Book of the Week — A General Account of the Development of Methods of Using Atomic Energy for Military Purposes Under the Auspices of the United Stated Governement

07 Monday Aug 2017

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Albert Einstein, Army Corps of Engineers, atomic energy, electromagnetism, fission, Franklin D. Roosevelt, General Leslie R. Groves, Henry De Wolf Smyth, Hiroshima, isotopes, Japan, Manhattan Project, Metallurgical Laboratory, military, Nagasaki, neutrons, nuclear weapon, physics, Princeton, science, Smyth Report, United States, United States War Department, University of Chicago, uranium, war, weapons

“These questions are not technical questions; they are political and social questions, and the answers given to them may affect all mankind for generations. In thinking about them the men on the project have been thinking as citizens of the United States vitally interested in the welfare of the human race. It has been their duty and that of the responsible high government officials who were informed to look beyond the limits of the present war and its weapons to the ultimate implications of these discoveries. This was a heavy responsibility. In a free country like ours, such questions should be debated by the people and decisions must be made by the people through their representatives. This is one reason for the release of this report. It is a semi-technical report which it is hoped men of science in this country can use to help their fellow citizens in reaching wise decisions. The people of the country must be informed if they are to discharge their responsibilities wisely”
— Henry De Wolf Smyth

A GENERAL ACCOUNT OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF METHODS OF USING ATOMIC ENERGY FOR MILITARY PURPOSES UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT, 1940-1945
Henry De Wolf Smyth (1898- 1986)
Washington, D. C: U. S. Govt. Print. Off., 1945
First edition

On August 6, 1945 the United States government dropped a uranium bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. One week later, after a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, the United States War Department issued an official account of the Manhattan Project which produced the bombs, written by Princeton physicist Henry D. Smyth.

The program to develop a nuclear weapon had its origins in 1939, when a group of scientists, including Albert Einstein, apprised President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the vast destructive power that could be unleashed by the recently-discovered fission of uranium. By mid-1942 a top-secret program had been instituted under the Army Corps of Engineers’ Manhattan District. Smyth’s involvement began with his research at Princeton, where he headed the physics department, on electromagnetic methods of separating uranium isotopes. In 1943 he was appointed associate director of the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago, working on the production of the heavy water needed to regulate the speed of neutrons in a chain reaction.

In April 1944 General Leslie R. Groves, chief of the Manhattan Project, asked Smyth to prepare a report on the project for release after the expected deployment of the bomb. The press release became known simply as the “Smyth Report.”

Book of the Week — A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism

22 Monday May 2017

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Aberdeen, Albert Einstein, Cambridge, Cavendish Laboratory, Cavendish Professor of Physics, Clarendon Press, Edinburgh, electricity, Galileo, Hawai'i, Henry S. White, James Clerk Maxwell, King's College London, light, magnetism, Marischal College, Mauna Kea Observatory, Newton, Oxford, physics, radio, Richard Feynman, satellite, Saturn, television, Voyager

“The fact that certain bodies, after being rubbed, appear to attract other bodies, was known to the ancients. In modern times, a great variety of other phenomena have been observed, and have been found to be related to these phenomena of attraction.” — James Clerk Maxwell

A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism
James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1873
First edition, first issue
QC518 M46

James Clerk Maxwell was born in Edinburgh. At age 25 he became Professor of Physics at Aberdeen University’s Marischal College, where he began to study the composition of Saturn’s rings. In 1859, he published “On the Stability of Saturn’s Rings.” A century later, the Voyager space probes confirmed many of Clerk Maxwell’s conclusions.

In 1860, Clerk Maxwell moved to King’s College London. In 1871 he returned to Cambridge where he helped establish and design Cavendish Laboratory and became the first Cavendish Professor of Physics. In 1873 he developed his four equations which played a key role in Albert Einstein’s work on his theory of relativity. “The special theory of relativity owes its origins to Maxwell Equations of the electromagnetic field,” wrote Einstein, who later equated Faraday with Galileo and Maxwell with Isaac Newton.

Clerk Maxwell’s work forms the basis of much of modern technology, including radio, television, satellite communications and cell phones. Twentieth century physicist Richard Feynman wrote, “From a long view of the history of mankind — seen from, say, ten thousand years from now — there can be little doubt that the most significant event of the 19th century will be judged as Maxwell’s discovery of the laws of electrodynamics.”

The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), built in 1987, is in Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii.

Treatise is Clerk Maxwell’s most detailed and comprehensive work, advancing ideas that would become essential for modern physics.

Treatise “extended Maxwell’s ideas beyond the scope of his earlier work in many directions, [demonstrating] the special importance of electricity to physics as a whole. He began the investigation of moving frames of reference, which in Einstein’s hands were to revolutionize physics; gave proofs of the existence of electromagnetic waves that paved the way for Hertz’s discovery of radio waves; worked out connections between the electrical and optical qualities of bodies that would lead to modern solid-state physics; and applied Tait’s quaternion formulae to the field equations, out of which Heaviside and Gibbs would develop vector analysis” (Norman).“Maxwell most clearly prefigures 20th-century physics” (Simmons).

Copies of the first issue have been found both with and without a publisher’s catalog bound in Volume II (the text of which contains an issue point). Rare Books copy bound with catalog in volume 2 and errata in volume 1.

My thanks to Dean Henry S. White for bringing this classic to my attention. ~ LP

Marie Curie — The Poster and Rare Books

02 Friday Oct 2015

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atmosphere, atomic, chemistry, Continuum, diagrams, frontispiece, Gauthier-Villars, Henri Becquerel, marbled boards, marbled endpapers, Marie Curie, Marie Sklodwaska Curie (1867-1934), math, Nobel Prize, Paris, physics, Pierre Curie, polonium, protrait, radiation, radioactivity, radium, Sorbonne, sun, Thatcher Building of Biological and Biophysical Chemistry, The University of Utah, thorium, uranium, Utah, women

Continuum, The Magazine of the University of Utah features The Curie Poster.

“In the southwest corner of the University of Utah’s Thatcher Building for Biological and Biophysical Chemistry, The Curie Poster is displayed as a tribute to Utah women in chemistry.”

Read the Continuum article

Visit the poster in the Thatcher Building for Biological and Biophysical Chemistry.

Hold the first edition of Marie Curie’s Traite de Radioactivite, Paris, 1910, in Rare Books.

Traite de Radioactivite
Marie Curie (1867-1934)
Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1910
First edition
QC721 C98 1910

Marie Sklodowaska Curie received degrees in math and physics in Paris. She earned her doctorate in 1903. Her husband, Pierre, a professor of physics, became involved in her research. They, along with Henri Becquerel, were awarded a Nobel Prize in physics for their work that same year. In 1906, after the death of her husband, she was offered his chair in physics at the Sorbonne. In 1911 she was awarded a second Nobel Prize in chemistry.

Traite is Curie’s fullest statement on radioactivity, a word she created for a concept that she invented and defined. Henri Becquerel discovered of a type of radiation discharged from a uranium compound that was capable of passing through sheets of matter opaque to ordinary light. Curie then began a systematic examination of a large number of chemical elements and their compounds to test whether they possessed the “radioactive” property of uranium. Only one other element, thorium, was found to show this effect to a degree comparable with that of uranium.

After testing the various compounds of uranium, Curie discovered that radioactivity was an atomic property, i.e., the activity was proportional to the amount of uranium present and was independent of its combination with other substances. In trying to isolate this radioactive property from the compounds, Curie isolated the new elements polonium and radium.

In Traite she provided a detailed review of discoveries she made and confirmed the connection between matter and electricity. The first volume contains detailed descriptions of how she measured radiation, with numerous text illustrations of the instruments. In the second volume, Curie discussed the nature of radiation, the heat and various phenomena associated with radiation and the varieties of radioactive substances. The final chapter concerns radiations of the sun and atmosphere.

With a frontispiece portrait of Pierre Curie, seven plates, five of which are photographic, and nearly two hundred diagrams. Bound in contemporary three-quarter brown cloth with green morocco spine label and marbled boards and endpapers.

A Donation Makes Poly Poly’s

26 Wednesday Nov 2014

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agriculture, alphabet, Amsterdam, anatomy, Antonio Blado, Antwerp, architecture, astrology, astronomy, Barbara Chavira, Basel, Bible, Bonaventura Elzevir, bookbinders, booksellers, celibacy, censored, Christianity, Christopher Plantin, commerce, creation, Daniel Elzevir, Elizabeth Isengrin, England, English, engraved, Ethiopian Church, Europe, expurgated, fable, festivals, French, frontispiece, German, God, Greek, Hebrew, heresy, hunting, Index of Forbidden Books, indulgences, initials, Italian, italic, Judaism, King Arthur, Latin, law, Leonhart Fuchs, libraries, Louis Elzevir, Lucovico Arrighi, Lyons, magic, Martin Luther, mathematics, medicine, Michael Isengrin, minerology, monks, music, navigation, paganism, painting, pharmacology, physics, Polydore Vergil, Pope Gregory XIII, priest, printer, printing, Protestant, Rare Books Division, Reformation, religion, Roman, Roman Catholic Church, Rome, Salt Lake City Public Library, Shakespeare, Spanish, sports, theater, Thomas Guarin, Tournai, trade, typography, Utrecht, vellum, vignettes, weaponry, winemaking, writing

The Salt Lake City Public Library donated a sixteenth century book to the Rare Books Division, thanks to the well-trained eye of City Library staffer Barbara Chavira. Barbara worked part-time in the Rare Books Division for many years. Her passion for the art of books, in all forms and over the centuries, brought us this important and welcome addition to the rare book collections. Thank you, Barbara ! Thank you, City Library !

POLYDORI VIRGILII VRBINATIS DE RERVM INVENTORIBVS…
Romae, apud haeredes antonij, Bladij, Impressores Camerales: Anno. M.D. LXXVI (1576)

Polydore Vergil (ca. 1470-1555), an Italian priest, spent much of his life in England. He is recognized for his history of England, a work that Shakespeare is known to have used as one of his sources. Vergil used critical analysis in his narration of historical events. His thesis that King Arthur was little more than fable, for instance, shocked contemporary readers.

It is his second published work, however, for which he was best known in his time. First printed in 1499, De rerum inventoribus (On Discovery), was a work unlike anything that had been published before. An inventory of historical “firsts,” it combined a wide array of subjects in an attempt to determine which individual or culture first invented things such as the alphabet, astronomy, magic, printing, libraries, hunting, festivals, writing, painting, weaponry and religion. Vergil culled much of his work from a wide range of ancient and contemporary writers. He focused on the genius of man in the origin or invention of all things – heretical thinking at the time.

In Book I he investigated the creation of the world, the origin of religion, the origin of the concepts of “god” and the word “God.” He suggested that much of Christianity had been adapted from Judaism or Roman paganism. Books II and III were studies of a wide-range of topics, mostly concerning the practical and mechanical arts including anatomy, astrology, law, medicine, commerce, mathematics, mineralogy, music, pharmacology, physics, trade, agriculture, architecture, sports, theater, navigation, and winemaking. The work was translated into French in 1521, German in 1537, English in 1546, and Spanish in 1551.

In 1521, more than two decades after he wrote the first three books, and at the dawn of Martin Luther’s protestant reformation, Vergil added five more books concentrating on Christianity. Vergil reworked his discussion of Christianity in deference to the Roman Catholic Church, which objected to Vergil’s reference to religion as a matter of scientific investigation. In spite of this concession, Vergil anticipated the scientific approach to religion that would become the norm a century later. The intended salve to the church failed when Vergil criticized monks, priestly celibacy, and indulgences. In 1564 the work was declared heretical and all editions were added to the Index of Forbidden Books. However, the work was so popular that two censored editions were printed after the ban.

This 1576 expurgated edition was sanctioned by Pope Gregory XIII in its front matter.

It is significant that this edition was printed by the heirs of Antonio Blado’s shop.

Blado worked in Rome from 1515 to 1567 as a printer in the service of the papacy. He was well-known for his scholarly works in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; and a 1549 document in Ethiopic type for the Ethiopian Church. Blado is also known for his use of an early italic type created by Ludovico Arrighi. The Rare Books Division holds five books printed by Antonio Blado.

This 1576 edition of Vergil joins an edition from 1570 and another from 1671, already in the rare book collections.

POLYDORI VERGILII VRBINATIS, DE RERUM INVENTORIBUS…
Polydore Vergil (1470? – 1555)
Basilea: 1570

Printer Thomas Guarin (1529-1592) was born in Tournai. He worked in Lyons as a bookseller, but by 1557 was in Basel, where he married Elizabeth Isengrin, the daughter of a printer. Guarin took over his father-in-law’s small press at Michael Isengrin’s death. Michael Isengrin had printed one of the many editions of De rerum inventoribus to be published in Vergil’s lifetime. Each of these editions contained significant variations. Isengrin printed Leonhart Fuchs’s sumptuous De Historia stirpivm. Along with the reprint of classical works, Guarin issued several editions of the Bible, published in both Latin and German, and one in Spanish. His printer’s device was a palm tree.

POLYDORI VERGILII URBINATIS, DE INVENTORIBUS RERUM…
Polydore Vergil (1470?-1555)
Amstelodami: apud Danielem Elzebirius, 1671

Daniel Elzevir came from a distinguished family of booksellers, bookbinders, printers and publishers. Louis Elzevir (1546-1617), a Protestant émigré, began the business in Antwerp in about 1565, after he left a job with Christopher Plantin’s print shop. The Elzevir enterprise became one of Europe’s largest printing houses. Louis’s sons expanded the business with branches in The Hague, Utrecht, and Amsterdam. The Amsterdam branch was established in 1638 by Louis III. His partner was Daniel Elzevir, son of Bonaventura Elzevir, son of Louis. Daniel continued the family reputation for fine typography and design work. This edition of De Rerum inventoribus also contains another of Vergil’s works, Prodigiis, written in 1526 but not printed until 1531. The engraved frontispiece for this edition includes the invention of printing as one of its main themes. Numerous carved initials and vignettes. Bound in contemporary vellum.

Shakespeare is coming! The First Folio will arrive at the City Library in October.

OPEN BOOK

~ News from the Rare Books Department of Special Collections at the J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah

Tag Archives: physics

Book of the Week — A General Account of the Development of Methods of Using Atomic Energy for Military Purposes Under the Auspices of the United Stated Governement

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Book of the Week — A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism

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Marie Curie — The Poster and Rare Books

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A Donation Makes Poly Poly’s

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