Search Results: Titles starting with O from Atticus Rare Books

New York: The American Physical Society. 1st Edition. 1956 FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPS of the two papers that won Chamberlain and Segre the 1959 Nobel Prize for the first experimental confirmation of the antiproton, a new subatomic particle identical in every way to the proton, except that its electrical charge was negative instead of positive. Chamberlain and Segre's discovery was the culmination of a hunt whose origins go back to 1928, when British physicist Paul Dirac formulated a theory to describe the behavior of relativistic electrons in electric and magnetic fields. Dirac's equation was unique for its time because it took into consideration both Einstein's special theory of relativity and the effects of quantum physics, as proposed by Erwin Schrödinger and Werner Heisenberg, to describe the behavior of slow-moving particles. While the math worked, few physicists gave Dirac's equation much serious consideration, because it allowed particles of negative energy. From the standpoint of both… Read More

London: Macmillan, 1995. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPS OF OSTRIKER & STEINHARDT'S CASE FOR A POSITIVE COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT DERIVED FROM THEIR META ANALYSIS. Three years later their findings were verified by supernova observations. In "the 1990s, issues surrounding the age of the universe and new astronomical measurements of large-scale structure led scientists to propose a role for a positive cosmological constant" (History of Physics: The Wenner Collection). In this paper, Jeremiah (Jerry) Paul Ostriker and Paul J. Steinhardt make their case based on a much broader array of observational data than had yet been accomplished. Ostriker and Steinhardt argue that "observations are providing progressively tighter constraints on cosmological models advanced to explain the formation of large-scale structure in the Universe" (Ostriker & Steinhardt, 1995, 600). By reviewing the current observational constraints, then, they show those constraints "can work in concert to determine the… Read More

1st Edition. FIRST EDITION OF ASAPH HALL'S DISCOVERY OF THE MOONS OF MARS. Three papers are included in this listing; the 2nd and 3rd are first editions as well. The first and most important is Hall's 1877 discovery of two moons orbiting Mars. The second, by Madan, proposes names for the moons and the third, by Hall, sanctions Madan's names. Hall was an American astronomer and mathematician, a "highly experienced and motivated satellite observer... in charge of the Alvan Clark 26 inch Great Refractor" (Pascu, History of Telescopic Observations, 2013). His "discovery of the satellites owed as much to his knowledge and insight as to his imagination and willingness to doubt conventional wisdom" (Sheehan, The Planet Mars, 63). In the first paper offered, ‘Observations and Orbits of the Satellites of Mars' -- the work that made him famous -- Hall details his discovery of the two moons orbiting Mars, including the history of his discovery as well as his search technique, timing, and the mathematics… Read More

London: Macmillan, 1949. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITIONS OF TWO PAPERS OF SIGNIFICANCE. The first is a Nobel Prize winning paper outlining the development of photographic techniques that greatly enhanced our ability to study nuclear processes and for the resulting discovery of the pion, a subatomic particle. The prize was awarded in 1950 to one of the authors, C. F. Powell. The second paper by Edward Simpson puts forward the Simpson Diversity Index; it "characterize[s] diversity based on the number of species present (species richness) and the distribution of the number of organisms per species (species evenness" (The American Naturalist 174, August 2009). Powell and his co-authors invented a photographic method for detecting subatomic particles, which led to his discovery of a new particle called the pi-meson, or pion. "Developed new photographic techniques for directly recording the tracks of subatomic particles. He then exposed photographic plates at the tops of high mountains, or sent them up in… Read More

1802. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION EXTRACT OF AN EXPERIMENT BY DALTON, "one of a series of very accurate experiments and observations on the power of fluids to conduct heat" (Monthly Magazine, Volume 14, 153). The paper is part of a much larger paper, "The Power of Fluids to Conduct Heat" that was published in the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. This section of the paper, "Observations on the Law of the Expansion of Water at Temperatures below 42°", was of particular import so The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science published it separately and it is that section that is offered here. "Mr. Dalton found that water is of the greatest density at 42.5° Fahrenheit's thermometer - that from 41° to 40° the variation is so small as to be barely perceptible on the scale - but that, above and below those degrees, the expansion has an increasing ratio, and at 32° it amounts to 160th part of the whole expansion from 42.5 to 212. He also found that the… Read More

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION of an in-depth, comprehensive, and profusely illustrated guide to observing the deep sky. Quarto. [xi], 348. 27 charts. 3 tables. 7 figures. For most objects, a range of telescope apertures in provided. Hardbound, as new condition.

London: Macmillan and Co, 1964. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION OF TED HARRISON'S SOLUTION TO A CLASSICAL PROBLEM IN ASTRONOMY KNOW AS OLBERS' PARADOX. ALSO INCLUDED, CHRISTOPHER HARRISON & BRIAN FUNNELL'S "DISCOVERY THAT DEEP-SEA SEDIMENTS RECORD REVERSALS OF THE EARTH'S MAGNETIC FIELD" (Gornitz, Encyclopedia of Paleoclimatology, 159). Complete volume. The British astronomer and cosmologist Ted Harrison had long been fascinated by Olbers' Paradox. Writing in this volume, he notes that the German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers "was the first to show that the radiation density everywhere in an infinite static universe should equal the radiation density at the surface of the stars" " (Harrison, p. 271). In other words, Olbers' paradox is that the sky is dark at night. Also known as the ‘dark night sky paradox', the issue is simple: If the universe is infinite and filled with stars, the surface brightness of the night sky should be the same as the Sun's, so the night sky should be as bright as the… 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

London: Taylor and Francis, 1859. 1st Edition. First edition, disbound, near fine extract of "the first full and reliable account of the state of vision in red-green blindness" (Report of the Annual Meeting, Volume 62, p. 735). Today Pole's work is considered to exhibit "highly ingenious reason"; at the time it was largely ignored (Ladd-Franklin, Colour and Colour Theories, p. 192). Includes large diagrams of Chevreul's Colour-Circle. William Pole's paper resulted from self-study as his vision was dichromic, meaning that his two color sensations were yellow and blue and that the red, orange, and green parts of the spectrum appear to him as varying shades of yellow. "Greenish-blue and violet appear blue, and between the yellow and blue portions of the spectrum... there is a colourless grey band in the position of the full green of the ordinary spectrum (RAM, p. 735). Pole notes that this neutral band is seen in the spectrum in "all cases of dichromic vision. It may appear white or grey according… Read More

1st Edition. FIRST EDITIONS IN MINT CONDITION AND IN ORIGINAL WRAPS of Abraham Wald's seminal work on sequential tests of statistical hypotheses. Before Wald, the traditional style of statistical decision was to posit a hypothesis, make a predetermined number of measurements, then make a decision whether to accept or reject the hypothesis. Wald realized that this procedure is quite wasteful, and that many measurements could be saved if given the option to decide at every step whether to continue or stop the measurement process. "According to Wald, the resulting ‘sequential probability ratio test frequently results in a savings of about 50 percent in the number of observations over the most efficient test procedure based on a fixed number of observations" (Gass, An Annotated Timeline of Operations Research, 65). In these papers Wald, known now as "the father of sequential analysis and decision theory," first presents the theoretical foundations of the theory of sequential analysis. The ideas he put… Read More

London: John William Parker, 1839. 1st Edition. THREE ILLUSTRATED FIRST EDITION ARTICLES ON THE DIVING BELL. The illustrations, respectively, are titled "Man Equipped in Klingert's Armour Preparatory to Diving," "Dr. Halley's Diving Bell," and "Spalding's Diving Bell." "Dr. Halley's Diving Bell" appears as the cover illustration. Diving bells designed by John Taisnier, Klingert, Trewald, Spalding, Smeaton, Brunel and Halley are discussed at length, with the Klingert, Halley, and Spalding illustrated as noted above. CONDITION & DETAILS: London: John William Parker. Complete volume 14 and 15 (bound as one), January to December. 4to. 11.25 by 7.5 inches (281 x 186mm). [8], 256, [4], 4, [256], 8. Bound in half-calf over marbled paper boards. Gilt-lettered, red morocco spine label. Blind-tooled at the spine and the edges of the calf. Some rubbing and scuffing at the edge tips. Tightly and solidly bound. Bright and clean inside. Very good condition.

London: Taylor and Francis, 1904. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION OF THE BRACE EXPERIMENT, "THE FIRST OPTICAL EXPERIMENT MEASURING THE RELATIVE MOTION OF EARTH AND THE LUMINIFEROUS AETHER WHICH WERE SUFFICIENTLY PRECISE TO DETECT MAGNITUDES OF SECOND ORDER TO V/C" (Wikipedia). Brace's results were negative, "which was of gret importance for the development of the Lorentz transformation and consequently of the theory of relativity" (ibid). The American physicist and specialist in optics "examined the question [of] whether the Earth's motion may cause a body to become doubly refracting," something which as first sight might be expected (PRNAAS, 1904, 6, 809). Earlier in his career, Brace developed "extremely sensitive optical techniques" to one of the critical problems of the time (Dictionary of Scientific Biography, II, 382). "Two years earlier, Lord Rayleigh had proposed that the Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction, if it existed, might produce an observable double refraction in a moving transparent medium.… Read More

New York: The New York Times, 1945. 1st Edition. First edition of the August 14th, 1945 issue of the New York Times, complete with "Certificate of Authentication" by the Historic Newspaper Archives. The certificate is #379910; it is signed and includes the seal of the archive. Einstein's article appears in Calaprice's Einstein Almanac, No. 244). The certificate will accompany the paper. Most assume that Einstein received the Nobel Prize for his theory of relativity and his famous equation, E=mc2. However it was for neither. In 1921, Einstein won the Nobel Prize for discovering the photoelectric effect in 1905. This principle states that, when sunlight shines on a metal, it emits electrons from the surface of the material. The energy from sunlight (photons) then transfers to the atoms' electrons and knocks them loose. This discovery was so significant that it has influenced the development of many types of technology, from electron microscopes to modern solar cells as we know them today. ALSO… Read More

Cambridge: C. J. Clay at the University Press, 1866. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION OF THREE PAPERS BY THE 19th c. MATHEMATICIAN & LOGICIAN AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN. "De Morgan exerted a considerable influence on the development of mathematics in the nineteenth century" (DSB, IV, 35). While De Morgan's framework was conceptual, he "was passionately concerned with mathematical rigor and wrote explicitly and extensively about mathematical foundations" (Rice, StatProb: The Encyclopedia Sponsored by Statistics and Probability). "De Morgan "did not simply preach patience in the face of problems of interpretation that were generated from legitimate mathematical development. On the contrary, he actively searched for clear, conceptual interpretations that would resolve what he saw as the unsolved problems of mathematics" (Richards, De Morgan and the History of Mathematics, History of Science Society, 1987, 20-21). Further, he was among those mathematicians "who recognized the purely symbolic nature of algebra, and… Read More

London: The Royal Society, 1944. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION OFFPRINT IN ORIGINAL WRAPS OF A PAPER BY LITTLEWOOD ON INVARIANT THEORY. Offprints are prized because they are separately printed by journals and frequently issued in small quantities intended only for the author's use and distribution to colleagues. "Dudley Ernest Littlewood was a British mathematician known for his work in group representation theory. He worked on invariant theory and group representation theory, especially of the symmetric group, often in collaboration with Archibald Read Richardson of Swansea. They introduced the immanant of a matrix, studied Schur functions and developed the Littlewood-Richardson rule for their multiplication. Littlewood was also interested in the application of representation theory to quantum mechanics" (Wikipedia). CONDITION & DETAILS: Complete. 4to. (12 x 9 inches, 300 x 225mm). Original wraps with minor toning at the edges of the front wrap. Very slight chipping at the foot of the spine. Bright… Read More

New Haven: Converse, 1831. 1st Edition. The work of Nicholas Marcellus Hentz (1797-1856) forms "the basis of the study of American arachnology" (A list of works on North American entomology, 77). A native of Versailles, France, Hentz studied miniature painting, then medicine, before emigrating to America in 1816 after the downfall of Napoleon. Hentz received an MA degree from the University of North Carolina and when on to become one of the pioneers in American entomology as well as the originator of American arachnology, single-handedly and formally describing 124 spider species" (Wikipedia). "On North American Spiders" was Hentz's second paper on spiders. ALSO includes Samuel Guthrie's landmark paper on the discovery of Chloroform and a paper on the geological age of reptiles by Gideon Mantell. CONDITION & DETAILS: New Haven: Converse. Complete volume. 8vo. (8.5 x 5.5 inches, 213 x 138mm). 3 unrelated plates. Bound in black buckram. Ex-libris with marks at spine neatly blacked. Small ex-libris… Read More

London: Taylor and Francis, 1856. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPS OF RARE AND PARTICULARLY CURIOUS PAPER OFFERING DETAILED IMPROVEMENTS TO SCHEUTZ'S FULLY FUNCTIONAL MODEL OF BABBAGE'S DIFFERENCE ENGINE by one of Babbage's "most vigorous detractors" (Computer History Website). The credit of inventing the first computing machines goes to the two Stockholm Based scientists, George and Edvard Scheutz . "Inspired in 1834 by Babbage's work, Georg Scheutz (1785-1873) a Swedish printer, publisher, journalist, translator and inventor, set about building a difference engine of his own. At first, he speculated that just one of Babbage's engines 'would suffice the needs of the whole world'" (ibid). "Each of its long shafts holds disks, and each disk has wheels with ten teeth that correspond to marks in the disks. A scientist could set the disks with known figures, odd or even, turn a crank, and by reading down on each shaft, find the result of a calculation. "The Scheutzes had no interest in… Read More

London: The Royal Society, 1844. 1st Edition. FULL VOLUME BOUND FIRST EDITION WITH BOOLE'S IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTION TO THE THEORY OF LINEAR DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS & ROSSE'S OBSERVATIONS OF ‘CRAB NEBULA' AS WELL AS HIS WELL KNOWN RENDERING. GEORGE BOOLE: "The English mathematician and philosopher George Boole (1815-1864) was one of the first men (after Leibniz) who believed that the human thinking is mastered by laws, which can be described by means of mathematic. Boole is the inventor of Boolean logic, which is the basis of modern digital computer logic, thus Boole is regarded in hindsight as a founder of the field of computer science" (History-Computer Portal). Boole received the Royal Society's Gold Medal for the work offered here, the first ever awarded for mathematics. The paper is a lengthy work "on differential equations, combining an exponential substitution and variation of parameters with the separation of symbols method" (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Sometimes described as… Read More

1865. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITIONS, FIRST PRINTINGS, BOTH IN ORIGINAL WRAPS, OF TWO PAPERS BY PLÃœCKER RECONSTRUCTING ANALYTICAL GEOMETRY, "HERALDING THE ERA OF LINE AND PROJECTIVE GEOMETRY" and introducing the Plücker coordinates which abandoned the use of Cartesian coordinates in a plane in favor of a system of three coordinates to identify a point — a geometry based on points as basic elements (DSB, XI, 46; MAA). Plücker coordinates created "a way to assign six homogeneous coordinates to each line in projective three dimensional space" (Wikipedia). Particularly gifted at obtaining the maximum amount of geometric information from his equations, Plücker's work employed creative and unusually useful computational properties that ultimately made it exceptionally well-suited to solving a wide array of computational three dimensional problems, most especially those involving visibility and light transfer. The papers, titled exactly alike, appeared in two different journals, each received on… Read More

London: Taylor and Francis, 1852. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION, HANDSOMELY BOUND EXTRACT OF FRANKLAND'S CONCEPT OF VALENCY, THE CAPACITY OF ATOMS TO COMBINE WITH OTHER ATOMS - A CONCEPT THAT REVOLUTIONIZED MODERN STRUCTURAL CHEMISTRY & THAT LED DIRECTLY TO THE WORK OF MENDELÉEV. Whether accurate or not, a number of historians of science have argued that the notion of valency is one of the most important ideas in the history of science (Philosophy of Chemistry). In this paper, Edward Frankland (1825 - 1899) introduced the theory that the atoms of each element have a fixed number of bonds they can form with other elements, and this entire capacity must be used. "From novel and highly obscure compounds he had discovered one of the great principles of all chemistry, which came to be known as valency. Although others, particularly August Kekulé, claimed priority for this discovery, Frankland was certainly the first to articulate the concept of what he called ‘combining power'. The results he later… Read More