accidents in Coal Mines' to invent a solution... Davy had earlier studied flames and their propagation and noted that flames could not propagate through small holes. Thus his solution was merely to surround the lamp with a cylinder of wire… Read More
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On the laws which regulate the polarisation of light by reflection from transparent bodies in...

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1st Edition. FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRESENTATION of 'Brewster's Angle, "one of Brewster's most important contributions to the science of physics" (Molecular Expressions Website). David Brewster's work on polarization of light by reflection and biaxial crystals "is important for several reasons" (Young, Optics and Lasers, 241). "First, many lasers use Brewster windows inside the cavity to reduce reflection loss. Brewster windows are important in low-gain lasers such as helium-neon lasers, where a few percent loss can completely inhibit laser action, and in high-power lasers, where antireflection coatings would be destroyed by the intense beam. "If unpolarized light is shone on a surface at Brewster's angle, the refracted wave will be partially polarized because the reflectance at Brewster's angle is 0 only for waves whose electric-field vectors lie in the plane of incidence. Waves whose electric-field vectors are perpendicular to the plane of incidence exhibit about 15% reflectance from a glass… Read More
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Dialling, Plain, Concave, Convex, Projective, Reflective, Refractive. Shewing, how to make all...
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London: J. Matthews. Small folio second edition, preferred and expanded, of Leybourn's important, detailed, and beautifully illustrated work on dialing. Leybourn's treatise (which is actually 14 treatises within one) is an extensive discussion of the fabrication of dials for a wide variety of different instruments. At publication in 1700, this volume was considered the most important work on dialing of its time, as well as the most extensive treatise of its kind in English. The history of dialing is discussed at length, as are the most minute details of construction, calculation, demonstration, and use. In addition to instructions on how to construct dials, Leybourn includes two chapters on reflex dialing by John Twysden and William Halton alongside other extensive commentary on dialing by Kircher, Maignan, Wells, and Samuel Foster. Additionally, Leybourn includes an extensive description and illustration of Francis Hall's elaborate and famous pyramid dial constructed at Whitehall. Hall's… Read More
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Zur Quantenmechanik der Stossvorgange (Quantum Mechanics of Collision) in Zeitschrift fur Physik...

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FIRST EDITIONS OF ALL THREE PAPERS DEVELOPING MAX BORN'S REVOLUTIONARY STATISTICAL INTERPRETATION OF QUANTUM MECHANICS, also known as the probability interpretation of the wave function, or the probabilistic interpretation of the Schrodinger wave function. Born argues - an argument that would lead directly to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle -- that quantum mechanics "could be understood as a probability without any causal explanation" (Wikipedia), prompting Einstein to reply in a letter to Born that "He [God] does not throw dice". Born came to his decisive breakthrough in understanding wave function when, "in a paper on the scattering of electrons from atoms, [he] observed that the most obvious interpretation of the wave function is that it represents the probability of finding the electron at a given location. More precisely, he added almost off-handedly in a footnote, its square represents probability, and this observation is now called the Born Rule" (Peacock, The Quantum Revolution, 58).… Read More
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A Three-Dimensional Model of the Myoglobin Molecule Obtained by X-ray Analysis in Nature 181,...

A Three-Dimensional Model of the Myoglobin Molecule Obtained by X-ray Analysis in Nature 181, 1958, pp. 662-666 WITH Structure of Myoglobin: A Three-Dimensional Fourier synthesis at 2 Å Resolution in Nature 185, 1960, pp. 422-27

by Kendrew, John

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1st Edition. Two volume first edition of a milestone in the history of structural biology, the first protein structure ever discovered. Kendrew's papers present the first solution of the three-dimensional molecular structure of a protein. "Kendrew's discovery was one of the greatest landmarks in the history of molecular biology" (Jeremy Norman History of Science). Along with his colleague Max Perutz, Kendrew received the 1952 Nobel Prize for this work. Two discoveries laid the foundation for Kendrew's work: "first, that the positions of atoms in a crystallized substance could be determined from X-rays passing through, and scattered by, the crystal; second, that the approach could be applied to very simple biological molecules (Garwin, Century of Nature, 88). The goal of Kendrew's team, composed mostly of physicists, was to understand how a biological molecule such as a protein works, beginning with how it is built. The papers they produced (both offered here) are "the outcome of a truly Herculean… Read More
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The Photographic Atlas of the Normal Spectrum. London: William Wesley & Son. 1894

The Photographic Atlas of the Normal Spectrum. London: William Wesley & Son. 1894

by Higgs, George

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London: William Wesley & Son, 1894. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION. EXCEPTIONALLY SCARCE. In the late 19th century, George Cornish Sutton Higgs, a British watchmaker and optician proficient in the sciences, built an extraordinary spectrograph and employed it to greatly advance the application of photography to the study of solar spectra. The result of that work is offered here -- "one of the best atlases of the solar spectrum then produced" (Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, 505).   Higgs formulated no new theories to explain the natural world, he did use his skill in optics to "construct one of the finest solar spectrographs then in existence"; he then used that invention to follow "in the footsteps of others, [gradually working to refine] their techniques with greater care and precision" (ibid, 506). " Higgs conducted his studies in a room of his small suburban house, using homemade apparatus. The accuracy of his line determinations and quality of his photographs were praised by leading… Read More
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Uber das Zerplatzen des Urankernes durch langsame Neutronen, Offprint from Abhandlungen der...

Uber das Zerplatzen des Urankernes durch langsame Neutronen, Offprint from Abhandlungen der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1939 (NEAR FINE CONDITION)

by Hahn, Otto and Strassmann, Fritz

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Berlin: Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1939. 1st Edition. NEAR FINE CONDITION FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPS OF THE OFFPRINT of the first of Hahn and Strassmann's "three fundamental papers on nuclear fission," work which, when confirmed, demonstrated the previously unknown phenomenon of nuclear fission (Dibner, Heralds of Science, 168). (NOTE: We separately offer another copy of this in very good -- somewhat faded -- condition). "Über das Zerplatzen" constitutes the "first comprehensive account of the phenomenon of nuclear fission. In 1938, the radiochemist, Otto Hahn and the nuclear chemist Fritz Strassmann 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). This paper "indicated fission of the uranium nucleus into two parts of about equal size with the release of much energy [in fact a tremendous jump over the energy produced in all… Read More
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Statistical Thermodynamics. Course of Seminar Lectures. Delivered in January - March 1944, at the...
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Statistical Thermodynamics. Course of Seminar Lectures. Delivered in January - March 1944, at the School of Theoretical Physics, 1944 [SCARCE HECTOGRAPHIC PRINTING OF SCHRODINGER'S SEMINAR LECTURES]

by Schrodinger, Erwin [Schroedinger; Schrodinger]

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Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1944. 1st Edition. 1944 FIRST EDITION. SCARCE PRE-PUBLICATION OF SCHRODINGER'S SEMINAR LECTURES. HECTOGRAPHED TYPESCRIPT housed in a custom case. Signed copy of the physicist, C.E. Easthope. OCLC cites only a handful of these specific printings: "very small edition of the lectures was published in hectograph form by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies" (University of St. Andrews). A hectograph was an early apparatus for copying documents. While this specific print-run is unknown, in similar cases it is usually under 30 copies. "From January to March 1944 Schrodinger returned to one of his first loves in science in a course of lectures on Statistical Thermodynamics. They were published in a small hectographed edition... In [this work] he covered the fundamentals of the subject with an insight and clarity that have never been equaled. The book is a distillation of his many years of creative work in the field" (Moore, Schrodinger, 415). "The… Read More
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The Mechanism of Nuclear Fission (Bohr and Wheeler, pp. 426-50) WITH On Continued Gravitational...

The Mechanism of Nuclear Fission (Bohr and Wheeler, pp. 426-50) WITH On Continued Gravitational Contraction (Oppenheimer and Snyder, pp. 455-59) in Physical Review, September 1, 1939, Vol. 56, Issue 5. [Single Issue in Original Wraps in Near Fine Condition: FIRST FULLY WORKED OUT THEORY OF NUCLEAR FISSION + THE FIRST THEORETICAL PREDICTION OF A SINGULARITY]

by Bohr, Niels & Wheeler, John AND Oppenheimer, Julius Robert & Snyder, H.

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American Institute of Physics, 1939. 1st Edition. ORIGINAL WRAPS, NEAR FINE CONDITION. 1st EDITION OF TWO (within a single journal issue) SEMINAL PAPERS IN THE HISTORY OF PHYSICS, one by Bohr & Wheeler and one by Oppenheimer & Snyder. BOHR & WHEELER'S "The Mechanism of Nuclear Fission" is the first fully worked out theory of nuclear fission and it laid the groundwork for atomic and hydrogen bombs. "The paper is a masterpiece of clear thinking and lucid writing. It reveals, at the center of the mystery of fission, a tiny world where everything can be calculated and everything understood. The tiny world is a nucleus of uranium 236, formed when a neutron is freshly captured by a nucleus of uranium 235. The uranium 236 nucleus sits precisely on the border between classical and quantum physics." By studying this process in detail, they show how the complementary views provided by classical and quantum pictures are both essential to the understanding of nature. Without the combined power of classical… Read More
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Ca 1795-1810 Early Cased Trepanning Set by McClellan, Complete
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Ca 1795-1810 Early Cased Trepanning Set by McClellan, Complete

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Ca 1795-1810 Early Cased Trepanning Set by McClellan, Complete Offered by Esoterica Curiosa: Dale Beeks, specialist collector, purveyor & curatorial consultant of historical surveying & scientific instruments. Study the images for condition and details. Feel free to ask questions. Dale: 319 431-5031 See our other items under Instruments, Objects, and Oddities Free expedited shipping.
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Traite de Mecanique Celeste. Paris: Crapelet for J.B.M. Duprat, F.T. de la Garde (Volumes 1-2,...

Traite de Mecanique Celeste. Paris: Crapelet for J.B.M. Duprat, F.T. de la Garde (Volumes 1-2, 1798); Paris: Crapelet for J.B.M. Duprat, (Vol. 3, 1802; Paris: Courcier, 1805 (Vol. 4, 1805); Paris: Bachelier, (Vol. 5, 1823 - 1827) [FIVE VOLUME BOUND AS FOUR; MONUMENTAL ASTRONOMICAL WORK]

by Laplace, Pierre Simon, Marquis de

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Paris, 1798. FIVE VOLUME FIRST EDITION SETOF LAPLACE'S FUNDAMENTAL WORK ON CELESTIAL MECHANICS & IN WHICH HE DEPICTS THE UNIVERSE AS A "GREAT SELF-REGULATING MACHINE" (Printing & the Mind of Man 252). First edition of one of the most important scientific works since Newton's "Principia." Five volumes bound as four - all first editions; all supplements present except the fifth. Includes folding plate in volume four. Laplace was the first to place astronomy on a modern mathematical footing, reformulating classical mechanics in terms of the calculus rather than the geometric constructions used by Newton. "Laplace's system of celestial mechanics (a term he coined) marked an advance over that of Newton, who had posited the necessity of a Deity in the universe to correct planetary irregularities; Laplace, on the other hand, when asked by Napoleon why his system contained no mention of the Creator, replied ‘I had no need of such a hypothesis'" (Norman, History of Science 1277). "Published over a… Read More
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Black Hole Explosions?, in Nature, Volume 248, March 1, 1974, pp. 30-31 [HAWKING'S MOST IMPORTANT...

Black Hole Explosions?, in Nature, Volume 248, March 1, 1974, pp. 30-31 [HAWKING'S MOST IMPORTANT PAPER IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS]

by Hawking, Stephen

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London: Macmillan, 1974. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPS OF HAWKING'S MOST IMPORTANT PAPER, HERE PREDICTING THAT BLACK HOLES RELEASE BLACKBODY RADIATION NOW KNOWN AS HAWKING RADIATION. Hawking's Royal Society obituary stated: "It is fair to say that Stephen's discovery ranks as one of the most important results ever in fundamental physics" (Carr, et al. ‘Stephen William Hawking CH CBE. 8 January 1942 - 14 March 2018,' Bibliographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, Vol. 66, June 2019). Running completely counter to prevailing ideas about black holes at the time, Hawking demonstrated that primordial black holes (those with very low mass) would evaporate and explode within a timescale shorter than the age of the Universe. If primordial black holes were formed in the early Universe, these explosions could, in principle, be detected observationally. At its heart, Hawking's theory is an area/entropy equation. It relates the entropy of a black hole (or, in essence, the amount of… Read More
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Communications in the Presence of Noise in Proceedings of the IRE [The Institute of Radio...

Communications in the Presence of Noise in Proceedings of the IRE [The Institute of Radio Engineers] 37, No. 1, January 1949, pp. 10-21

by Shannon, Claude

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New York: Institute of Radio Engineers, 1949. 1st Edition. TRUE FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL PRINTED WRAPS OF CLAUDE SHANNON'S MATHEMATICAL PROOF & REFINEMENT OF NYQUIST'S SAMPLING THEOREM (now Nyquist-Shannon), "THE BACKBONE OF MODERN COMMUNICATIONS" (Gran, Numerical Computing, 136). Following this publication, the paper appeared in Bell Telephone's Technical Publications. Shannon's paper, a manuscript first written in 1940 but held from publication until after WWII ended, "set the foundation of information theory. [It] is a masterpiece both in terms of achievement and conciseness. It is undoubtedly one of the theoretical works that has had the greatest impact on modern electrical engineering" (Unser, Sampling, 1). Note that we offer the Nyquist paper separately. An American mathematician and engineer, Claude Shannon is most often connected to the sampling theorem which bears his name. "Shannon is considered the father of information theory, which laid the foundation for digital communications and… Read More
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Space-Time Approach to Non-Relativistic Quantum Mechanics in Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 20,...

Space-Time Approach to Non-Relativistic Quantum Mechanics in Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 20, pp. 367 to 387, 1948

by Feynman, Richard

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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
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Uber quantentheoretische Umdeutung kinematischer und mechanischer Beziehungen in Zeitschrift fur...

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Berlin: Julius Springer. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITIONS OF THREE LANDMARK PAPERS THAT TOGETHER FORMED THE THEORETICAL FOUNDATION OF QUANTUM MECHANICS. "In spite of its high-sounding name and its successful solutions of numerous problems in atomic physics, quantum theory, and especially the quantum theory of polyelectronic systems, prior to 1925, was, from the methodological point of view, a lamentable hodgepodge of hypotheses, principles, theorems, and computational recipes rather than a logical consistent theory. Every single quantum-theoretic problem had to be solved first in terms of classical physics; its classical solution had then to pass through the mysterious sieve of the quantum conditions or, as it happened in the majority of cases, the classical solution had to be translated into the language of quanta in conformance with the correspondence principle... In short, quantum theory still lacked two essential characteristics of a full-fledged scientific theory, conceptual autonomy and logical… Read More
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