Milestones of Science Books

ANGSTRÖM, Anders Jonas.

Recherches sur le Spectre Solaire. [Atlas contenant les longeurs d'onde des raies Frauenhofériennes données en 1/10,000000 de millimètre].

Uppsala: W. Schultz, 1868.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine. Item #002654

Two parts comprising text volume and atlas folder with plates. Text volume: 4to (310 x 240 mm), Plates: oblong folio (320 x 500 mm). Text volume: [4], 42, xv [1] pp., lithographed frontispiece. Atlas volume: title leaf and 6 lithographed plates. Original publisher's printed wrappers to text volume (light chipping to spine ends). Plates unbound in custom made 20th century folder with original publisher's printed wrapper pasted as label on upper cover. Text with little age-toning, atlas title leaf with marginal soiling and browning and old repairs of marginal tears by tape, light marginal browning and dampstain to lower right corner of plates. ----

DSB I, p. 166; Norman 56; Honeyman 096. - RARE FIRST EDITION. The classic work on the solar system in which Angström demonstrated the presence of hydrogen and a number of other elements in the sun. Solar spectroscopy provided the first scientific evidence (other than the occasional meteorite) that the elements known on earth are also present elsewhere in the universe. Angström also established a scale of wave-lengths for measuring spectral lines, replacing Kirchoff's arbitrary scale. Angström's system was based on a unit of one ten millionth of a millimetre, named the "Angström unit" in his honor. He conducted detailed measurements of more than 1000 spectral lines. The plates are in effect a map of the solar spectrum, and show the radiation of the solar spectrum ranging from 0.8 to 0.4 micron and from red to purple colour. It identifies the particular lines of manganese, aluminium and titanium. The lithographic plates are after R. Thalén (1827-1905), Angström's laboratory assistant. The lithographic frontispiece to the text volume is showing Angström's spectrometer. Some copies have a further 2 plates showing the ultraviolet spectrum, but the Norman, Gedeon, Green and Honeyman copies - like the present copy - do not have these.

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