Books offered by JF Ptak Science Books

10-Volume History of Math and Science

Maximilien Marie. Histoire des Sciences Mathematiques et Phyiques.  Paris, Gauthier-Villars, 1883-1889, volume 1-10 (of 12 ). This is an academic copy, bound in half-calf and marbled boards, but ex-library, with inked call numbers on spine, and with wear and fading ti the spines, along with chipping, and with some boards attached but loose to the text block.  One volume has a spine that is mostly crumbled.  All that said, the text is solid. This is a reading-copy only, unless there is a desire to rebind the netire set.  (A fine copy is available online for about 1600 USD.)  This copy:  200.00

On Maire:    "Géomètre français, (1819/1891), élève de l'Ecole polytechnique, puis de l'Ecole de Metz, Maximilien Marie fut nommé, en 1863, répétiteur de mécanique à l'Ecole polytechnique, puis examinateur d'admission.  [Published works Include Théorie des fonctions de variables imaginaires (1874/1876), Histoire des sciences mathématiques et physiques (1883/1888).". (Larousse du XXe siècle).

Volume subjects includes: De Thalès à Diophante; De Diophante à Viète; De Viète à Descartes; De Descartes à Huyghens; De Huyghens à Newton; De Newton à Euler; D'Euler à Lagrange; De Lagrange à Laplace; De Laplace à Fourier.  (Lacks volumes 11 and 12: 11. De Fourier à Arago. 1887.--t. 12. D'Arago à Able et aux géomètres contemporains. 1888.) 

See Cajori pp. 294, 43, 162  For full text online see the Internet Archive.

Compton,  Arthur H.  "Corpuscular Properties of Light."  Lancaster:  American Physical Society,  1929.  1st edition.  Review of Modern Physics 1/1, 1929  Pp 74-90.  8vo.  Original orange wrappers.  Very good condition.  The first issue of the journal, with three contributions by members of the founding board of editors (including Karl Darrow and Raymond Birge). $125

Compton,  Kart T.  "Electrical Discharge in Gases", Parts I and II.  Menasha:  American Physical Society,  1930.  Review of Modern Physics, 2/2 and 3/2  Pp 121-222, 191-258  Royal 8vo.  Printed wrappers.  Very good copies.  $125, the pair

Tonnelat,  Marie-Antoinette (1912-1980.)  La Theorie du Champ Unifie d'Einstein et Quelques-uns de ses Developpements. 

Paris:  Gauthier-Villars,  1955.  1st edition.  Les Grands Probelemes des Sciences  156pp  8vo.  Printed wrappers.  Fine copy.  $85   Tonnelat, an historian of science and specialist in relativity, was awarded the Prix Henri Poincaré de l'Académie des Sciences, 1970.

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.

 

A Work of High Beauty--Hans J, Reissner's Work-in-Progress, 1944

JF Ptak Science Books  

I don't often have a chance to purchase manuscripts by significant scientists in their edited state, back from the journal to which they were being submitted.  This is the case with the material below, a paper written by Dr. Hans J. Reissner in 1944. It is a remarkable thing to look at, a precise and elegant archaeology of thinking, a sort of synesthesic display of multiple layers of thought.  It is a beautiful thing:

[Hans J. Reissner (1874-1967) was a leading German pioneer in aeronautics and aeronautical engineering and mathematical physics. He was appointed to the chair vacated by Arnold Sommerfeld at the Technische Hochschul at Aachen, where he established the aerodynamics laboratory and designed the great experimental wind tunnel at Aachen where he was the second director (after T. von Karman). He went on to the University of Berlin where he remained until 1938, when he left Germany for the United States. Reissner held a chair at the Illinois Institute of Technology and in 1944 joined the faculty at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute.  Van Karman spoke very highly of Reissner and attributed his work in aerodynamics to be as important as those advances made by Prandtl (see von Karman’s Wind and Beyond). Reissner was also celebrated with two anniversary volumes of Applied Mathematiics for his 60th and 75th birthdays (in 1934 and 1949).]

Reissner, Hans J.  [Work in Progress] Full paper, 14 leaves, typed carbons, heavily annotated.  Dated 1944.  $300

Oppenheimer

“On continued gravitational contraction” by Robert Oppenheimer and Hartland Snyder, & “The mechanism of nuclear fission”, by Niels Bohr and J.A. Wheeler, both appearing in the Physical Review, September 1, 1939, Vol. 56, #5, pp. 426-50 and pp. 455-59, respectively. 

First editions of these two papers, presented in the original wrappered issue of the great Physical Review.

They appear together in a single issue of the journal, a remarkable set of achievements found in one small space--remarkable even more for the fact that 1939 (as with 1859, 1543, and 1948) is one of those remarkable single years in the history of science.

The Oppenheimer and Snyder (a graduate assistant) paper is one of the most prescient in the history of modern physics, correctly physically describing (where Chandrasekjar and Eddington in their discussions did not) what happens in a particular collapse of a neutron star, and still today reads as fresh and and brightly as it did in 1939.  Really, it is an extraordinary work, and a foundation paper in the history of gravitation, the application of RT, singularity, and astrophysics.  (The Southampton GR Explorer site nicely states it this way: "This paper has strong claims to being one of the most prophetic ever written in this field of research. Today, 60 years later, this paper needs little revision - even the terminology is undated!")

In an often-repeated quotation, they write, somewhat in irony and in a certain and understated manner on page 456: "The star thus tends to close itself off from any communication with a distant observer; only its gravitational field persists". And later: "When all thermonuclear sources of energy are exhausted, a sufficiently heavy star will collapse. Unless fission due to rotation, the radiation of mass, or the blowing off of mass by radiation, reduce the star's mass to the order of that of the sun, this contraction will continue indefinitely", they wrote.

 

Next comes Bohr and Wheeler, “The mechanism of nuclear fission” is the experimental foundation stone (on the basis of the liquid drop model of atomic nuclei) of nuclear fission and the great leap forward in the construction of the atomic bomb.

Condition: the paper of the spine of the publication is about one-third owrn away, otherwise this is a very nice copy. Price:  $2500, with the condition noted. 

For the whole article see here.

From the abstract: "On the basis of the liquid drop model of atomic nuclei, an account is given of the mechanism of nuclear fission. In particular, conclusions are drawn regarding the variation from nucleus to nucleus of the critical energy required for fission, and regarding the dependence of fission cross section for a given nucleus on energy of the exciting agency. A detailed discussion of the observations is presented on the basis of the theoretical considerations. Theory and experiment fit together in a reasonable way to give a satisfactory picture of nuclear fission".

________.  Another copy, this removed from a larger bound volume, without wrappers.  $1250

 

Oppenheimer,  J.R..  Note on Light Quanta and the Electromagentic Field.  American Physical Society,  1931.  The Physical Review, vol 38, number 4, Aug 15, 1931  Oppenheimer's contribution occupies pp 725-747--hardly a "note" as stated in the title, especially by the Phys Rev standards, making this I think something on the order of a top 55-in-length or so article. We offer the entire issue, complete in the scarce outer wrappers. The following abstract is taken entirely from the beautiful and highly useful APS PROLA site: "J. R. Oppenheimer University of California, Berkeley, California Received 26 June 1931 1. Introduction: light quantum theory and quantum electrodynamics. 2. Extreme light quantum theory; spin of quantum; wave equation for quanta; eigenwerte and solutions of the equation; electrostatic quanta; angular momentum and selection rules; Lorentz covariance; theory of the charge-free field; quanta and electrons. 3. Quantum electromagnetics; reformulation to treat progressive and spherical waves; integrals of momentum and angular momentum; new introduction of light quantum equation; distinction between field and corpuscular theories; zero point energy, negative energies, and electromagnetic mass. 4. Interaction of quanta and charges; critique of light quantum theory."   $400.00

Oppenheimer,  J.R..  On the Selection Rules in Beta-Decay.  American Physical Society,  1941.  The Physical Review, 59 (11) June 1, 1941  Original printed wrappers.  Very good condition.  Oppenheimer's contribution is a letter to the editor, appearing on page 908.   $200.00

Oppenheimer,  J.R..  On the Interaction of Mesotrons and Nuclei.  APS,  1941.  The Physical Review, 60, July 15, 1941  The Oppenheimer (with Julian Schwinger) paper occupies pp 150-153 in this issue of pp 67-167.    $200.00

Oppenheimer,  J.R..  On the Limitations of the Theory of the Positron.  American Physical Society,  1934.  1st edition.  The Physical Review, 45(12), June 15, 1934  8vo.  Original printed wrappers.  Fine condition.  Written with W.H. Furry.    $175.00

Oppenheimer,  J.R..  Note on Charge and Field Fluctuation AND Note on the Production of Pairs by Charged Particles.  Lancaster, PA:  American Physical Society,  1935.  The Physical Review  Original printed wrappers.  Two contributions here in the January 15 1935 issue of the PR: combiend they range from pp 144-148. Other contributors to the issue include Eugene Feenberg, WW Hansen, John Rose and others.   $250.00

Oppenheimer,  J.R..  On the Quantum Theory of the Capture of Electrons.  Minneapolis:  American Physical Society,  1928.  The Physical review, Vol 31 Num 3, MArch 1928.  Original printed wrappers.  Very good condition.  An early contribution by JRO to the field of quantum mechanics, published back when the PR was published only once a month. His paper occupies pp 349-357; the entire monthly issue is offered here containing pp 317-498.   $300.00

Oppenheimer,  J. Robert.  On the Quantum Theory of Electronic Impacts.  Lancaster:  The Physical Review,  1928.  1st edition.  The Physical Review, 32/3, September 1928  8vo.  Original printed wrappers.  Good or better condition.  The Oppenheimer article occupies pp 361-377 in this issue of pp 331-531. Other constributors include Slater, Mulliken, Lawrence and many others. In the original green wrappers, uncommon.   $200.00

Oppenheimer,  J.R..  Note on the Theory of the Interaction of Field and Matter.  Menasha, Wisconsin:  American Physical Society,  1930.  The Physical Review, Vol 35, Num 5, pp 461-478  Original printed wrappers.  One of the longest so-called "notes" in the PR JRO's contribution here in the early new quantum mechanics is noted in J. Mehra's "Historical Development of the Quantum Theory" volume 6.    $400.00

Oppenheimer,  J.R..  Note on Statistics of the Nuclei.  Minneapolis:  American Physical Society,  1931.  The Physical review, Vol 37, Num 4  Original printed wrappers.  Written with Paul Ehrenfest, the JRO paper appears on pp 333-339 of this issue (paginated pp 333-457).    $150.00

Oppenheimer,  J.R..  On the Spin of the Mesotron.  American Physical Society,  1941.  1st edition.  The Physical Review, 59 (5), March 1 1941  Original printed wrappers.  Fine condition.  Oppenheimer's contribution is a letter to the editor, pp 462-3. We offer the entire weekly issue in the original green wrappers.   $250.00

Oppenheimer,  J. Robert.  Einstein.  Lancaster Pa:  American Physical Society,  1956.  1st edition.  Reviews of Modern Physics 28/1 Janurary 1956  4to.  Original printed wrappers.  Good or better condition.  This is a short (2pp) recollection by Oppenheimer, comprising the opening section of this 75pp issue. Uncommon.  $125.00

"His presence among us stayed us from the worst folly, and touched those who knew him with the light of magnanimity".

The Atomic Bomb Art of William Shockley, 1945.

JF Ptak Science Books

• Background Documents on the Control and Proliferation Issues of the Atomic Bomb
• Vannevar Bush Group, October 1945-January 1946
• William Shockley.  11x8 inches, 5 leaves, carbon copy, about 1500 words.  Excessively rare.  $2500.

(Click image to enlarge; the other four pages are located in the "Continue Reading" section, below.)
William Shockley on the Economics of the “Atomic Bomb Art”

This paper is one a small archive of background and draft papers and proposals by the Vannevar Bush group working on the question of the control of atomic weapons and the formalization of the American position regarding the use and control of atomic weapons, October 1945-February 1946. This archive consists of 38 documents relating to the development of U.S. atomic policy, with  contributions by President Harry Truman, Secretary of State James Byrnes, Dr. Vannevar Bush, (future AEC director) Carroll Wilson, Alger Hiss, I.I. Rabi, William Shockley, Frederick Dunn, Joseph E. Johnson, Leo Pasvolsky, Philip Morrison, Col. Nichols, William McRae, Admiral W.H.P. Blandy, George L. Harrison, and others.

I have written elsewhere on this site about Vannevar Bush and the coming atomic/nuclear arms problem--as perhaps one of the pre-eminent scientific minds in the Roosevelt/Truman administrations, Bush and others foresaw the development of the atomic arms race in 1943, and by 1945 Bush became a  fundamental thinker and advocate on the problem. The items in this archive are low-formal background papers, drafts of proposals, informal studies, as well as mature statements of thought that would become implemented in the core of U.S. policy regarding the spread and control of atomic weapons. They are generally carbon typescripts and necessarily of extremely limited distribution, generally have no letterheads, occasionally carry the authors’ full names (although sometimes only initials are used).

A note on William Shockley. The brilliant Shockley’s story is difficult and problematic: from the way in which he misused his interaction with the rest of his team at Bell Labs in the discovery of the junction transistor to his sinful racial and eugenic (and dysgenic) public persona later in life--it is a hard and long one to tell, and I’ll not try to do it here.  Suffice to say that I’m very aware of the very long shadows, and I think that other people should at least be aware of them as well, regardless of the staggering importance of “his” (with the wonderful Walter Brattain and John Bardeen) monumental discovery.  

The William Shockley paper was written towards the end of 1945 and is on five pages and runs about 1500 words.  He begins the paper with a logical statement of the issue of the economics of conventional and atomic bombing, ending with the sentence “For atomic bombing destruction is still more cheap”.  What Shockley is getting to is the overall cost of the amount of destruction caused per square mile, and the conclusion that he draws over these five pages is the destruction caused by the atomic bomb is 1/100th the cost of conventional bombing per square mile destroyed (“atomic bombing is probably 10 to 100 times cheaper than ordinary bombing”).   

Shockley also recognizes that the problem in the near future will be the increasing cheapness of producing atomic (and greater) weapons, and their developing accessibility to small nations.  “This cheapness is a new factor and indicates that an unparalleled loss of human resources will accompany future wars.  The ability of small nations to do great damage is also a consequence of the cheapness.”  He writes further that taking this thinking to its “logical conclusion”, that at some point in the future a single individual will be able to use this new technology to destroy the world.  The main point though that he was making in this line of thinking was the dispersion and proliferation of the new technology--that an arms race would occur, and that it would be dangerous, and that it could be very very bad.  Shockley has of course nothing to say about any of that or the implications of his finds as that was not his charge. 

After figuring that the cost of destruction by the atomic bomb was about $600,000 per square mile (compared to $6,500,000 per square mile for conventional bombing), Shockley concludes that “since the atomic bomb art is in its infancy, we may well expect future economies of a factor of 10 in cost per square mile destroyed…”

Shockley on the likelihood of casualties during the final invasion of Japan. 

(The following three paragraphs are taken entirely from CASUALTY PROJECTIONS FOR THE U.S. INVASIONS OF JAPAN, 1945-1946: PLANNING AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS by D. M. Giangreco in the Journal of Military History, 61 (July 1997): 521-82 

“As for Dr. Shockley's initial report to Dr. Bowles, it was not submitted until after Stimson had left for Potsdam. He proposed that a study be initiated "to determine to what extent the behavior of a nation in war can be predicted from the behavior of her troops in individual battles." Shockley utilized the analyses of Dr. DeBakey and Dr. Beebe, and discussed the matter in depth with Professor Quincy Wright from the University of Chicago, author of the highly-respected A Study of War; and Colonel James McCormack, Jr., a Military Intelligence officer and former Rhodes Scholar who served ! in the OPD's small but influential Strategic Policy Section with another former Rhodes Scholar, Colonel Dean Rusk. Shockley said:

"If the study shows that the behavior of nations in all historical cases comparable to Japan's has in fact been invariably consistent with the behavior of the troops in battle, then it means that the Japanese dead and ineffectives at the time of the defeat will exceed the corresponding number for the Germans. In other words, we shall probably have to kill at least 5 to 10 million Japanese. This might cost us between 1.7 and 4 million casualties including [between] 400,000 and 800,000 killed."--W. B. Shockley to Edward L. Bowles, 21 July 1945, "Proposal for Increasing the Scope of Casualties Studies," Edward L. Bowles Papers, box 34, Library of Congress. ... No accurate total of German military and civilian deaths was available at the time he prepared his report, but the number was eventually set at roughly 11,000,000. was not invaded and finished the war with just over 7,000,000 casualties, most of them from its armed services on the Asian mainland in fighting from September 1931 to September 1945.

The cointinuation of the Shockley paper, pp 2-5.   
Click on any image to enlarge it.   

Posted at 11:54 AM in atomic and nuclear weapons | Permalink

Technorati Tags: arms race, atomic bomb, nculear proliferation, vannevar bush, william

Edwin Bidwell Wilson. "Space, Time and Gravitation'. Article in: The Scientific Monthly, vol 10/3, March 1920, occupying pp 217-235 in the issue of pp 217-320.  Offered with the front outer wrapper, extracted from larger bound volume. Ownership stamp:  Brooklyn Public Library.  Nice copy.  Full text here. Einstein makes his first and very leisurely appearance at p. 231.  $35

Chandrasekhar, S.  "On algebraically special perturbations of black holes." In: Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series A, #1802, 8 March 1984, volume 392.  Article occupies pp 1-13 int he issue of 1-245pp.  Original wrappers, ex-library, with stamps on front and back wrappers.  Nice copy for this.  $50

"Algebraically special perturbations of black holes excite gravitational  waves that are either purely ingoing or purely outgoing. Solutions, appropriate to such perturbations of the Kerr, the Schwarzschild, and the Reissner-Nordstrom black-holes, are obtaine in explicit forms by different methods. The  different methods illustrate the remarkable inner relations among  different facets of the mathematical theory. In the context of the  Kerr black-hole they derive from the different ways in which the  explicit value of the Starobinsky constant emerges, and in the context of the Schwarzschild and the Reissner-Nordstrom black-holes  they derive from the potential barriers surrounding them belonging to a special class."--from the Royal Society site