THE SCIENTIFIC FOUNDATION FOR RADIO, TELEVISION AND RADAR: FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH OF HERTZ’S EXPERIMENTS IN WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY

HERTZ, Heinrich. Electric Waves. Being Researches on the Propagation of Electric Action with Finite Velocity through Space. London and New York: Macmillan, 1893. Octavo, original dark blue cloth. $4800.

First edition in English of Hertz’s important discoveries in wireless telegraphy, published just one year after the first German printing.

"Hertz demonstrated what Maxwell had predicted, that electromagnetic waves radiated in space with the speed of light. Hertz determined these waves to be of greater length than light and that they could be reflected, refracted and polarized. This discovery and its demonstration led directly to radio communication, television and radar" (Dibner 71). Hertz's proof that electrical waves can be created and then sent and received through space has been shown to be of profound importance in 20th-century technology. "This book is a rare specimen, for it is a clear explanation by a scientist of how he came to make his discovery. It is problem oriented, as well as clear and frank" (Berkson, Fields of Force, 214). The experiments were reported periodically from 1887 onwards in the Annalen der Physik und Chemie before being collected, with an additional preface and explanatory notes, in book form. Preface to this edition by Lord Kelvin. Norman 1063. See PMM 377. Owner pencil signature.

Mild foxing to endpapers only, interior clean; minor rubs to extremities, most notable at spine foot. A very bright, near-fine copy.