1. Early Physics, 1896-1942.

Amaldi was a member of the elite inner circle of particle physicists in pre-war Italy, and was Fermi's chief collaborator in the important series of neutron bombardment experiments of 1934-1935. See Rhodes, pp. 208-09, 211-12, 216-21 & 231.

A major landmark in the development of the atomic bomb, Fermi, Szilard and Anderson here established experimentally the possibility of a chain reaction in uranium under the action of slow neutrons. See Rhodes, pp. 298-300. PRESENTATION COPY, signed & inscribed by LEO SZILARD on the front wrapper.

FIRST SEPARATE EDITION, offprinted from the Mathematical Gazette, March 1926.

Aston (1877-1945) received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1922. This is his classic publication in which he details his experiments demonstrating the existence of isotopes. This work led to "the reconstruction of the table of atomic weights. . . (showing) that they are only in exceptional cases whole numbers when considered as multiples of the weight of a hydrogen atom. The ultimate consequences of these discrepancies are far-reaching. The ratio between hydrogen and helium is not 4:1 as it 'should' be, but rather less; which means that when four atoms of hydrogen are transformed into one helium atom some matter is annihilated. In fact this is an example of the interchangeability between mass and energy which is postulated in Einstein's 'General Theory of Relativity'." -PMM 412; Heirs of Hippocrates 1183.

An excellent history of the study of radioactivity in the United States.

Capsule history of nuclear research from Zeeman to Hahn & Strassman.

Comprises: Sur les radiations emises par phosphorescence, p. 420. Sur les radiations invisibles emises par les corps phosphorescents, p. 501. Sur quelques propriete nouvelles des radiations invisibles emises par divers corps phosphorescents, p. 559. Sur les radiations invisibles emises par les sels d'uranium, p. 689. Sur les proprietes differentes des radiations invisibles emises par les sels d'uranium, et du rayonnement de la paroi enticathodique d'un tube de Crookes, p. 762. Emission de radiations nouvelles par l'uranium metalique, p. 1086. FIRST APPEARANCE OF THE FIRST ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE DISCOVERY OF RADIOACTIVITY AND THE RADIATION OF URANIUM. Cajori 272; Dibner 163; PMM 393; G-M 2001; Romer, papers 1-4 and pp. 7-21; Becquerel, 1903 checklist, 1-6.

FIRST SEPARATE EDITION, off-printed from the Smithsonian Report for 1902. This is probably the first publication of Becquerel in America.

PMM 393; Dibner 163. Within months after Roentgen's discovery, Becquerel discovered the new and previously unsuspected property which produced X-rays, and before the end of the year he coined the term "radioactivité." Becquerel continued his researches until 1903 when he summed up his results in the definitive work above. It contains a chronological narrative of his investigations, his mature conclusions, and a bibliography of 214 treatises and papers on radioactivity. LEWIS STRAUSS'S COPY, with an 8-line autograph note initialled by Strauss inserted, summarizing the importance of the work and indicating that he "bought this from E. Offenbacher in 1966."

FIRST EDITION IN GERMAN of Bohr's first papers on atomic constitution, with an original foreword for this edition by Bohr.

Translated from Danish into German and first collected here are: 1. 'Ueber das Wasserstoffspektrum' (read 1913, published 1914); and 3. 'Der Bau der Atome und die physikalischen und chemischen Eigenschaften der Elemente.' Number 2, 'Ueber die Serienspektren der Elemente' (1920) appeared originally in German. Bohr was awarded the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services in the investigation of the structure of atoms, and of the radiation emanating from them."

The very scarce festschrift for Bohr's 50th birthday. Includes contributions by Werner Heisenberg, O. Klein, C. Moller, and others.

This issue also includes, in the Letters to the Editor section, "Capture of Slow Neutrons" by O.R. Frisch & G. Placzek.

FIRST EDITION, written in 1941 but unpublished because of the war. This issue also includes Anna Beckman's biographical profiles of Nobel prize-winners Otto Hahn & Wolfgang Pauli, "Transuraner" by John Tandberg, "Ur Urans Kemi" by Lars Gunnar Sillen, "Urantillgangar och energifoersoerjning" by Av Josef Eklund, etc.

FIRST APPEARANCE of Bohr's epoch-making quantum theoretic reformulation of atomic theory, which revolutionized modern views of the atom. "In his great papers of 1913, Bohr presented his theory as being founded upon two postulates, whose formulation he refined in later papers. The first postulate enunciates the existence of stationary states of an atomic system, the behavior of which may be described in terms of classical mechanics; the second postulate states that the transition of the system from one stationary state to another is a nonclassical process, accompanied by the emission or absorption of one quantum of homogeneous radiation..." -DSB II, 244.

Bohr here takes up the subject from the standpoint of high energy fission fragments.

Excellent anthology of original writings on atomic physics from Lucretius to Victor Weisskopf.

PRESENTATION COPY, inscribed by the author to T. Ritchie Stone, M.D. Includes the first published illustrations and discussion of radiation burns.

First English Edition of Moderne Physik.

Bragg here presents in detail his researches and views on ionization and X-rays and the phenomena of beta and alpha particle scattering.

The Braggs developed the powerful technique of X-Ray crystallography for which they shared the Nobel Prize in Physics. PMM 406b.

An analysis of the Thomas-Fermi model of the atom, by one of France's most brilliant theoretical physicists. See DSB II 465-466.

Comprises "El Mundo al Diam" No. 13, 15 mars 1949.

From the "Romance of Science" Series.

A popular survey of recent developments in radioactivity, by one of Spain's leading radium researchers.

Collected articles published in The Engineer, 1950.

Comprises Annual Tables of Constants and Numerical Data 1. Text in French and English.

Offprint from Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series A, Vol. 155, No. 885, pp. 434-446, June 1936.

The collected public papers of Compton. With the errata slip inserted.

Mentions the potential liberation of vast amounts of energy through uranium fission.

Comprises Actualites Scientifiques et Industrielles XXXII. The Joliot-Curie's studies of the ejection of atomic nuclei by Bothe-Becker rediation were the immediate precursors of Chadwick's identification of the neutron in 1932.

Marie Curie's complete scientific papers, arranged in chronological order.

FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH of Marie Curie's epochal doctoral dissertation which she announced the results of 4 years of investigations, including her discovery that radium is a new chemical element. This edition was translated from the second French edition, hence the "Second Edition" on title-page. This is in fact the only English edition published in 1904. Very rare, with no copy located in BM.

FIRST EDITION of Marie Curie's most extensive treatise on radioactivity, summarizing all significant contributions to the subject, including her own and those of other researchers to date.

The second German edition of Madame Curie's epochal doctoral dissertation, which was originally published in French in a very limited edition for private distribution the previous year. See PMM 394a. See Horblit 19. See Dibner 164.

PMM 394b. The collected writings of Curie, whose tragic death at the age of 47 after being hit by a truck was a terrible loss to science. Curie's work can be divided into 3 periods. The first concerned the physics of crystals, and led to the discovery of piezoelectricity. In the second period Curie concentrated on theoretical problems of crystallography and magnetism. The third period mainly involved study of radioactivity with his wife, Marie, in perhaps the greatest and most romantic husband/wife collaboration in the history of science. The above volume includes an important 22-page biographical tribute by Marie.

The main body of text, in English, consists of Heisenberg's lecture for the award ceremony, in which he delivers a panegyric on Niels Bohr and a capsule history of the discovery of nuclear fission and the development of atomic energy, together with thoughtful prognostications for its political implications.

A good survey history of the fundamental discoveries in nuclear physics.

Title article is by De Broglie. Also includes "La Fission du Noyau et l'Energie Atomique" by Francis Perrin; "Transmutations et Rayonnements Correspondants" by Mme. Joliot-Curie, etc.

Offprint from Chemisch Weekblad, deel 34.

Presentation copy, signed and inscribed by the Author.

Diebner was the chief physicist in charge of the German War Office's atomic fission project. See Rhodes, pp. 311, 344, 517 & 607.

Comprises checklist of the library and manuscript archives of Nobel Laureate Professor Sir Owen Willans Richardson, as offered for sale by Peter Eaton. Especially strong in electron theory and manuscript materials, the catalogue is also a useful reference for ephemeral material relating to pre-World War II atomic science. Loosely inserted is an autograph note signed by Peter Eaton, indicating that the collection was purchased by Texas University. This catalogue is very scarce, as apparently only a small number were issued.

One of the leading theoretical physicists of his day, both Oppenheimer and Fermi studied with Ehrenfest to hone their mathematical skills. See Rhodes, pp. 127 & 206; DSB IV, pp. 292-294.

FIRST EDITION OF THIS PIVOTAL PAPER in modern physics and the development of the atomic bomb. "On p. 443 are probably the first explicit statements both of the equivalence of inertial and gravitational mass and of the equation for mass in terms of energy now regarded as the theoretical basis for the release of atomic energy." -Weil 21; Stanitz sale, lot 131.

Einstein's addendum to the preceding paper. Weil 21. This volume also includes papers by Rutherford, Soddy, and Geiger.

First edition thus, with new foreword and postscript.

Edited by E. Amaldi, H.L. Anderson, E. Persico, F. Rasetti, C.S. Smith, A. Wattenberg & E. Segre. The complete scientific papers of Fermi.

FIRST PUBLISHED APPEARANCE of Fermi's hitherto classified account of the first atomic pile, written for the Manhattan project's Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago after the first successful production of a neutron chain reaction in uranium in 1942.

FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH of this classic 1934 text, "still very valuable as an introduction to the subject."

Reproduces the compilers' notes of lectures given by Fermi January-June 1949.

OTTO FRISCH'S COPY, signed by him in pencil on the front wrapper. Offprint from Zeeman, Verhandelingen.

Includes: C.S. Wu. History of Beta Decay; Glenn T. Seaborg. Early Radiochemical Investigations of Plutonium; etc., etc.

A curious homeopathic treatise on radium therapy. At the end are ads for various medicinal preparations, including radium mineral waters, etc.

Translated from Russian. Presentation copy, inscribed by the Translator. Includes a summary of Gamow's work on estimates of energy required to split the nucleus by means of artificially accelerated protons.

The first "popular" scientific book by "one of the most talented and creative popularizers of science of all time." -DSB.

FIRST EDITION. Becquerel checklist, Number 152. The present copy has no title-page, apparently never bound in.

First edition in Swedish, translated from Norwegian. A survey of current knowledge of radioactivity. Concludes with a chapter on the geology of uranium and thorium.

Goehring was the discover of "Uranium X2." Here he thanks Kunz for interest in his work, discusses the new element brevium of 1913 and his dissertation on uranium, etc., mentions Kasimir Fajans and his theories. Text in German. With the original stamped mailing envelope from the Chemisches Laboratorium, Karlsruhe.

Offprint from Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series A, Vol. 170, No. 943.

FIRST EDITION of Hahn's report on his pioneering work on radioactive recoil. See DSB VI, 16.

FIRST EDITION. Hahn's first detailed account of his discovery of radiothorium, made in England early in 1905. Weeks, 796; Romer, 38. The volume also includes "Die Definition der Radioaktivitaet" by Soddy; & "Die a-Strahlen des Radiums" by W.H. Bragg.

Offprint from Abhandlungen der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Jahrgang 1944 Nr. 12.

FIRST EDITION, the very scarce offprint from Abhandlungen der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Jahrgang 1939 Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse Nr. 12. "THE DISCOVERY OF NUCLEAR FISSION OF URANIUM." -Heralds of Science 168; see also PMM 422. "[Hahn & Strassmann] found that barium, a medium-weight element, was one of the products when uranium was bombarded by neutrons. . . The presence of barium meant that uranium had been split into two nearly equal fragments, which represented a tremendous jump in energy over all previous transmutation reactions. Calculations showed that such a reaction should yield 10 to 100 times the energy of less violent nuclear disintegrations." -Ency. Brit, (1971).

FIRST EDITION, offprinted from the Abhandlungen der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Jahrgang 1942. Math.-naturw. Klasse. Nr. 3.

Presentation copy, signed & inscribed by Hammer. One of the first books on the subject, by the inventor of the luminous watch-face utilizing micro-quantities of radium.

FIRST EDITION, offprinted from the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. XXXIX, No. 5. Harkins here demonstrates a relation between the abundance of the elements and the structure of the nuclei of the atoms. See DSB VI, pp. 117-119.

FIRST EDITION, offprinted from The Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. XLV, No. 6.

FIRST EDITION, offprinted from the Physical Review, N.S., Vol. XV, No. 2. This paper announces THE FIRST EXPERIMENTAL SEPARATION OF AN ELEMENT INTO ITS COMPONENT ISOTOPES, in this case chlorine. For a summary of Harkins's important contributions to nuclear physics, see DSB, VI, 117-119.

FIRST EDITION, offprinted from Physical Review, Vol. 38, No. 7.

FIRST EDITION, offprinted from the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. XLII, No. 10. BERNARD JAFFE'S COPY, signed by him on the front wrapper.

FIRST EDITION, offprinted from Chemical Reviews, Vol. V, No. 4.

FIRST EDITION, offprinted from The Physical Review, N.S., Vol. XIX, No. 2.

FIRST EDITION, offprinted from the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. XLV, No. 9. Harkins was the first to use the C.T.R. Wilson cloud chamber to obtain exact determinations of the energy and mass of nuclear reactions.

FIRST EDITION, offprinted from Physical Review, Vol. 35, No. 7.

FIRST EDITION, offprinted from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. I. One of the first important papers in nuclear physics by American researchers. Harkins & Wilson here proposed the greater stability of even-numbered isotopes, and presented evidence for the existence of isotopes not yet observed.

PRESENTATION COPY, signed & inscribed by Perthes. Off- printed from Lehrbuch der Strahlentherapie, Bd. I.

Collection of 51 papers in radiochemistry and the life sciences.

ROBERT W. LAWSON'S COPY, with numerous penned marginal notes and corrections in Lawson's hand. It is undoubtedly this copy that Lawson used in preparing the first English translation (see below). George Hevesy (1885-1958) was a pioneer in isotopic enrichment, and was the first to use radioactive tracers as biological indicators. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1943. Paneth (1887-1958) likewise made important contributions to the study of radioactivity. During WWII he was head of the joint British-Canadian atomic energy team in Montreal.

"The present edition is not a literal translation of the original; it is essentially a new edition." -(Hevesy, in his preface to this edition).

One of 200 copies printed.

The Author was a member of the Manhattan project.

Contributors include M.F. Joliot-Curie, F.A. Paneth, G. de Hevesy, and others.

FIRST BOOK ON RADIO-GEOLOGY, by the founder of the science. DSB VII, 160-161.

Joly's work in radiogeology since 1909 is summarized here. See Lawrence Badash, "The Age-of-the-Earth Debate" in Scientific American, August 1989 for a good assessment of Joly's place in the history of geology.

The definitive history of uranium from its discovery in 1789 to 1898.

An examination of Bohr's theory of the atom, by one of the leading physicists of the day.

Number 2 of 4 copies printed. Author's doctoral thesis.

LAWRENCE'S FIRST PUBLISHED PAPER, written under the tutelage of his mentor at the U. of Minnesota, W.F.G. Swann, during his second year of graduate school. Bernard Jaffe's copy.

Offprint from Physical Review, Vol. 28, No. 5. Bernard Jaffe's copy, signed by him on the front wrapper.

A typically circumspect wartime discussion of uranium fission.

Report of "significant improvements of the apparatus. . . now called the 'cyclotron.'" Offprint from Physical Review, Vol. 50, No. 12.

Excellent short biography of Lawrence by Prof. Birge. Lawrence's speech makes a pitch for funds to build a 4,000 ton, 100 MV cyclotron, a wish soon to be realized in principle in the Manhattan project's D-shaped mass-spectrometer with its 4,500 ton magnet, dubbed "calutron" by Lawrence, after the University of California, + tron from cyclotron.

Offprint from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 12, No. 1. Bernard Jaffe's copy, signed by him on the front wrapper.

Offprint from Physical Review, Vol. 27, No. 5. PRESENTATION COPY, inscribed "With compliments of E.O.L," and signed by Bernard Jaffe on the front wrapper.

FIRST REPORT ON THE ARTIFICIAL CREATION OF ISOTOPES WITH AN ACCELERATOR. Bernard Jaffe's copy, signed by him on the front wrapper.

Offprint from Physical Review, Vol. 32, No. 3. Bernard Jaffe's copy, signed by him on the front wrapper.

Establishes experimentally upper limits to the possible magnitudes of the length of time elapsing during the process of absorption of a quantum of energy photo-electrically by an electron, and the so-called length of a light quantum. Bernard Jaffe's copy, signed by him on the front wrapper.

FIRST REPORT OF THE INVENTION OF THE CYCLOTRON, a major step towards the release of atomic energy. The cyclotron was used by Lawrence to initiate and study nuclear reactions of many kinds, and was an indispensable tool in the development of the atomic bomb, not to mention all subsequent work in nuclear physics. Bernard Jaffe's copy, signed by him on the front wrapper.

Offprint from Physical Review, Vol. 38, No. 11. LAWRENCE'S FIRST PAPER ON ION ACCELERATION, offering improvements on Wideroe's linear accelerator, yielding for heavier ions an acceleration corresponding to 1.26 mv. Bernard Jaffe's copy, signed by him on the front wrappers.

First demonstration of the greater biological effect, per unit ionization, of neutrons versus X-rays. Bernard Jaffe's copy, signed by him on the front wrapper.

History of radiochemistry and Lind Festschrift.

Reprints with explanatory notes various classic papers.

5 chapters, each in turn devoted to the radiation theories of Kirchhoff, Boltzmann, Wien, Jeans, and Planck.

This is the first general manual for making radioactive measurements, and the first separately printed account of the instrument now known as the "Geiger Counter." For biography of Geiger, see DSB V, 330-333.

Marckwald was the discover of ionium. Here he sends Kunz a sample of radium telluride for his exhibit, presumably at the American Museum of Natural History. He discusses the scarcity of Joachimsthal pitchblende, and remarks on the difficulty of purchasing commercial radium samples. Text in German, with accompanying English translation.

Dibner 168. In this classic paper, Meitner signals the study of nuclear change by means of the bombardment of atoms of many elements by alpha particles.

FIRST EDITION AND APPEARANCE OF ONE OF THE MOST MOMENTOUS SCIENTIFIC PAPERS EVER PUBLISHED, IN WHICH NUCLEAR FISSION IS FIRST RECOGNIZED AND NAMED. PMM 422; Smyth, p. 10 ff. Meitner and Frisch here report their interpretation of the recent results achieved by Hahn & Strassmann with the following now-famous lines: "It seems therefore possible that the uranium nucleus has only small stability of form, and may, after neutron capture, divide itself into two nuclei of roughly equal size. . . ." Meitner and Frisch christened the "new type of nuclear reaction 'Nuclear Fission.'" The present volume also includes other important related contributions by Meitner, Frisch, and Niels Bohr.

JAMES CHADWICK'S COPY, signed by him on the front free endpaper.

PMM 407. Moseley's work, first reported here, gave experimental confirmation that it is nuclear charge (atomic number), not atomic weight, that determines the properties of the elements. "Considered by Rutherford as 'a born experimenter,' Moseley in his brief life established one great fact-the primacy of atomic number. On this basis all later developments in nuclear physics and atomic chemistry have been built." -Williams, p. 380.

The first significant work on cyclotrons published in France. Presentation copy, signed & inscribed by the Author.

J.A.R. Newlands is credited with taking the pioneering step toward the discovery of the periodic law. "In 1864 he arranged the elements in the order of increasing atomic weights, and noticed that after each interval of eight elements, similar physical and chemical properties reappeared. . . but for this law of octaves he gained nothing but public ridicule from the English Chemical Society." -Weeks. In 1884, Newlands collected his papers on the subject into the present monograph in an attempt to support his priority over Mendeleev.

Also includes Anna Beckman's report on the awarding of the 1938 Nobel prize in physics to Enrico Fermi.

The Whidden Lectures for 1962.

Perrin (1870-1942) is known for his work on cathode rays, the Brownian motion, and for his calculation of the Avogadro number. "At the turn of the century there was still considerable doubt as to whether matter was really composed of atoms. . . it was Perrin's experiments which finally convinced the world that atoms existed." -Williams, p. 414.

Includes: "Energy Production in Stars" by H.A. Bethe (Boorse & Motz, paper 90); and "Radioactivity Induced by Nuclear Excitations: I. Excitations by Neutrons" by M. Goldhaber, R.D. Hill, and Leo Szilard.