CAYLEY, ARTHUR. - THE FOUR COLOUR THEOREM.

On the Colouring of Maps.

London, Edward Stanford, 1879. Without wrappers in "Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and monthly Record of Geography", April issue with titlepage to vol. 1, 1879. Pp.(2), 225-288 a. 2 folded maps. Cayley's paper: pp. 259-261

Fitrst appearance of Cayley's famous paper on the Four-Colour-Problem
"The four-colour map problem (to prove that on any map only four colours are needed to separate countries) is celebrated in mathematics. It resisted the attempts of able mathematicians for over a century and when it was successfully proved in 1976 the ‘computer proof’ was controversial: it did not allow scrutiny in the conventional way. At the height of his influence in 1878, Arthur Cayley had drawn attention to the problem at a meeting of the London Mathematical Society and it was duly ‘announced’ in print. (the paper offered). He made a short contribution himself and he encouraged the young A. B. Kempe to publish a paper on the subject. Though ultimately unsuccessful, the work of Cayley and Kempe in the late 1870s brought valuable insights..... Francis Galton is revealed as the ‘go-between’ in suggesting Cayley publish his observations in Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society." (Tony Crilly).
The Four-Colour-Theorem was proved in 1976 by Kenneth Appel and Wolfgang Haken. It was the first major mathematical theorem to be proved using a computer.

Order-nr.: 41917