Details
LAUE, Max von (1879-1960), Walter FRIEDRICH (b. 1883), Paul KNIPPING (b. 1883). Interferenz-Erscheinungen bei Rntgenstrahlen. - Eine quantitative Prfung der Theorie fr den Interferenz-Erscheinungen bei Rntgenstrahlen. Offprint from the Sitzungsberichte der Kniglich Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Mathematisch-physikalische Klasse (1912). Munich: F. Straub for the Verlag der Kniglich Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1912.
Large 12o (219 x 143 mm). 3 line block diagrams in text, 5 collotype plates. Stapled in original printed wrappers (spine torn at head and foot).
VERY RARE FIRST EDITION, OFFPRINT ISSUE, of Laue's Nobel Prize-winning report of "one of the most beautiful discoveries in physics" (Einstein). X-rays had been in wide use for years before their exact nature was elucidated by Laue, Max Planck's principal assistant and close colleague. "In the spring of 1912, Laue had the crucial idea of sending X-rays through crystals. At this time scientists were very far from having proven the supposition that the radiation that Roentgen had discovered in 1895 actually consisted of very short electromagnetic waves. Similarly, the physical composition of crystals was in dispute, although it was frequently stated that a regular structure of atoms was the characteristic property of crystals. Laue argued that if these suppositions were correct, then the behavior of X-radiation upon penetrating a crystal should be approximately the same as that of light upon striking a diffraction grating" (DSB), an instrument used for calculating the wavelengths of light, inapplicable to X-rays because their wavelength is too short. An associate, Walter Friedrich, and Laue's student Paul Knipping began experimenting along these lines on April 12, 1912, and succeeded in producing a regular pattern of dark points on a photographic plate placed behind a copper sulfate cyrstal which had been bombarded with X-rays. Laue's second paper contains his complicated mathematical explanation of the effect, later known as the Laue-Friedrich-Knipping phenomenon. His discoveries earned Laue the Nobel Prize in physics for 1914. The following year the Prize was granted to the father and son team W. H. amd W. L. Bragg for their exploration of crystal structure using X-rays (see lot 950). "Subsequently it was possible to investigate X-radiation itself by means of wavelength determinations as well as to study the structure of the irradiated material. In the truest sense of the word scientists began to cast light on the structure of matter" (DSB). PMM 406a; Norman 1283.
Large 12o (219 x 143 mm). 3 line block diagrams in text, 5 collotype plates. Stapled in original printed wrappers (spine torn at head and foot).
VERY RARE FIRST EDITION, OFFPRINT ISSUE, of Laue's Nobel Prize-winning report of "one of the most beautiful discoveries in physics" (Einstein). X-rays had been in wide use for years before their exact nature was elucidated by Laue, Max Planck's principal assistant and close colleague. "In the spring of 1912, Laue had the crucial idea of sending X-rays through crystals. At this time scientists were very far from having proven the supposition that the radiation that Roentgen had discovered in 1895 actually consisted of very short electromagnetic waves. Similarly, the physical composition of crystals was in dispute, although it was frequently stated that a regular structure of atoms was the characteristic property of crystals. Laue argued that if these suppositions were correct, then the behavior of X-radiation upon penetrating a crystal should be approximately the same as that of light upon striking a diffraction grating" (DSB), an instrument used for calculating the wavelengths of light, inapplicable to X-rays because their wavelength is too short. An associate, Walter Friedrich, and Laue's student Paul Knipping began experimenting along these lines on April 12, 1912, and succeeded in producing a regular pattern of dark points on a photographic plate placed behind a copper sulfate cyrstal which had been bombarded with X-rays. Laue's second paper contains his complicated mathematical explanation of the effect, later known as the Laue-Friedrich-Knipping phenomenon. His discoveries earned Laue the Nobel Prize in physics for 1914. The following year the Prize was granted to the father and son team W. H. amd W. L. Bragg for their exploration of crystal structure using X-rays (see lot 950). "Subsequently it was possible to investigate X-radiation itself by means of wavelength determinations as well as to study the structure of the irradiated material. In the truest sense of the word scientists began to cast light on the structure of matter" (DSB). PMM 406a; Norman 1283.