September 2021 Catalogue

5 B a u m a n R a r e B o o k s Signed By Albert Einstein 2. EINSTEIN, Albert. Annalen der Physik. Vierte Folge. Band 19. No. 2. Leipzig, 1906. Octavo, later drab paper wrappers. $52,000. First printing of two early and important Einstein papers: a revised edition of his doctoral dissertation, and his paper on Brownian motion, signed by Einstein in 1950. Einstein’s doctoral dissertation, “Eine Neue Bestimmung der Molekueldimensionen” [“A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions”] appears on pp. 289-306, while his follow-up treatise, “Zur Theorie der Brownschen Bewegung” [“On the Theory of Brownian Motion”] appears on pp. 371-81. Einstein’s biographer, physicist Abraham Pais, observed that “it is not sufficiently realized that Einstein’s doctoral thesis is one of his most fundamental papers,” and historian of science John Stachel, in his monograph “Einstein’s Miraculous Year: Five Papers that Changed the Face of Physics” (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998), argued that Einstein’s doctoral thesis was a landmark work. According to Stachel, “The dissertation also marked the first major success in Einstein’s effort to find further evidence for the atomic hypothesis, an effort that culminated in his explanation of Brownian motion. By the end of 1905 he had published three independent methods for determining molecular dimensions.” Einstein’s dissertation was first published in Bern, by Wyss, in 1905, in a very small edition, largely for Einstein’s own use to secure his doctorate and to apply for jobs. “The judges at the university in Zurich were satisfied with Einstein’s results, but Paul Drude, the editor of Annalen , was not. Einstein had submitted his treatise to Drude in August 1905, after the conclusion of the degree procedure; however, it was published not within the customary eight weeks, but only about six months later. This had never before happened with any of Einstein’s papers, nor did it ever happen afterward. Drude evidently knew of better data for sugar solutions and must have asked for a small addendum. Einstein supplied it at the beginning of the following year, with a substantially improved result for the Avogadro constant” (Fölsing, 127). With folding plate at rear depicting several tables. This volume was signed by Einstein for Lewis Strauss, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. Interior clean; closed tears to wrappers along spine, binding sound. A very good copy, very rare and desirable signed by Einstein.