?BER DIE INTERFERENZERSCHEINUNGEN AN PLANPARALLELEN PLATTEN [in] ANNALEN DER PHYSIK. Vierte Folge, Band 13

First edition of Max von Laue?s dissertation, in the Annalen der Physik as originally published. The volume is extensively illustrated with charts, graphs, tables, plates and etc. 8vo, in the publisher?s original blue cloth ruled and lettered on the spine in gilt. viii, 1080. A fine copy, very bright and clean, the binding and endpapers only with the lightest of mellowing, a few leaves towards the end a touch dusty at the upper right edges.

Edizione: an important work of physics as originally published in the annalen der physik. this volume of the annalen contains max von laue?s dissertation paper. in 1902 von laue transferred to the university of berlin to work under professor max planck. here he attended lectures by o. lummer on interference spectroscopy and heat radiation, the influence of which was shown in this dissertation on interference phenomena in flat-parallel plates. these studies would lead to his later works studying similar effects in chrysalis.<br> after obtaining his doctorate at berlin in 1903, von laue went for two years to the university of g?ttingen. in 1905 he was offered the post of assistant to max planck at the institute for theoretical physics at berlin. here he worked on the application of entropy to radiation fields and on the thermodynamic significance of the coherence of light waves.<br> his best known work, however, for which he received the nobel prize for physics for 1914, was his discovery of the diffraction of x-rays on crystals. this discovery originated, as he related in his nobel lecture, when he was discussing problems related to the passage of waves of light through a periodic, crystalline arrangement of particles. the idea then came to him that the much shorter electromagnetic rays, which x-rays were supposed to be, would cause in such a medium some kind of diffraction or interference phenomena and that a crystal would provide such a medium. although his colleagues sommerfeld, w. wien and others, with whom he discussed the idea on a skiing expedition, raised objections to the idea, w. friedrich, one of sommerfeld's assistants and p. knipping tested it out experimentally and, after some failures, succeeded in proving it to be correct. von laue worked out the mathematical formulation of it and the discovery was published in 1912. it established the fact that x-rays are electromagnetic in nature and it opened the way to the later work of sir william and sir lawrence bragg. <br> von laue's scientific work extended over a wide field. early in his career he was greatly excited by einstein's theory of relativity and between 1907 and 1911 he published eight papers on the application of this theory. in 1911 he published a book on the restricted theory and in 1921 another on the general theory, both books were extremely well respected and went into several editions. "the awarding of the nobel prize in physics for 1914 to laue indicated the significance of the discovery that albert einstein called one of the most beautiful in physics" <br> the ?annalen der physik? was one of the most important and influential scientific journals of the twentieth century. also in this volume are 61 other significant papers in physics with contributions by w.v. wesndonck, johannes stark, wilhelm wien, paul drude and many other of the leading scientist of the day.