"THE MOST IMPORTANT [PAPER] ON RELATIVITY SINCE MY OWN ORIGINAL PAPER APPEARED" (EINSTEIN): FIRST PRINTING OF GODEL'S FAMOUS "TIME TRAVEL" PAPER, "AN EXAMPLE OF A NEW TYPE OF COSMOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS OF EINSTEIN'S FIELD EQUATIONS ON GRAVITATION," 1949, THE COPY OF INVENTOR CLAIR FARRAND AND FIBER OPTIC CABLE DEVELOPER MORTON SAUNDERS

GODEL, Kurt. "An Example of a New Type of Cosmological Solutions of Einstein's Field Equations of Gravitation." IN: Reviews of Modern Physics, Volume 21, Number 3, pp. 447-50. Lancaster, Pennsylvania and New York, New York: American Institute of Physics, July, 1949. Octavo, original orange paper wrappers.

First printing of Godel's groundbreaking work on relativity introducing the possibility of time travel. The copy of Clair Farrand, the inventor and creator of the cone radio loudspeaker, and of Morton Saunders, developer of the first fiber optic cable.

"In [the offered paper] Gödel presented a rotating solution that was not expanding but was the same at all points of space and time. This solution was the first to be discovered that had the curious property that in it was possible to travel into the past. This leads to the paradoxes such as 'What happens if you go back and kill your father when he was a baby?' It is generally agreed that this cannot happen in a solution that represents our universe, but Gödel was the first to show that it was not forbidden by the Einstein equations. His solution generated a lot of discussion of the relation between general relativity and the concept of causality" (Stephen Hawking, Gödel's Collected Works). This issue of Reviews of Modern Physics—a celebration of Einstein on his 70th birthday—also includes articles by many of the 20th century's most distinguished scientists including Richard Feynman, Max Born, and over two dozen others. Front wrapper owner signature of Morton J. Saunders, the Atlanta Bell Labs scientist who helped to develop the first fiber optic cable. Owner stamps of Clair "C.L." Farrand (on front wrapper and first and final pages), who invented the cone radio loudspeaker and held hundreds of additional patents.

Interior generally fine, wear to original wrappers with portions of spine chipped. An extremely good copy with interesting provenance.