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ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PAPERS OF 20TH-CENTURY PHYSICS
 BOHR,
NIELS.
On
the Constitution of Atoms and Molecules
“One must assume that there are
forces in nature of a kind completely different from the usual
mechanical sort.” –Niels Bohr
"This is one of the greatest discoveries." –Albert Einstein
FIRST EDITIONS IN SCARCE ORIGINAL WRAPPERS of all three parts of Bohr’s
landmark papers marking the definitive break from using classical
physics at the atomic level, often cited as the foundation of our modern
understanding of the atom.
“'On the constitution of atoms and molecules’ was seminally important to
physics. Besides proposing a useful model of the atom, it demonstrated
that events that take place on the atomic scale are quantized: that just
as matter exists as atoms and particles in a state of essential
graininess, so also does the process. Process is discontinuous and the
‘granule’ of process- of electron motions within the atom, for example-
is Plank’s constant. The older mechanistic physics was therefore
imprecise; though a good approximation that worked for large-scale
events, it failed to account for atomic subtleties… Bohr was happy to
force this confrontation between the old physics and the new. He felt
that it would be fruitful for physics. Because original work is
inherently rebellious, his paper was not only an examination of the
physical world but also a political document. It proposed, in a sense,
to begin a reform movement in physics… “On the constitution of atoms and
molecules,” so proudly and bravely titled- Part I mailed to Rutherford
on March 6, 1913, Parts II and III finished and published before the end
of the year- would change the course of twentieth-century physics. Bohr
won the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physics for the work” (Rhodes, The Making
of the Atomic Bomb, 69-75).
On the
Constitution of Atoms and Molecules. Parts I-III (all published). In:
The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine, and Journal of
Science. Sixth Series, Vol. 26, No. 151, pp. 1-25; No. 153, pp. 476-501;
No. 155, pp. 857-75. London: Taylor & Francis, 1913. Octavo, original
printed wrappers; custom leather box. Three volumes. Toning to the
spines, but otherwise beautiful, fine copies. SCARCE in original
wrappers. $15,000. |
