FRESNEL, AUGUSTIN. - OVERTHROWING THE CORPUSCULAR THEORY OF LIGHT

Mémoire sur la Diffraction de la lumiere, où l'on examine particulierement le phènomene des franges colorées que présentent les ombres des corps éclairés par un point lumineux. (Ce Mémoire a été déposé a l'Institut le 33 octobre 1815). (+) Mémoire Sur la Diffraction de la lumière. (Extrait). (+) Suite Du Mémoire sur la Diffraction de la lumière. (+ Arago:) Rapport Fait par M. Arago à l'Académie des Sciences, au nom de la Commission qui avait été chargée d'examiner les Mémoires envoyés au concours pour le prix de la diffraction.

Paris, Crochard, 1816, 1819. Bound in 2 contemp. hcloth. Gilt lettering to spines. In: "Annales de Chimie et de Physique" Series 2, Tome 1 a. Tome 11. Entire volumes offered.(4),452 pp. a. 3 engraved folded plates. + 448 pp. a. 3 folded engraved plates. Fresnel's papers: pp. 239-281 a. pp. 246-296 a. pp. 337-378. Arago's paper: pp. 5-30. Some scattered brownspots.

First appearance of Fresnel's landmark papers on the phenomena of diffraction, presenting Fresnel's first priinted paper on the subject. These two papers won the Academy's prize for 1818 and were later expanded and published as a long memoir in 1826. The first paper offered initiated the attack on the corpuscular theory of light, which was completely owerthrown by a series of succesfull papers by Fresnel the next few years. In the second paper Fresnel summed up all his work prior to this date in completed form. The paper is called "extract", but the longer memoir was not published until 1826. The paper is A CLASSIC IN PHYSICS.

"In broad context Fresnel's work can be viewed as the first successfull assault on the theory of imponderables and a major influence on the development of nineteenth-centurty energetics." (DSB V, p. 171).

Diffraction arises because of the way in which waves propagate; this is described by the Huygens-Fresnel principle. The propagation of a wave can be visualized by considering every point on a wavefront as a point source for a secondary radial wave. The subsequent propagation and addition of all these radial waves form the new wavefront. When waves are added together, their sum is determined by the relative phases as well as the amplitudes of the individual waves, an effect which is often known as wave interference. The summed amplitude of the waves can have any value between zero and the sum of the individual amplitudes. Hence, diffraction patterns usually have a series of maxima and minima. (Wikipedia)-

The volumes contains many other importent papers by Arago & Petit, Vaugelin, Humphrey Davy, d'Arcet, Laplace, Gay-Lussac, Alex. v. Humboldt, Thenard, Will. Prout, Stromeyer, Berzelius, Brewster, Theod. de Saussure, Ampère etc.

Order-nr.: 44120