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PLANCK, Max (1858-1947). ‘Zur Theorie des Gesetzes der Energieverteilung im Normalspectrum.’ In: Verhandlungen der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft 2, no.17, (1900), pp.237-245. Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1900.

The first appearance of Planck’s quantum theory. ‘In this important paper he stated that energy flowed not in continuous, indefinitely divisible currents, but in pulses or bursts of action [or quanta]’ (Dibner). Planck determined a unit of energy in a system showing a natural frequency in definite quanta and proposed a constant of angular momentum, the value of which is known as "Planck's constant." This unit of energy enabled the explanation of wave-length, specific heat of solids, photo-chemical effects of light, the orbits of electrons in the atom, the wave lengths of the lines of the spectrum, or Röntgen rays, the velocity of rotating gas molecules, and the distances between the particles of a crystal. ‘It contradicted the mechanics of Newton and the electromagnetics of Faraday and Maxwell. Moreover it challenged the notion of the continuity of nature’ (PMM). The volume also includes two other articles by Planck. Dibner Heralds 166; Grolier/Horblit 26a; Norman 1713; PMM 391a.

Octavo (224 x 145mm). Contemporary black half cloth over marbled boards.

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