History of Science and Technology

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Lot 41
  • 41

PLANCK, MAX

Estimate
25,000 - 35,000 USD
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Description

  • "Zur Theorie des Gesetzes der Energieverteilung im Normalspectrum." In: Verhandlungender Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft im Jahre 1900. Nr. 17, Jahrg. 2. Leipzig: Verlag von Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1900.
8vo (223 x 142 mm). Original pale green printed wrappers. Papers repairs to spine, lower wrapper with light creasing and a few tiny spots of foxing, as well as some tiny chips to edges.

Literature

Dibner Heralds of Science 166; Evans 47; Grolier/Horblit 26a; Norman 1713; Printing and the Mind of Man 391a; Sparrow 162

Catalogue Note

FIRST PRINTING OF PLANCK'S ANNOUNCEMENT OF HIS QUANTUM THEORY, FOR WHICH HE WAS AWARDED THE 1918 NOBEL PRIZE FOR PHYSICS. Planck's quantum of action, known as the constant h, explained the pattern of light intensity which was emitted from a black body at any given frequency. "In this important paper, he stated that energy flowed not in continuous, indefinitely divisible currents, but impulses or bursts or action [quanta]" (Dibner). "Planck's theory contradicted the mechanics of Newton and the electromagnetics of Faraday and Maxwell. Moreover it challenged the notion of continuity of nature." (PMM) Planck's new theory was baffling to other scientists, but it gained acceptance after Einstein used his constant h to determine the photoelectric effect, and Niels Bohr applied it to the principle of the atom.