Uber die Einwirkung einer geradlinigen Schwingung auf eine benachbarte Strombahn, WITH Uber Inductionserscheinungen, hervorgerufen durch die electrischen Vorgange in Isolatoren, WITH Uber die Ausbreitungsgeschwindigkeit der electrodynamischen Wirkungen, WITH Uber electrodynamische Wellen im Luftraume und deren Reflexion in Annalen der Physik und Chemie 34, 1888, pp. 155-171, pp. 273-285, pp. 551-569, pp 609-623, 1888) WITH Uber Strahlen elektrischer Kraft in Annalen der Physik und Chemie 36, 1889, pp. 769-779

Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth. 1st Edition. FIVE PAPERS BY HEINRICH HERTZ, TOGETHER PROVING THAT LIGHT AND ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES ARE THE SAME. Completing Hertz's demonstration of the validity of Maxwell's theory, Hertz "demonstrates that electromagnetic waves propagate, reflect, interfere and polarize just like light waves" (History of Physics: The Wenner Collection). Two volumes.

The papers "report a series of 'more qualitative experiments carried out by Hertz in 1888 on the analogy between electricity and light waves' (Dictionary of Scientific Biography, VI, 346), in which he showed that electromagnetic waves are longer than light, but like light can be refracted, reflected, and polarized" (Norman sale catalogue 1124). "This discovery and its demonstration led directly to radio communication, television, and radar" (Dibner 71).

In these papers, Hertz details his experiments showing "that the nature of [electromagnetic] reflection and refraction was the same as those of light, confirming that light waves are electromagnetic radiation obeying the Maxwell equations" (Sparkmuseum Portal). Hertz passes "electric waves through huge prisms of hard pitch, [showing] that they refract exactly as light waves do. He polarized electric waves by directing them through a grating of parallel wires, and he diffracted them by interrupting them with a screen with a hole in it. He reflected them from the walls of the room, obtaining interference between the original and the reflected waves. He focused them with huge concave mirrors, casting electric shadows with conducting obstacles.

"The experiments with mirrors especially attracted attention, as they were the most direct disproof of action at a distance in electrodynamics. They and the experiments on the finite velocity of propagation brought about a rapid conversion of European physicists from the viewpoint of instantaneous action at a distance in electrodynamics to Maxwell's view that electromagnetic processes take place in dielectrics and that an electromagnetic ether subsumes the functions of the older luminiferous ether" (DSB).

The papers "report a series of 'more qualitative experiments carried out by Hertz in 1888 on the analogy between electricity and light waves' (DSB), in which he showed that electromagnetic waves are longer than light, but like light can be refracted, reflected, and polarized" (Norman sale catalogue 1124). "This discovery and its demonstration led directly to radio communication, television, and radar" (Dibner 71). CONDITION & DETAILS: 2 volumes. Johann Ambrosius Barth, Leipzig, 1888 & 1889. (8.75 x 5.75 inches; 219 x 144mm). Bound in contemporary cloth and boards. Rather handsome old handwritten sticker on spine; prior owner's name on front free endpaper. Both volumes are solidly and tightly bound. Minor rubbing and scuffing at the edges consistent with age. Withal, very good condition with no marks.