Details
EINSTEIN, Albert (1879-1955). "Die Grundlage der allgemeinen Relativittstheorie," in Annalen der Physik, 4. Folge, Bd. 49, 1916, pp. 769-822. Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1916.
8o (222 x 145 mm). Line-block text illustrations. 1 collotype plate and 4 halftone plates. (A few pencilled calculations in margins.) Original tan printed wrappers (rebacked); modern maroon cloth box (a few small spots).
Provenance: Vienna, K.K. Staatsrealschule (ink stamp on wrapper).
FIRST EDITION, journal issue, of Einstein's fundamental statement of the general theory of relativity. "Whereas Special Relativity [see lots 1048 and 1049] had brought under one set of laws the electromagnetic world of Maxwell and Newtonian mechanics as far as they applied to bodies in uniform relative motion, the General Theory did the same thing for bodies with the accelerated relative motion epitomized in the acceleration of gravity. But first it had been necessary for Einstein to develop the true nature of gravity from his principle of equivalence ... Basically, he proposed that gravity was a function of matter itself and that its effects were transmitted between contiguous portions of space-time ... Where matter exists, so does energy; the greater the mass of matter involved, the greater the effect of the energy which can be transmitted. In addition, gravity affected light ... exactly as it affected material particles. Thus the universe which Newton had seen, and for which he had constructed his apparently impeccable mechanical laws, was not the real universe ... Einstein's paper gave not only a corrected picture of the universe but also a fresh set of mathematical laws by which its details could be described" (R.W. Clark, Einstein, New York, 1984, p. 253). Grolier/Horblit 26c; PMM 408; Weil 80; Norman 695.
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Provenance: Vienna, K.K. Staatsrealschule (ink stamp on wrapper).
FIRST EDITION, journal issue, of Einstein's fundamental statement of the general theory of relativity. "Whereas Special Relativity [see lots 1048 and 1049] had brought under one set of laws the electromagnetic world of Maxwell and Newtonian mechanics as far as they applied to bodies in uniform relative motion, the General Theory did the same thing for bodies with the accelerated relative motion epitomized in the acceleration of gravity. But first it had been necessary for Einstein to develop the true nature of gravity from his principle of equivalence ... Basically, he proposed that gravity was a function of matter itself and that its effects were transmitted between contiguous portions of space-time ... Where matter exists, so does energy; the greater the mass of matter involved, the greater the effect of the energy which can be transmitted. In addition, gravity affected light ... exactly as it affected material particles. Thus the universe which Newton had seen, and for which he had constructed his apparently impeccable mechanical laws, was not the real universe ... Einstein's paper gave not only a corrected picture of the universe but also a fresh set of mathematical laws by which its details could be described" (R.W. Clark, Einstein, New York, 1984, p. 253). Grolier/Horblit 26c; PMM 408; Weil 80; Norman 695.