London: Harrison and Sons, 1909. A fine copy, in the original wrappers, of the famous Geiger-Marsden experiment (or gold foil experiment) which demonstrated for the first time the existence of the atomic nucleus, leading to the downfall of Thomson’s plum-pudding model of the atom, and the development of the Rutherford..... More
Item #3587
New York; London: Scribners; E. Arnold, 1902. First edition, inscribed presentation copy to the great French mathematician and mathematical physicist Henri Poincaré. “Of Gibbs [Einstein] wrote in 1918: ‘[His] book is … a masterpiece, even though it is hard to read and the main points are found between the lines’”..... More
Item #4733
![Elements of Vector Analysis. [Offered with:] Autograph letter from Gibbs to John Monroe Van...](/pictures/thumb/4853a.jpg?v=1572955809)
New Haven: Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, 1881. First edition, first issue (see below), of this extremely rare pamphlet which “marks the beginning of modern vector analysis” (Crowe, p. 150). “Nearly all branches of classical physics and many areas of modern physics are now presented in the language of vectors, and..... More
Item #4853
Salem, Mass. Salem Press, 1886. First edition, very rare offprint issue. “One of Gibbs’ most famous papers was entitled ‘On Multiple Algebra.’ It was given as an ‘Address before the Section of Mathematics and Astronomy of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, by the Vice-President’ and was published..... More
Item #4433
London: Peter Short, 1600. First edition of “the first major English scientific treatise based on experimental methods of research. Gilbert was chiefly concerned with magnetism; but as a digression he discusses in his second book the attractive effect of amber (electrum), and thus may be regarded as the founder of..... More
Item #4577
Paris: Chez l'autheur, 1663. Rare first edition of this very important chemistry text, which went through some thirteen editions between 1663 and 1710. It is one of the earliest attempts to strip chemistry from its alchemical mysticism and to describe chemical preparations in an unambiguous manner. "The work is divided..... More
Item #3412
![A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes [with:] Liquid Propellant Rocket Development. Robert...](/pictures/thumb/4854a.jpg?v=1572955815)
Washington D.C. Smithsonian Institution, 1919 & 1936. First edition, presentation copies in the original printed wrappers, inscribed by Goddard, and with a highly important association, of the most influential early works on rocketry, which provided the foundation for the modern space age. “Having explored the mathematical practicality of rocketry since..... More
Item #4854
Leipzig & Berlin: B.G. Teubner & F. Deuticke, 1931-1937. First editions, and a fine complete set in the original printed wrappers, of all eight issues of these proceedings to which Gödel contributed thirteen important papers and remarks on the foundations of logic and mathematics. The last three issues are particularly..... More
Item #4846
Leipzig & Berlin: B.G. Teubner, 1931-33. First editions, and a fine set in the original printed wrappers, of these rare proceedings to which Gödel contributed thirteen important papers and remarks on the foundations of logic and mathematics (see below for a complete annotated listing). The most important are perhaps ‘Über..... More
Item #3707
Berlin: Springer, 1926. First edition of Gordon’s account of the ‘Klein-Gordon equation’ (‘KG equation’ in what follows), the first attempt at unifying wave mechanics with special relativity. The KG equation was discovered by several authors independently, the first being the Swedish physicist Oskar Klein, although the equation appeared only incidentally..... More
Item #4497
[Leyden]: in bibliopolio Commeliniano sumptibus viduae Joannis Comelini, 1620. First edition, extremely rare, of one of the earliest modern works on atomism. “Gorlaeus is counted among the founders of modern atomism, which he proposed as an alternative to Aristotelian matter theory. Because of his notion of atomic compounds, he is..... More
Item #4573
La Flèche: George Griveau, 1645. Presentation copy of the first edition of this rare and richly illustrated Jesuit anti-Copernican tract by Jacques Grandami (1588-1672), rector of the Jesuit college of La Flèche, which was attended by both Descartes and Mersenne. In this work Grandami employs the ‘magnetic philosophy’ initiated by..... More
Item #4171
Naples: Matthaeus Nuccius, 1627. First Italian edition, very rare, of Grassi’s counter-polemic against Galileo’s Il saggiatore (1623). This is the concluding work in the series of publications which document the “controversy of the comets,” one of the most infamous polemics in the history of science. According to Drake, these texts..... More
Item #4009
Oxford: Sheldonian Theatre, 1702. A fine copy of the first text book of astronomy based on Newtonian principles, which contains the first printings of Newton's lunar theory and his "classical scholia". Babson 71; Gray 87. "The nephew of James Gregory, the mathematician, and the son of the Laird of Kinnairdie..... More
Item #2221
Oxford: Sheldonian Theatre, 1695. First edition of this rare work, famous today for its suggestion that an achromatic compound lens might be formed by combining simples lenses of different media. The use of ‘achromatic doublets’ was a crucial step in the further development of telescopes and microscopes. From Marischal College..... More
Item #3190
Bologna: heirs of Vittorio Benacci for Girolamo Bernia, 1665. A fine copy of Grimaldi’s only publication. This very important book contains the first account of the diffraction of light discovered by the author and it marks the first scientific attempt to establish a comprehensive wave theory of light. ❧Macclesfield 943..... More
Item #3397
Amsterdam: Johanned Jansson Waesberge, 1672. First edition of this book “of prime importance in electrical discovery, air-pressure and the vacuum pump.” The Experimenta nova (1672) ranks next to Gilbert’s De magnete (1611) in the number and importance of electrical discoveries described” (Sparrow). ❧Dibner, Heralds of Science 55; Evans, First Editions..... More
Item #3763
Nuremberg: printed by Christoph Gerhard for Paulus Fürst, 1666. First edition of one of the most beautiful instrument books published in the seventeenth century and certainly one of the rarest, particularly with the full complement of plates. This work is an enlargement, by his student Sturm, of Habrecht’s famous treatise..... More
Item #4705
![‘Uber das Zerplatzen des Urankernes Durch Langsame Neutronen.’ [TOGETHER WITH:] HAHN,...](/pictures/thumb/4152.jpg?v=1485810148)
Berlin: Walter de Gruyter und Co., 1939 [1942, 1944]. First edition, offprint issues, of the three fundamental papers on nuclear fission which eventually lead to the creation of the atom bomb. “…experiments conducted in 1938 at Berlin by Hahn and Strassman [sic] were reported to Lise Meitner, an Austrian scientist..... More
Item #4152
London: Printed for the Author, and Sold by Mr. Sandby, 1765. First edition, extremely rare, published by Harrison (1693-1776) himself with the technical assistance of the optical instrument maker James Short (1710-68), in which Harrison defended the success of his chronometer H4, and staked his claim to be awarded the..... More
Item #3952
London: W. Richardson and S. Clarke for John Nourse and Mess. Mount and Page, 1767. First edition, one of the very few copies with the plates printed on India paper, of the “description of the famous solution to the centuries-old world-wide problem of finding the longitude” (Grolier/Horblit). “Harrison’s chronometer not..... More
Item #4835
Paris: J. Anisson, 1694. First edition, rare, of Hartsoeker's first and most important work, in which he reviewed the principles of optics as far as they were known by the end of the 17th century. In addition to the physics of light and the physiology of vision, the book also..... More
Item #4518
Leyden: Johann Maire, 1639. Third, but second complete, edition of the single most important and famous medical book ever published, containing Harvey’s discovery and experimental proof of the circulation of the blood, which created a revolution in physiology comparable to the Copernican revolution in astronomy. Harvey’s discovery was to become..... More
Item #3607
London: William Dugard, for Octavian Pulleyn, 1651. John Evelyn’s copy, and possibly the unique copy containing the portrait of Harvey, of the first edition of “the most important book on [embryology] to appear during the seventeenth century” (Garrison-Morton). In this work, “he rejected the prevailing doctrine of the preformation of..... More
Item #4785
Rotterdam: Arnold Leers, 1648. First edition of the Exercitationes, one of two issues published simultaneously (see below), of this rare and important work, a defence of his theory of the circulation of the blood against the Parisian physician Jean Riolan the younger. It is here bound after the first Rotterdam..... More
Item #3630