BORN, Max; HARTREE, D.R. (his copy)

Vorlesungen über Atommechanik / Mechanics of of the Atom (1925/1927)

(Julius Springer, Berlin), 1925; (G. Bell & Sons, Ltd, London), 1927

D.R. HARTREE'S WORKING COPY, WITH NOTES FOR THE REVISED ENGLISH EDITION (ALSO OFFERED)

8vo, softcover; pp. ix, 358 [English edition 8vo, hardcover in dust-jacket; xvi, 317, (2, ads)]. First edition [‘erster band’, but complete in and of itself – the ‘second volume’ was published later, in 1930, as Elementare Quantenmechanik, co-authored with Pascual Jordan].

An exceptional copy of Max Born’s classic work on atomic structure: Douglas Rayner Hartree’s copy, acquired by him in the year of publication and used to revise the work for its English publication, in 1927, as The Mechanics of the Atom (also offered here in a first edition copy).

Hartree (1897–1958) is now more famous for his very early contributions to the history of computing – specifically differential analyzers, and his 1949 survey of computing machines. But in fact his physics and work on computing are closely connected. Around the time he acquired and annotated this book he was working on Bohr’s model of the atom, using his skill in numerical analysis to complete a PhD in 1926.

The book itself would have been crucial to Hartree: it was a state-of-the-art summary of the ‘Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization’ – Sommerfeld’s improvement on Bohr’s fundamental contribution to atomic theory in the 1910s.

The text is extensively annotated by Hartree, with corrections, additions and marginal notes, many of which resulted in changes to the text for the English version, which was translated by J.W. Fisher. For comparison, we also offer a first English edition, itself a rare book, especially in the dust-jacket.

Fair condition: binding frail and edges chipped; housed in a custom clamshell box. English edition very good in a fair dust-jacket (chipped and torn to spine and rear panel).