later 19th/early 20th century quarter cloth over heavy hardstock binding, printed label on upper cover
1847 · Berlin, Germany
by Helmholtz, Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von
Berlin, Germany: Georg Reimer, 1847. later 19th/early 20th century quarter cloth over heavy hardstock binding, printed label on upper cover. Physics. 8vo. later 19th/early 20th century quarter cloth over heavy hardstock binding, printed label on upper cover. [iv], 72 pages. First edition of the first comprehensive statement of the law of conservation of energy, one of the classic texts in the history of science. Minor bump to front upper board. Minor shelfwear. Paper label on cover with minor chipping at edges. Small focused discoloration to the outer margins of pages 5-26, not affecting the text. Else a near fine copy housed in a lovely later clamshell box.
'On the basis of this short paper, written when he was only twenty-six, Helmholtz is ranked as one of the founders, along with Joule and Mayer, of the principle of conservation of energy' (Norman Catalogue). This work was 'an outcome of [Helmholtz's] interest in the problem of perpetual motion. Leaning heavily on the value of experience in the formulation of ideas, he concluded that perpetual motion was impossible without the continued replenishment of energy from some source. Analyzing different forms of energy and different types of force and motion, Helmholtz grouped them into two categories - active (kinetic) and tension or dead (potential) forces. He gave the mathematical expression to the energy of motion as being the product of half the mass times the square of the velocity of motion. This provided an experimental measure in research of all forces including muscular and chemical' (Dibner).
This classic paper was presented ot the Physikalische Gesellschaft of Berlin on July 23, 1847, and submitted to Poggendorff for publication in the Annalen but was turned down by him. Helmholtz then had it printed privately.
Provenance: traces of stamp on verso of title and with bookplate 'Joh. Krebs' pasted over; Franz Sondheimer, with bookplate; n 697 in the Professor Franz Sondheimer collection of rare books on chemistry. Sondheimer was renowned for hitting two jackpots in his research career: firs the synthesis of the biologically active steroids, and then the preparation and study of polyunsaturated hydrocarbon rings, the annulenes.
Sondheimer's family came as refugees from Germany in 1937, when he was 11 years old, and spoke no English. He graduated in Imperial College, then worked first with Sir Ian Heilbron, and then with Sir Ewart Jones and Ralph Raphael, on acetylene chemistry.
In 1948 he went to work with R.B. Woodward at Harvard. Their research on the steroids set new standards in organic synthesis, and Franz provided much of the drive and experimental skill that brought this work to a successful conclusion and established it as one of the classics of organic synthesis.
He continued in this field after he succeeded Karl Djerassi, the inventor of the Pill, at Syntex in 1952, and developed routes to the compounds related both to cortisone and to the sex hormones.
After he had moved to the Weizmann institute in 1956, he picked up again the work on acetylenes that he had done at Imperial College. He was able to couple terminal diacetylenes to give cyclic Oligoacetylenes, which could then be manipulated to give macrocyclic analogues of benzene, the first being (18) annulene, (CH)18. The properties of the annulenes, particularly their NMR spectra, povided a brilliant endorsement of the molecular orbital model of the principles of aromaticity and Hückel's 4n+2 rule.
He moved to Cambridge in 1963, and then came to UCL, with Peter Garratt, in 1967. Peter still carried the scars which showed the hazards of working with metal acetylides. Franz died tragically in 1981 while he was spending a sabbatical period at Stanford.
Dibner 159; Evans 41; Garrison and Morton 611; Horblit 48; PMM 323; Norman 1039; Parkinson p 132; Sparrow 96. (Inventory #: 131431)
'On the basis of this short paper, written when he was only twenty-six, Helmholtz is ranked as one of the founders, along with Joule and Mayer, of the principle of conservation of energy' (Norman Catalogue). This work was 'an outcome of [Helmholtz's] interest in the problem of perpetual motion. Leaning heavily on the value of experience in the formulation of ideas, he concluded that perpetual motion was impossible without the continued replenishment of energy from some source. Analyzing different forms of energy and different types of force and motion, Helmholtz grouped them into two categories - active (kinetic) and tension or dead (potential) forces. He gave the mathematical expression to the energy of motion as being the product of half the mass times the square of the velocity of motion. This provided an experimental measure in research of all forces including muscular and chemical' (Dibner).
This classic paper was presented ot the Physikalische Gesellschaft of Berlin on July 23, 1847, and submitted to Poggendorff for publication in the Annalen but was turned down by him. Helmholtz then had it printed privately.
Provenance: traces of stamp on verso of title and with bookplate 'Joh. Krebs' pasted over; Franz Sondheimer, with bookplate; n 697 in the Professor Franz Sondheimer collection of rare books on chemistry. Sondheimer was renowned for hitting two jackpots in his research career: firs the synthesis of the biologically active steroids, and then the preparation and study of polyunsaturated hydrocarbon rings, the annulenes.
Sondheimer's family came as refugees from Germany in 1937, when he was 11 years old, and spoke no English. He graduated in Imperial College, then worked first with Sir Ian Heilbron, and then with Sir Ewart Jones and Ralph Raphael, on acetylene chemistry.
In 1948 he went to work with R.B. Woodward at Harvard. Their research on the steroids set new standards in organic synthesis, and Franz provided much of the drive and experimental skill that brought this work to a successful conclusion and established it as one of the classics of organic synthesis.
He continued in this field after he succeeded Karl Djerassi, the inventor of the Pill, at Syntex in 1952, and developed routes to the compounds related both to cortisone and to the sex hormones.
After he had moved to the Weizmann institute in 1956, he picked up again the work on acetylenes that he had done at Imperial College. He was able to couple terminal diacetylenes to give cyclic Oligoacetylenes, which could then be manipulated to give macrocyclic analogues of benzene, the first being (18) annulene, (CH)18. The properties of the annulenes, particularly their NMR spectra, povided a brilliant endorsement of the molecular orbital model of the principles of aromaticity and Hückel's 4n+2 rule.
He moved to Cambridge in 1963, and then came to UCL, with Peter Garratt, in 1967. Peter still carried the scars which showed the hazards of working with metal acetylides. Franz died tragically in 1981 while he was spending a sabbatical period at Stanford.
Dibner 159; Evans 41; Garrison and Morton 611; Horblit 48; PMM 323; Norman 1039; Parkinson p 132; Sparrow 96. (Inventory #: 131431)
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