Lancaster, PA., and New York: American Physical Society, 1948; 1949; 1951. First edition, journal issues, documenting the invention of the transistor, “which has been called ‘the most important invention of the 20th Century.’ Developed from semiconductor material, the transistor was the first device that could both amplify an electrical signal... More about BARDEEN, J. & BRATTAIN, W. H. ‘The transistor, a semi-conductor triode,’ pp. 230-1 [AND]...
Item #4566

Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1896. First edition, in original printed wrappers, of the discovery of radioactivity. The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903 was shared between Becquerel, “in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity,” and Marie and Pierre Curie, “in recognition of the extraordinary services..... More about Sur les radiations invisibles émises par les corps phosphorescents; Sur les radiations émises...
Item #3578

London: Taylor & Francis, 1913. Extremely rare author’s presentation offprints of his great trilogy, which constitutes the birth of modern atomic physics. “Bohr’s three-part paper postulated the existence of stationary states of an atomic system whose behavior could be described using classical mechanics, while the transition of the system from..... More about On the Constitution of Atoms and Molecules, I-III
Item #3293

London: The Royal Society, 1909. First edition, offprint issue, author’s inscribed presentation copy, of Bohr’s first published scientific paper. “His first research project, a precision measurement of the surface tension of water by the observation of a regularly vibrating jet, was completed in 1906, when he was still a student..... More about Determination of the Surface-Tension of Water by the Method of Jet Vibration
Item #4432

Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1923. In this article "Bohr discussed in greater detail than ever before the problem of the complex structure of spectral linesand the anomalous Zeeman effects. He argued there in connection with the case of doublet spectra that 'we must be prepared for the possibility that the... More about Linienspektren und Atombau
Item #2189

Copenhagen: Bianco Lunos, 1918-1922. A rare complete set of his major work in the scarce presentation-offprint issue; with ‘Separate Copy’ printed on the front wrappers. Inscribed by Bohr to Austrian physicist Egon von Schweidler (1873-1948) on the front wrapper of the first part. It was in this fundamental paper that..... More about On the Quantum Theory of Line-Spectra, I-III
Item #3545

London: Macmillan, 1928. A fine copy in original wrappers of this fundamental paper introducing Bohr’s statement of his ‘complementarity’ principle, the basis of what became known as the ‘Copenhagen interpretation’ of quantum mechanics. “From the epistemological point of view, the discovery of the new type of logical relationship that complementarity..... More about The Quantum Postulate and the Recent Development of Atomic Theory
Item #3024

Cambridge: University Press, 1913. First edition, journal issue, of this epoch-making paper, which introduced “Bragg’s law” of X-ray crystallography. “The importance of this work cannot be overstated, for it heralded a revolution in the scientific understanding of crystals and their atomic arrangements. This discovery led to many of the most..... More about The diffraction of short electromagnetic waves by a crystal
Item #4549

Lancaster, PA & Corning, NY: American Physical Society, [1923]. First edition of the ‘Compton effect,’ which demonstrated the existence of quanta of electromagnetic radiation, later called photons. “This discovery ‘created a sensation among the physicists of the time.’ There were the inevitable controversies surrounding a discovery of such major proportions..... More about A Quantum Theory of the Scattering of X-rays by Light Elements
Item #3588

[London: Harrison & Sons for the Royal Society, 1926]. First edition, inscribed presentation offprint, of Dirac’s paper, which “is justly seen as a major contribution to quantum theory” (Kragh, p. 36). It introduced his quantum mechanical derivation of what is now called Fermi-Dirac statistics, which describes a distribution of particles..... More about On the theory of quantum mechanics
Item #4390

Braunschweig: Friedr. Wieweg & Sohn. 1913. The paper in which he first formulated his 'Adiabatic Hypothesis' of quantum theory. "Two important heuristic principles have guided quantum physicists during the period 1913-1925, viz. Ehrenfest's Adiabatic Hypothesis and Bohr's Principle of Correnspondance. The Adiabatic Hypothesis, first formulated by Ehrenfest in 1913 [this... More about Bemerkung betreffs der spezifischen Wärme zweiatomiger Gase
Item #2133

Berlin: Julius Springer, 1928. A fine copy, from the library of Niels Bohr, of Fermi’s statistical approach to the determination of atomic structure. The association is particularly appropriate since Bohr had inaugurated the quantum-theoretical approach to atomic structure in 1913. Fermi’s approach was developed independently and simultaneously by Llewellyn Thomas..... More about Eine statistische Methode zur Bestimmung einiger Eigenschaften des Atoms und ihre Anwendung auf...
Item #3540

New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1985. First edition, first printing, and a fine copy in a bright dust jacket, signed by Feynman and from the library of a second Nobel Prize winner, Edwin P. McMillan. Signed copies of this first printing are rare: Feynman was notorious for refusing... More about Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a Curious Character, as told to Ralph Leighton
Item #4459