Milestones of Science Books

MEITNER, Lise; FRISCH, Otto Robert, et al.

Disintegration of uranium by neutrons: a new type of nuclear reaction / Physical evidence for the division of heavy nuclei under neutron bombardment / Products of the fission of the uranium nucleus / Liberation of Neutrons in the Nuclear Explosion of Uranium / New products of the fission of the thorium nucleus.

London: Macmillan, 1939.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #002916

I: Disintegration of uranium by neutrons: a new type of nuclear reaction. - II: Physical evidence for the division of heavy nuclei under neutron bombardment (Frisch only). - Products of the fission of the uranium nucleus. - III: Liberation of Neutrons in the Nuclear Explosion of Uranium (Halban, Joliot, Kowarski). - IV: New products of the fission of the thorium nucleus (Meitner only). - pp. 239-240, 276, 470-471, 471-472 and 637-638. In: Nature. A Weekly Journal of Science. Vol. 143. London: Macmillan, 1939. 4to. Whole semi-annual volume, liv,1080, [40] pp. Half library cloth over marbled boards, spine lettered in gilt (light rubbing of boards and extremities, vertical crease in spine). Internally fresh and sound. Provenance: Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Chemie (ink stamp to general title-page). Very good copy. ----

PMM 422 (b) (I) & (c) (II) & (d) (III); Norman 1487 (I), 845 (II) u. 1488 (IV). - First printing of four important papers on the phenomenon for which Frisch coined the term "nuclear fission". "Meitner calculated, using Einstein's mass-energy equivalence, the large amount of energy that would be released during the fission process. Frisch confirmed Meitner's calculations experimentally in January 1939" (Norman).
Our copy comes from the Library of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Chemie in Berlin Dahlem, where Otto Hahn was director from 1928 to 1946. It was at this very institute on December 17, 1938 when Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann observed the fission of uranium nuclei for the first time in history. The teamwork of Otto Hahn (1879-1968), Lise Meitner (1878-1968) and Fritz Strassmann (1902-1980) led to this discovery, but only Otto Hahn received the Nobel prize in chemistry in 1944. - Visit our website for additional images and information.

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