Books offered by JF Ptak Science Books

Book Catalog, 2012: the Sciences. Version 1.1 150 items.

JF Ptak Science Books

Books will be added to this list on a weekly basis.

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Abrikosov,  A(lexi) A.  Methods of Quantum Field Theory in Statistical Physics.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ:  Prentice-Hall,  1963.  1st English.  Very fine condition.  Fine dust jacket.  Alexi A. Abrikosov received the Nobel for physics in 2003; this is a glorious copy of his important book.  $135

Aharoni,  J..  The Special Theory of Relativity.  Oxford,  1959.  1st edition.  8vo.  Blue cloth.  Fine condition.  Fine dust jacket.  Fine copy in the scarce dustjscket.   $100

Akhiezer,  A.I..  Quantum Electrodynamics.  New York:  John WIley, Interscience,  1965.  Revised.  868pp  8vo.  Cloth.  Fine condition.  Fine dust jacket.  $100

 Alt, Franz.  "Bell Telephone Laboratories Computing Machine--I+II."  Washington DC:  National Research Council,  1948.  1st edition.  Mathematical Tables and other Aids to Computation, III/21  Original printed wrappers.  Very good condition.  $750.00

Dorritt Hoffleit.  Two papers:

1) The Discovery and Exploitation of Spectroscopic Parallaxes.  Offprint:  Popular Astronomy, vol LVIII, Nos 9+10, Vol LIX,  November, December, 1950 and January 1951.  45pp.

2) The Quest for the Stellar Parallax.  Offprint: Popular Astronomy, vol LVII, No 6, June 1949.  14pp. 

Both printed wrappers.  Very nice copies.  $35

JF Ptak Science Books 

Oppenheimer, J.R. "Note on the Theory of the Interaction of Field and Matter".  Offprint:  Physical Review, pp461-477, Volume 35, No. 5, March 1, 1930.  Original wrappers. VG copy. $200

"Great interest in his colleagues was aroused by [this paper]..." so stated by J Mehra in his fabulous The Conceptual Completion and Extensions of Quantum Mechanics 1932-1941. Epilogue: Aspects of the Further Development of Quantum Theory 1942-1999, here.

 

Shapley--the Great Debate and the Expanding Universe, 1921-1938

Three Papers by Harlow Shapley

(1) Harlow Shapley and Heber D. Curtis.  "The Scale of the Universe."  Separate printing, Bulletin of the National Research Council, Vol 2, part 3, number 11, May 1921.  Pp 171-217. Original printed wrappers.  A Good (and perhaps a Very Good) copy, pretty well read.

Full text of the report here.

A good explanation of the debate between Curtis and Shapley lives at the NASA site here:

"Although the `Great Debate' is important to different people for different reasons, it is a clear example of humanity once again striving to find its place within the cosmic order. In the debate, Shapley and Curtis truly argued over the ``Scale of the Universe," as the debate's title suggests. Curtis argued that the Universe is composed of many galaxies like our own, which had been identified by astronomers of his time as ``spiral nebulae". Shapley argued that these ``spiral nebulae" were just nearby gas clouds, and that the Universe was composed of only one big Galaxy. In Shapley's model, our Sun was far from the center of this Great Universe/Galaxy. In contrast, Curtis placed our Sun near the center of our relatively small Galaxy. Although the fine points of the debate were more numerous and more complicated, each scientist disagreed with the other on these crucial points."

"A partial resolution of the debate came in the mid-1920's. Using the 100 inch Hooker Telescope at Mount Wilson, then the largest telescope in the world, astronomer Edwin Hubble identified Cepheid variable stars in the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) . These stars allowed Hubble to show that the distance to M31 was greater than even Shapley's proposed extent of our Milky Way galaxy. Therefore M31 was a galaxy much like our own. In the 1930s, the further discovery of interstellar absorption combined with an increased understanding of the distances and distribution of globular clusters ultimately led to the acceptance that the size of our Milky Way Galaxy had indeed been seriously underestimated and that the Sun was not close to the center. Therefore, Shapley was proved more correct about the size of our Galaxy and the Sun's location in it, but Curtis was proved correct that our Universe was composed of many more galaxies, and that ``spiral nebulae" were indeed galaxies just like our own."

And what about the "great" part of this debate?  Well, it was, it just wasn't very well known outside academic circles, and certainly didn't take hold of the popular imagination of the time. So it really was a great debate--it was just quiet.

 

Shapley, Harlow (1906-1966). Two papers.

(2) On the Distribution of Galaxies.  Pp 389-393.

(3) Note on the Problem of the Expanding Universe. Pp 148-154.

Both offprints from The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,  19/4 (April 1933) and 24/3 (1938), respectively.  Both very good copies.

$300 for the three.

Jevons on Economics and Sunspots, 1879

Jevons,    William Stanley.     "Sun-spots and Commercial Crises."    London:    Nature,    1879.    1st edition.    In:  Nature, a Weekly Illustrated Journal of Science, pp 588-590    8vo.    Wrappers.    $250.

This is the weekly issue for 24 April 1879, and although the Jevons article ccupies only 588-590 it contains some 3000 words--meaning that this is a densely-pritned journal. This is the weekly issue of Nature, with its original wrappers, removed from a larger bound volume. 

This is a very early example of statistical interpretation in economic research.  "Jevons studied natural science, and worked as an assayer to the Australian Mint from 1853 to 1859. He became Professor of Logic at Owens College, Manchester, in 1866 and in 1876 at University College, London. His main theoretical economic work is Theory of Political Economy (1871). Other aspects of his work are collected together in Investigations in Currency and Finance (1884). He was one of the three economists to put forward a marginal utility theory in the 1870s. He argued that one commodity will exchange for another such that the ratio of the prices of the two commodities traded equals the ratio of their marginal utilities. Edgeworth criticized the way Jevons developed these ideas, and in so doing invented the indifference curve. Jevons also made an important contribution to the theory of capital, many aspects of which were, in fact, taken up by the Austrian school. He superimposed on the classical economic theory the idea that capital should be measured in terms of time as well as quantity. An increase in the amount invested is the same as an increase in the time period in which it is being employed. Output can be increased by extending the period in which the investment is available by, for instance, reinvesting the output instead of consuming it at the end of the production period. With given levels of labour and capital, output becomes a function of time only. He derived from this a definition of the rate of interest as the ratio of the output gained, by an increase in the time capital remains invested divided by the amount invested (see Böhm-Bawerk, E. von; internal rate of return). Jevons was also one of the founders of econometrics: he invented moving averages."-- See Gossen, H. H.; Menger, C.; Walras, M. E. L.     

The Foundation of Bacteriology, 1857

Pasteur, Louis. "Memoire sur la fermentation appelee lactique."  In: Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Seances de l'Academie des Sciences. Volume 45, July - December 1857. Paris: Mallet-Bachelier, 1857.   The Pasteur article is 4 pages (913-916) in the volume of 1160pp. First edition, and the first appearance of Pasteur's establishing the new science of bacteriology, which preceded the longer version the next year in Annales de Chimie et de Physique. Very good copy, with some damppstaining in the upper right corner in the last quarter of the book.  Horblit 82; GM 2472. $1000

Sun-spots and Commercial Crises, 1879

Jevons,    William Stanley.     Sun-spots and Commercial Crises.    London:    Nature,    1879.    1st edition.    In:  Nature, a Weekly Illustrated Journal of Science,   pp 588-590    8vo.    Wrappers.    This is the weekly issue for 24 April 1879, and although the Jevons article occupies only 588-590 it contains some 3000 words.    This is the weekly issue of Nature, with its original wrappers, removed from a larger bound volume.   $250.00

This is a very early example of statistical interpretation in economic research.  "Jevons studied natural science, and worked as an assayer to the Australian Mint from 1853 to 1859. He became Professor of Logic at Owens College, Manchester, in 1866 and in 1876 at University College, London. His main theoretical economic work is Theory of Political Economy (1871). Other aspects of his work are collected together in Investigations in Currency and Finance (1884). He was one of the three economists to put forward a marginal utility theory in the 1870s. He argued that one commodity will exchange for another such that the ratio of the prices of the two commodities traded equals the ratio of their marginal utilities. Edgeworth criticized the way Jevons developed these ideas, and in so doing invented the indifference curve. Jevons also made an important contribution to the theory of capital, many aspects of which were, in fact, taken up by the Austrian school. He superimposed on the classical economic theory the idea that capital should be measured in terms of time as well as quantity. An increase in the amount invested is the same as an increase in the time period in which it is being employed. Output can be increased by extending the period in which the investment is available by, for instance, reinvesting the output instead of consuming it at the end of the production period. With given levels of labour and capital, output becomes a function of time only. He derived from this a definition of the rate of interest as the ratio of the output gained, by an increase in the time capital remains invested divided by the amount invested (see Böhm-Bawerk, E. von; internal rate of return). Jevons was also one of the founders of econometrics: he invented moving averages." See Gossen, H. H.; Menger, C.; Walras, M. E. L.       

Rare Pilot's Directory to NYC Harbor, 1939

Fisher,  H.B..   Piloting Directory to New York City Harbor.  Philadelphia:  self-produced and copyrighted by H.B. Fisher,  1939.  40 leaves  Fine condition. 

Size: 10 x 8 inches. 40 leaves. Typed, Offset production, printed on one side only. Contains 8 maps. The maps are all offset and colored by hand.

Binding: cloth binding with hand printed cover label. THIS IS THE COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT COPY sent by the author to partially fulfill the requirements of securing an American copyright. Contents: fine little production. Condition: fine condition.

Provenance: ex-library, U.S. Library of Congress. This book was part of a very large collection of 90,000 pamphlets that we bought of the U.S. Library of Congress. Known simply as the “Pamphlet Collection” (as many of the pamphlets are identified in a distinctive and tiny 3mm rubber stamp), this pamphlet bears the “Surplus 1. Library of Congress” 30x50mm rubber stamp on the back cover, the stamp being half faded away. There is a tiny “LC” perforated stamp on the half-title page. There is also a Library of Congress Copyright Deposit bookplate on the front pastedown. $500.00

Japanese Propaganda to the Philippines on the Justness of their Occupation

Propaganda Corps,   Ideals of the New Philippines--Japanese Army Propaganda on Liberating teh Philippines.  1941/2.  37  12mo.  Printed wrappers.  Very good condition. 

There are several essays in this work, all of them address the victory of the Japanese army over the United States and allies (USAFFE), and calling for Filipinos to accept their new responsibilities in rebuilding their country according to Japanese and "Asiatic" ideals. In general the approach to the newly-captive population was that of a liberator, helping the Philippines to escape from the captivity of the United States. The Japanese call for a Marshall Petain model of rehabilitation:  "...you must surmount tremendous difficulties everywhere you go". There is no escaping the very determined, strict approach: ”Filipinos must follow the Japanese way or they will be deemed a traitor to the Philippines and to the Japanese Imperial Army. "Those who spread rumors about the return of the US Army to the Philippines are unpardonable criminals because they disturb the tranquility of the country". You shall never regret your collaborations with us",Yosihide Hayasi (Director General of the Japanese Occupation) writes strongly of the anti-Imperialist efforts of Japan and their Army's liberating efforts, and the plan to spring about a great Asiatic Asia, free of Western influence and the eradication of Anglo Saxon and Western imperialism. "Believing in the superior blood of Asiatic peoples, the Filipinos will wash away the defects of the Anglo Saxons." There is a further short essay by Jorge Vargas (Chairman of the Executive Committee), entitled "Philippine Islands Grateful to Japanese". There is also appended (from pp 28-37) the "Field Service Code of the Japanese Army”heavy belief in strength, discipline, honor, obedience.

Binding: self wrappers. Rarity: there are 14 copies of this work found in the massive and tremendously useful librarian's and bibliographic tool, the OCLC/WorldCat, nearly all in superior research libraries.  $175.00

Bollee's Calculating Machine, 1889

JF Ptak Science Books  Quick Post

[Source: http://www.rechnerlexikon.de/artikel/Bild:Bollee-mit-Maschine-CNAM1990.jpg]

This was a surprise, finding M. Bollee's article (Sur une nouvelle machine a calculer) in this 1889 Comptes Rendus, pecking around in that big 10-pound volume looking for something else.  It was very easy to miss if you weren't looking for it, just a few pages long in a 1000-page book.  But there it was, nestled comfortably in pp 737-739.  It these few pages Bollee describes his machine and with particular reference to his innovative approach to direct multipilication--a fine addition (ha!) to the long line of contributions by Babbage and Clement, Scheutz, Wiberg and Grant and Hamann. 

Notes:

Léon Bollée: "Sur une nouvelle machine a calculer", in Comptes Rendus de l'Academie Sciences (Paris), volume 109, 1889, pp. 737-9.  Offered in the original printed wrappers, removed from a larger bound volume.  Good copy. Scarce  $350

An image of the machine from The Manufacturer and Builder:

See:  the Making of America, http://digital.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=manu;cc=manu;rgn=full%20text;idno=manu0022-7;didno=manu0022-7;view=image;seq=0162;node=manu0022-7%3A21

 

German Report on British Bombing Raid on Hydrierwek Scholven AG 1940

Allied Bombing and a Report on Damage to German Industry:

Fliegerangriff in der Nachct vom 17./18.8.40 auf die Hydrierwek Schloven AG. 

1940.  Fine condition.  With 27 original photographs displaying bombing damage 

**NOTE: Hdydrierwerk Scholven A.G. was a synthetic petroleum plant and was one of the earliest targets of the British in the Ruhr Valley. It was owned by the Hibernia Mining Company, as a hydrogenation plant in 1935. Gelsenkirchen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northern part of the Ruhr area.

Publication Data: no indication of author/printer or which agency/department was responsible, but this looks like (to me) to be the beginning of a standard protocol on reporting damage from British bombing raids. It seems as though the typing under the captions is first generation. This may be a unique copy or perhaps (at worst) one of several. I would say it was of extremely highly limited distribution.

Size: 11.5 x 8.5 inches. 20 leaves with 27 original photographic images of damage caused by the bombing. Each leave is quite thick—much more stiff and heavy than a 110-lb cover stock sheet. The photos are all 3 x 4.5 inches, and are clear and bright.

Condition: fine condition.

Provenance: ex-library, U.S. Library of Congress. This book was part of a very large collection of 90,000 pamphlets that we bought of the U.S. Library of Congress. Known simply as the “Pamphlet Collection” it is identified by a distinctive and tiny 3mm perforated stamp, plus a bookplate at the front pastedown.

Binding: bound in thick cloth boards.  $500.00

"Gelsenkirchen in the time of the Third Reich In the time when the Nazis held sway in Germany, Gelsenkirchen, owing to its location in the heart of the Ruhr area, was a centre of wartime industry. In no other time has Gelsenkirchen's industry been so highly productive. This brought about, on the one hand, after the massive job cuts in the 1920s, a short-term boost in mining and heavy-industry jobs. On the other hand, the city naturally became the target of many heavy Allied bombing raids during the Second World War, which destroyed three fourths of Gelsenkirchen. Even today, many old above-ground air-raid shelters can be found in the city, and some of the city's official buildings such as Hans-Sachs-Haus downtown and the town hall in Buer have air-raid shelters still kept more or less in their original form. Two synagogues in Gelsenkirchen were destroyed in the anti-Jewish riots of Kristallnacht in November 1938. The one in Buer was burnt down. The one in downtown Gelsenkirchen was likewise destroyed. Exactly 66 years later, the cornerstone was laid there for a new synagogue. The Institute for City History set up a documentation site: "Gelsenkirchen in National Socialist times". Throughout the time when Hitler was in power, from 1933 to 1945, the city's mayor was Carl Engelbert Böhmer, an NSDAP member..."