Books offered by JF Ptak Science Books

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.     

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.       

On the Spinning Top

Jacobi, C.G.J.  "Rotation d'un corps", in Comptes Rendus des Sciences  de l'Academie des Sciences, 30 July 1849, volume 29, 1849, pp 97-103.  (This would be much expanded in the following year in Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik.)

Bound with:

Cauchy, Augustin-Louis.  "Suite des researches sur l'integration d'un systeme d'equations differentielles, et transformation remarquable de l;integrale genera;e de l'equation caracteristique", same issue, pp 103-106. 

The weekly issue offered in the original wrappers, removed from larger bound volume.  $250

Pask & von Foerster

Gordon Pask & Heinz von Foerster. "A predictive model for self-organizing systems." In: Cybernetica, volume III, No. 4, 1960, occupying pp 258-301 in the issue of pp 249-311, and published by the International Association for Cybernetics in Namur.   In the original printed wrappers, removed from a larger bound volume.  Scarce (surprisingly there are only six copies located by the OCLC, but then there are nine located by Australian Trove). $200

Signed by Harald Bohr

Den 10. Skandinaviske Matematiker Kongres (1946).  Printed in Copenhagem 1947, JUL. Gjellerups Forlag.  8vo, 383pp. Bound in cloth.  Very good copy of an uncommon book.  Signed presentation by contributor Harald Bohr.  $95  (It is probably a very infrequent thing where a significant mathematician also brought home a silver medal from the Olympics, as Bohr did in football in 1908.  He also looks *a lot* like brother Niels.)

William Jevons' Numerical Discrimination

William Jevons.  "The Power of Numerical Discrimination", an article in Nature, 9 February 1871, occupying pp 281-283 (but a tightly-packed, tightly-printed 4,000 words) in the issue of pp 281-300.  Offered in the original weekly issue, removed from a larger bound vilume, but with the original front wrapper and 4-pp of ads.  Scarce in this format.  VG condition.  $450

• "IN an article with this title in a recent number of NATURE, Mr. W. S.
  Jevons offered the results of some ingenious experiments he had been
  making to determine how many objects the human mind could count by an
  instantaneous and apparently single act of attention. He comes to the
  conclusion that the power of his mind was limited to something less than
  five."--review in Nature 3, 367-367 (09 March 1871)

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v3/n71/abs/003367b0.html 

• "In a remarkable brief note in Nature, 1871, W. Stanley Jevons described the results of an experiment he had conducted on himself to determine the limits of the number of objects an observer could comprehend immediately without counting them.  This was an important philosophical question: How many objects can the mind embrace at once?"

"He carried out 1027 trials in which he tossed an "uncertain number" of
uniform black beans into a box and immediately attempted to estimate the number
"without the least hesitation".  His questions, procedure and analysis anticipated
by 75 years one of the most influential papers in modern cognitive psychology
by George Miller (1956), "The magical number 7 plus or minus 2: Some limits on
..."
For Jevons, the magical number was 4.5, representing an empirical law of
complete accuracy."-- By Vincent Arel-Bundock, http://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/doc/HistData/Jevons.html

On the Construction of Magic Squares

A.B. Nelson (Centre College, Danville, Kentucky).   "General Rules for the Formation of Magic Squares", in The Analyst, a Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, published in Des Moines, Iowa, 1879.  Volume VI, No. 3, May 1879. The Nelson article occupies pp 73-77 in the issue pp 65-96.  Fine copy in original wrappers.  $25

Cauchy's Theory of Equivalence, 1847

Cauchy, Auguste.  "Mémoire sur une nouvelle théorie des imaginaires, et sur les racines symboliques des équations et des équivalences." In: Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l’Académie des sciences, Volume 24/issue 26, June 1847, the Cauchy article occupying pp 1120-1130 in the issue of pp 1117-1160.  Offered with the original pink wrappers, removed from larger volume.  $300

Cauchy on Wolfram Research:  http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Cauchy.html

See:  Claire Parkinson, Breakthroughs, Gale research, 1847 (Mathematics).

Binet, J. [Parisian mathematician/astronomer J.-Ph.-M. Binet (1786-1856)]

"Note sur la determination de l'integrale eulerienne binome...dans le cas ou l'un des arguments p ou q est un nombre rationnel."  In: Comptes Rendus,15 February 1843, the issue pp 345-411, this occupying pp 377-380.
Issue also incldes two short notices by Fizeau, including one on a Daguerrian process.

Removed from larger bound volume. Fine conditin.  $45

_____.  "Memoire sur la formation d'une classe tres-etendus d'equations reciproques.... " In: Comptes Rendus,12 June 1843, the issue pp 1214, this occupying pp 1273-1280. .

Removed from larger bound volume. Fine conditin.  $45

Gibbs, J. Willard.  "Quaternions and Vector Analysis" in Nature, 17Agusut 1893, pp 364-367 in the issue of pp 361-384.  Weekly issue removed from larger bound volume.  A tight, 3,000-word letter to the Editor. Nice copy. $95  --This is one of the war letters to Nature in which the battle for quaternions/vector analysis was played out, and in this one Gibbs is not pleased with P.G. Tait.