Details
DOPPLER, Johann Christian (1803-1853). Ueber das farbige Licht der Doppelsterne und einiger anderer Gestirne des Himmels. Offprint from Abhandlungen der knigl. bhmischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Prag 5th series, 2 (1842). Prague: Gottlieb Haase for Borrosch & Andr, 1842.
4o (262 x 211 mm). One lithographed plate. (Light foxing). 19th-century quarter morocco, unidentified gilt coat of arms on sides (motto "Ardeo Persevero Spero"), preserving original printed wrappers, later paper label "Printed in Germany" pasted to upper wrapper (wrappers slightly stained). Provenance: Kazan, Imperial Observatory ([author's?] inscription on front wrapper "fr die kais[erliche] Sternwarte zu Kazan," crossed out; Dr. Karl Kreil (1798-1862), Austrian astronomer and meteorologist (signature and shelfmark on title and wrapper); Dr. Schwarz IGti (inkstamp on verso of title); a few pencilled marginal coroections.
FIRST EDITION, offprint issue, of the first statement of the Doppler principle, one of the most basic tools of modern astronomy, "which relates the observed frequency of a wave to the motion of the source or the observer relative to the medium in which the wave is propagated" (DSB). In this paper, read to the Prague Gesellschaft der Wissenschaft on 25 May 1842, Doppler derived the correct elementary formula for motion of either the source or the observer along the line between them; the formula for the motion of both at the same time appeared in an article of 1846. Doppler mentions the application of the principle to both acoustics and optics, "particularly to the colored appearance of double stars and to the fluctuation of variable stars and novae. The reasoning for the latter arguments was not always very cogent; for example, he believed that all stars were intrinsically white and emitted only or mainly in the visible spectrum", and erroneously concluded that a receding star would appear redder and an approaching star bluer. "It should be noted that Doppler worked under rather isolated circumstances, being the earliest important physicist in Austria in the nineteenth century" (DSB). The acoustical effect was experimentally proven by Buys Ballot at Utrecht in 1845. Three years later, the French physicist Hippolyte Fizeau, unaware of Doppler's work, published a paper describing the acoustical effect and noting its application to optics and its usefulness for astronomical observation. Fizeau, unlike Doppler, was aware of the invisible stellar radiations at either end of the spectrum and thus correctly interpreted the implications of the effect: a moving light source would cause a global shift in the frequency of the light "waves" throughout the spectrum toward either the red or the violet end of the spectrum depending on the relative position of the viewer. Fizeau noted the potential usefulness of this effect for astronomical observation, "a point of such importance that the principle is sometimes called the Doppler-Fizeau principle" (op. cit.). In 1868 the British astrophysicist William Huggins first applied the principle by measuring the shift in the spectra of Sirius and thus calculated the velocity of its movement away from the earth. "Since then the technique has provided the science of astrophysics with one of its most important tools for measuring the size and the structure of the universe" (ibid.). Current applications include Doppler radar and machines to measure blood flow.
INTERESTING ASSOCIATION COPY. Karl Kreil, author of several works on comets, meteorology and terrestrial magnetism, worked in the same academic circles in Vienna and Prague as the author, with whom he was undoubtedly acquainted. Norman 651.
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FIRST EDITION, offprint issue, of the first statement of the Doppler principle, one of the most basic tools of modern astronomy, "which relates the observed frequency of a wave to the motion of the source or the observer relative to the medium in which the wave is propagated" (DSB). In this paper, read to the Prague Gesellschaft der Wissenschaft on 25 May 1842, Doppler derived the correct elementary formula for motion of either the source or the observer along the line between them; the formula for the motion of both at the same time appeared in an article of 1846. Doppler mentions the application of the principle to both acoustics and optics, "particularly to the colored appearance of double stars and to the fluctuation of variable stars and novae. The reasoning for the latter arguments was not always very cogent; for example, he believed that all stars were intrinsically white and emitted only or mainly in the visible spectrum", and erroneously concluded that a receding star would appear redder and an approaching star bluer. "It should be noted that Doppler worked under rather isolated circumstances, being the earliest important physicist in Austria in the nineteenth century" (DSB). The acoustical effect was experimentally proven by Buys Ballot at Utrecht in 1845. Three years later, the French physicist Hippolyte Fizeau, unaware of Doppler's work, published a paper describing the acoustical effect and noting its application to optics and its usefulness for astronomical observation. Fizeau, unlike Doppler, was aware of the invisible stellar radiations at either end of the spectrum and thus correctly interpreted the implications of the effect: a moving light source would cause a global shift in the frequency of the light "waves" throughout the spectrum toward either the red or the violet end of the spectrum depending on the relative position of the viewer. Fizeau noted the potential usefulness of this effect for astronomical observation, "a point of such importance that the principle is sometimes called the Doppler-Fizeau principle" (op. cit.). In 1868 the British astrophysicist William Huggins first applied the principle by measuring the shift in the spectra of Sirius and thus calculated the velocity of its movement away from the earth. "Since then the technique has provided the science of astrophysics with one of its most important tools for measuring the size and the structure of the universe" (ibid.). Current applications include Doppler radar and machines to measure blood flow.
INTERESTING ASSOCIATION COPY. Karl Kreil, author of several works on comets, meteorology and terrestrial magnetism, worked in the same academic circles in Vienna and Prague as the author, with whom he was undoubtedly acquainted. Norman 651.