Books offered by JF Ptak Science Books LLC

Thomson,  William.  On a Machine for the Solution of Simultaenous Linear Equations.  London:  Nature Magazine,  1878.  1st edition.  Nature, volume 19  `  Royal 8vo.  Very good condition.  Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) along with his brother James devised this early analogue computation device appearing in the December 19, 1878 issue of the great science journal Nature, occupying pp 161-162, the article being approximately 1000-words. We offer the issue, complete, with the original front wrapper and ads, removed from a larger bound volume. Also in this issue appears an interesting book review (of 3-pages) by James Clerk Maxwell, an article on the microphone by P.G. Tait (Thomson & Tait!), as well as a number of other interesting entries. The whole issue comprises 25pp. An article of the same title appears in the Proceedings of the Royal Society in 1879. James Thomson's article "On an Integrating Machine Having a New Kinemtic Principle" appears two years earlier, 1876, in the same journal.   $450.00

Jevons,  William Stanley.  Sun-spots and Commercial Crises.  London:  Nature,  1879.  1st edition.  In: Nature, a Weekly Illustrated Journal of Science,  Pp 588-590.  Wrappers.  This is the weekly issue for 24 April 1879, and although the Jevons article ccupies only 588-590 it contains some 3000 words. $500

Armer, Paul.  "Attitudes Toward Intelligent Machines",  The RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, September 30, 1960.  11x8 inches, 25 leaves, including 4 for references.  Offset mimeographic printing, staple-bound.  Very good condition. Scarce  when found in this format.  Probably rare.  $175    [Armer mini-bio available at the ACM Digital Library, here.]

"A BIRD IS AN INSTRUMENT WORKING ACCORDING TO MATHEMATICAL
LAW, WHICH INSTRUMENT IT IS WITHIN THE CAPACITY
OF MAN TO REPRODUCE WITH ALL ITS MOVEMENTS."  Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

"This is an attempt to analyze attitudes and arguments brought forth by questions like "Can machines think?" and "Can machines exhibit intelligence?" Its purpose is to improve the climate which surrounds research in the field of machine or artificial intelligence. Its goal is not to convince those who answer the above questions negatively that they are wrong (although an attempt will be made to refute some of the negative arguments) but that they should be tolerant of research investigating these questions. The negative attitudes existent today tend to inhibit such research (MacGowan, I960).

So starts Paul Armer's RAND Corporation paper "Attitudes Toward Intelligent Machines", (P-2114, September 30, 1960), published separately in Santa Monica and reprinted in Feigenbaum & Feldman classic work on classic papers in the history of computing, Comuters and Thought (and available in full, here), though there are differences in the online version and the one offered here.  (Another very slightly different version appeared in Datamation in 1963).

Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, a Historical and Critical Review of Mathematical Science.  Lancaster, PA., 1920.   Offered is the entire issue, in wrappers. Nice condition save for a small (1x.5 inch) paper library call number stamp on front cover.   Vol 28/7, October 1922.  $45

A. B. Coble. Cremona transformations and applications to algebra, geometry, and modular functions. Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 28 (1922) 329-364. MR 1560579.
Abstract, references, and article information
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Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, a Historical and Critical Review of Mathematical Science.  Lancaster, PA., 1920.   Offered is the entire issue, in wrappers. Nice condition save for a small (1x.5 inch) paper library call number stamp on front cover.   Volume 27, Number 1. October 1920.   $95

[1] Norbert Wiener. Certain iterative characteristics of bilinear operations. Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 27 (1920) 6-10. MR 1560347.
Abstract, references, and article information
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Benoit Mandelbrot and James Wallis. "Some Long-Run Properties of Geophysical Records."  Offprint:  Water Resources Research.  Vol 5, No.2, April 1969.  Fine copy.  $350

 

Hermann Weyl.  Mathematische Analyse des Raumproblems, vorlesungen Gehalten in Barcelona und Madrid.  Berlin; Julius SPringer:  1923.  116pp.,  Original printed wrappers.  Very nice copy. 

Banesh Hoffman.Three offprints, all in original wrappers.  $150/all

"Projecive Relativity", offprint from the Physical Review, pp 810-822, September 1, 1930.  Fine copy.

"On Genberal Relativity", offprint, Reviews of Modern Physics, pp 173-204, January 1932. Vol 4/1.Very good copy.

"A Modificationb of Levi-Civita's Wave Equations", offprint from Journal of Mathematics and Physics, Vol XIII, no. 3, November 1934. 

Hermann Weyl.  "A Half Century of Mathematics".  Original monthly issue of The American Mathematical Monthly for October 1951.  Article occupies pp 523-533 in an issue comprising pp pp 523-596.  Very good copy.  $50

Hermann Weyl.  Emmy Noether.  Offprint:  Scirpta Mathematica, vol III, No. 3, July 1935. 20pp.  Fine copy.  $75

Also:

Hermann Weyl.  In Memory of Emmy Noether, Visiting Professor of Mathematics, Bryn Mawr College, 1933-April 1935.  Address delivered by Professor Hermann Weyl of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, N.J.  April 26, 1935.  In original wrappers.  Very good copy.  20pp.  $75