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“While examining the form of these particles immersed in water, I observed many of them very evidently in motion; their motion consisting not only of a change of place in the fluid, manifested by alterations in their relative positions, but also not unfrequently of a change of form in the particle itself.” -Robert Brown FIRST PUBLISHED EDITION (preceded only by the extraordinarily rare privately-printed issue) of Robert Brown’s description of the molecular phenomenon later known as “Brownian motion”. Rediscovered and explained by Einstein (1905) as a manifestation of the kinetic theory of heat, Brown’s discoveries are of fundamental importance to all subsequent advances in atomic theory. WITH: Brown's subsequent paper: Additional Remarks on Active Molecules."In 1828 [Robert Brown] published a pamphlet, A Brief Account of Microscopical Observations..., in which he recorded that, after having noticed moving particles suspended in the fluid within living pollen grains of Clarkia pulchella, he examined both living and dead pollen grains of many other plants and observed a similar motion in the particles of all fresh pollen. Brown's experiments with organic and inorganic substances, reduced to a fine powder and suspended in water, then revealed such motion to be a general property of matter in that state. This phenomenon has long been known as Brownian motion" (Britannica). "Brown's paper is a tour de force, a beautifully constructed crescendo on the widening implications of his findings... Brown... dispelled the animist views of the construction of organic bodies by equating them in their fundamentals with inorganic ones. After the flurry at the end of the 1820s however, the importance for physics was not appreciated until after his death" (D. J. Mabberley, Jupiter botanicus, Robert Brown of the British Museum). PMM 290 (citing private printing). A brief account of microscopical observations made in the months of June, July and August 1827, on the particles contained in the pollen of plants, and on the general existence of active molecules in organic and inorganic bodies, pp. 161-73 in The Philosophical Magazine, Vol. 4. London: R. Taylor, 1828. WITH: Additional remarks on active molecules, pp. 161-6 in The Philosophical Magazine, Vol. 6. London: R. Taylor, 1829. Octavo, contemporary full calf sympathetically rebacked. Two volumes. Institutional stamp on one text leaf (not part of either Brown paper). Fine condition, very handsomely bound. $6500. |
