Skip to Content

BOHR, N. (+) J. A. WHEELER (+) J. R. OPPENHEIMER (+) H. SNYDER.

The mechanism of nuclear fission [N. Bohr. & J. A. Wheeler] "On continued gravitational contraction" [J. R. Oppenheimer & H. Snyder]. - [THE FIRST THEORETICAL DESCRIPTION OF A SINGULARITY]

Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn54015
Lancaster, American Institute of Physics, 1939. Royal8vo. In the original green printed wrappers. In "The Physical Review", Volume 56, Second Series, Number 5, September 1. With cloth back-strip. A quire, affecting both papers, detached but without any loss of paper. A few minor tear throughout, far from affecting text. [Bohr & Wheeler:] Pp. 426-50. [Oppenheimer & Snyder:] Pp. 455-59. [Entire volume: Pp. 387-486].

First printing of two landmark papers, all of seminal importance in history of physics: The intricacies of the fission process, the groundwork for atomic and hydrogen bombs and the forgotten birth of black holes: The first theoretical description of a black hole, the production of a singularity when a sufficiently large neutron star collapses.Oppenheimer and Snyder's "ON CONTINUED GRAVITATIONAL CONTRACTION" constitute the very first theoretical prediction of a singularity when a sufficiently large neutron star collapses. This phenomenon was later to be coined as a black hole. "Had J. Robert Oppenheimer not led the US effort to build the atomic bomb, he might still have been remembered for figuring out how a black hole could form." (American Physical Society). The paper has by several physics historians been described as the forgotten birth of black holes. "Oppenheimer and his graduate student George Volkoff presented the first analysis of the formation of a neutron star in a 1939 Physical Review paper titled, "On Massive Neutron Stars". Oppenheimer wondered what would happen to a very massive neutron star. The Schwartzschild analysis of General Relativity has a theoretical limit, called the "Schwartzschild limit", when the ratio of mass-to-radius of a star is 236,000 times greater than the ratio for our sun. When this limit is exceeded, the Schwartzschild analysis does not yield a solution. Oppenheimer believed that a neutron star could have sufficient mass to exceed this limit. What would happen to it? Oppenheimer and his graduate student Hartland Snyder applied General Relativity theory to a star with sufficient mass and density to exceed the Schwartzschild limit. The Schwartzschild analysis assumed that the size of the star stays constant with time. Oppenheimer and Snyder found that they could achieve a real solution from General Relativity when the Schwartzschild limit is exceeded by assuming that the diameter of the star decreases with time. They presented their analysis in a 1939 Physical Review paper, titled, "On Continual Gravitational Contraction," which concluded with: "When all thermonuclear sources of energy are exhausted, a sufficiently heavy star will collapse. Unless fission due to rotation, the radiation of mass, or the blowing off of mass by radiation, reduce the star's mass to the order of that of the sun, this contraction will continue indefinitely." This analysis concluded that when the Schwartzschild limit is exceeded, the star must collapse indefinitely until it reaches a singularity having an infinite density of matter" (Bjornson, Singularity Predictions of General Relativity, P. 4).The Chandrasekhar / Eddington controvery in the mid 30ies did discuss the fate of neutron stars but the first thoroughly theoretical desciption was first published here. "THE MECHANISM OF NUCLEAR FISSION" is the first fully worked out theory of nuclear fission, which laid the groundwork for atomic and hydrogen bombs."Wheeler's technical mastery of physics is best seen in the classic paper of Bohr and Wheeler. Bohr and Wheeler wrote the paper in Princeton, where Bohr was visiting in the spring of 1939, a few months after the discovery of fission. The paper is a masterpiece of clear thinking and lucid writing. It reveals, at the center of the mystery of fission, a tiny world where everything can be calculated and everything understood. The tiny world is a nucleus of uranium 236, formed when a neutron is freshly captured by a nucleus of uranium 235. The uranium 236 nucleus sits precisely on the border between classical and quantum physics. Seen from the classical point of view, it is a liquid drop composed of a positively charged fluid. The electrostatic force that is trying to split it apart is balanced by the nuclear surface tension that is holding it together. The energy supplied by the captured neutron causes the drop to oscillate in various normal modes that can be calculated classically. Seen from the quantum point of view, the nucleus is a superposition of a variety of quantum states leading to different final outcomes. The final outcome may be a uranium 235 nucleus with a re-emitted neutron, or a uranium 236 nucleus with an emitted gamma-ray, or a pair of fission-fragment nuclei with one or more free neutrons. Bohr and Wheeler calculate the cross-section for fission of uranium 235 by a slow neutron and get the right answer within a factor of two. Their calculation is a marvelous demonstration of the power of classical mechanics and quantum mechanics working together. By studying this process in detail, they show how the complementary views provided by classical and quantum pictures are both essential to the understanding of nature. Without the combined power of classical and quantum concepts, the intricacies of the fission process could never have been understood. Bohr's notion of complementarity is triumphantly vindicated" (John Archibald Wheeler, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 154 (2010)).
Address:
Silkegade 11
DK-1113 Copenhagen
Denmark
Phone:
CVR/VAT:
DK 16 89 50 16

Recently Added From Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S

Anmärkiningar Om biåsestenen. (In:
More Photos
BERGIUS, PETER JONAS
Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn62692
(Stockholm, 1777). 8vo. As extracted from "Kungl. Svenska vetenskapsakademiens handlingar", uncut unopened. Fine and clean. Pp. 304-309.
Medicinische und philosophische Schrifften von…
More Photos
ALBERTI, MICHAEL.
Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn62695
Halle im Magdeburgischen, Hendel, 1721. 8vo. In contemporary full calf with four raise bands and richly gilt spine. Traces from old paper-label to upper part of spine. Leather on spine cracked, spine-ends slightly chipped. Internally nice and clean. (14), 620, (28) pp. First collected edition of Alberti’s essays. Alberti (1682–1757), professor of medicine and philosophy at Halle and later rector of the university, was a leading disciple of Georg Ernst Stahl who considered the soul as having control on the body. Therapies involved dealing with the internal senses and feelings.
More info
O Capital. (i.e. Portuguese:
More Photos
MARX, CARLOS [KARL] (+) GABRIELLE DEVILLE (+) [Translator:] ALBANO DE MORAES.
Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn62679
Lisboa, De Francisco Luiz Goncalves, 1912. 8vo. In the original red printed cloth-binding with black and white lettering. Spine with loss of the white lettering. Paper-label pasted on to lower inner margin of front board. Very light wear to extremities, Internally very fine and clean. 240 pp. The exceedingly scarce first Portuguese edition of the most important abridged version of Marx's Capital ever to have appeared, published fifty-six years before the first full Portuguese (but published in Brazil) translation and whole sixy-two years before the first full translation published in Portugal. Curiously, two translations of the present work were made 1912 but the present translation seems to have priority (see Bastien, "Readings and Translations of Karl Marx in Portugal"). After the 1933 rise of Salazar's dictatorial Estado Novo regime, suppression of the relatively newly founded Communist party grew. Members were arrested, tortured, and executed and many were sent to the Tarrafal concentration camp in the Cape Verde Islands. Communist literature suffered an equally repressive fate, hence the rarity of the present work. Marxism and especially Marxist writing caught on comparatively late in Portugal: "As for the Socialist Party - supposed to be the main expression of Marxism -, it revealed itself unable to stimulate effective theoretical and doctrinal efforts. Its existence was an example of ambiguity and inconsequence. Its political programme went on mixing Marxian elements, associationist tradition and positivist thinking. Its strategy balanced continuously between an alliance with republican politicians and the maintenance of political autonomy. Its tatics balanced between electoral abstencionism and an involvement in election processes, that never led it to a relevant position in parliament. Even its international relations showed a lasting ambiguity: it had been created according to the instructions of the Marxist majority at the Hague Congress, when most of its members tended to support political abstencionism. When the formation of the Second lnternacional was taking place in Paris in 1889 Portuguese socialists tried to join the Marxist congress, after being present at the possibilist congress. In 1920 they decided to join the Third lnternacional (what was not accomplished), at the same time that an internal reformist turn was taking place." (Bastien, "Readings and Translations of Karl Marx in Portugal"). "The epitome, here translated, was published in Paris, in 1883, by Gabriel Deville, possibly the most brilliant writer among the French Marxians. It is the most successful attempt yet made to popularize Marx's scientific economics. It is by no means free from difficulties, for the subject is essentially a complex and difficult subject, but there are no difficulties that reasonable attention and patience will not enable the average reader to overcome. There is no attempt at originality. The very words in most cases are Marx's own words, and Capital is followed so closely that the first twenty-five chapters correspond in subject and treatment with the first twenty-five chapters of Capital. Chapter XXVI corresponds in the main with Chapter XXVI of Capital, but also contains portions of chapter XXX. The last three chapters-XXVII, XXVIII, and XXIX-correspond to the last three chapters-XXXI, XXXII, and XXXIII-of Capital." (ROBERT RIVES LA MONTE, Intruductory Note to the 1899 English translation). Capital de Marx also had a Portuguese edition at this time, or better, two different editions, both in 1912, but only in translation of the survey of Book I published in France by Gabriel Deville in 1883 (Marx, 1912a and Marx, 1912b). This version omitted material dealt with in at least four chapters of the original text and was not particularly appreciated by Engels. It was a simplified text, aimed at supporting the training of socialist militants and that made it possible for them to have access, indirect, to the work of Marx. The other summaries and anthologies of Capital, which, with a purpose similar to that of Deville, circulated in Europe during this period or ignored in Portugal, as was the case with Carlo Cafiero, or were only occasionally mentioned, as was the case with Paul Lafargue and Karl Kautsky, in its French versions. OCLC list two copies, both in the US.
More info
His Pokhodzhennia vydiv cherez pryrodnyi dobir,…
More Photos
DARWIN, CHARLES.
Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn62681
(Kharkiv), Derzhavne medychne vyd-vo (State Medical Publishing House), 1936. 8vo. In publisher's original grey cloth binding with black lettering to spine with Darwin's portrait embossed on front board. Wear to extremities, corner bumped and light spoling to back board. Inner hinges split and first 3 leaves partly detached. Last 20 ff. slighly creased due to dampstain, otherwise internally a nice and clean copy. 674 pp. + frontispiece, portrait of Darwin and 1 plate with genealogical tree. The exceedingly rare first Ukranian translation of Darwin's landmark 'Origin of Species'. OCLC only list two copies (Library of Congress and The Huntington Library, USA) Freeman F797.
More info
Om Krigen med England. Med Tanker om samme…
More Photos
BOYE, JOHANNES.
Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn62687
Fridericia, S. Elmenhoff, 1809. 8vo. In nice recent marbled paper covered boards with leather title-label with gilt lettering to spine. Ex-libris (Bent W. Dahlstrøm) to verso of front board. A nice and clean copy. 40 pp. Biblioteca Danica III, 572.
Regras methódicas para se aprender a escreuer o…
More Photos
VENTURA DA SILVA, JOAQUIM JOSE.
Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn62100
Lisboa, Officina de Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, 1803. Folio-oblong (365 x 255 mm). In contemporary half calf. Wear to extremies, upper part of spine with loss of leather. Ex-libris pasted on to pasted down front end-paper. With, primarily marginal, brownspotting throughout. Dampstain to inner margin and upper outer margin of last 10 ff. 32 ff. Rare first edition of the most celebrated Portuguese treatise on calligraphy. Joaquim José Ventura da Silva (1777–1849), regarded as one of Portugal’s finest calligraphers and teachers of writing, composed this methodological guide to handwriting in which he combines a historical survey of scripts used in Portugal with practical instruction for teaching and learning penmanship.Ventura da Silva is reffered to by Innocencio (Diccionario Bibliographico) as "one of the best Portuguese Calligraphers". A second edition was published in 1819, a third in 1841, and a facsimile was published in Porto in 1899.
More info