KOENIG (KÖNIG), SAMUEL. - GIVING RISE TO ONE OF THE UGLIEST SCIENTIFIC CONTROVERSIES.

De universali Principio aequilibrii & motus, in Vi viva reperto, deque nexu inter Vim Vivam & Sctionem, utriusque Minimo, Dissertatio. (+) ...continuata & finita. (2 Parts).

Leipzig, Gleditsch & Lanckis, 1751.

4to. No wrappers. In: "Nova Acta Eruditorum, Anno MDCCLI", March- Issue, Pars I-II. Entire issue in 2 parts offered. With titlepage to the volume 1751. Pp. 97-192. Koenig's paper: pp. 125-135 a. pp. 162-176. With 2 engraved plates. Titlepage with 2 stamps and a bit soiled. Leaves as usual a bit browned.

First printing of this important paper in which Koenig set forth his "Law of least Action". The law states that the kinetic energy of a system of mass points is equal to the sum of the kinetic energy of the motion of the system relative to the center of gravity and of the kinetic energy of the total mass of the system considered as a whole, which moves as the center of gravity of the system.

"While still in Franeker, Koenig wrote the draft of his important essay on the principle of least action, which was directed against Maupertuis. The controversy touched off by this work, which was published in March 1751, resulted in perhaps the ugliest of all the famous scientific disputes. Its principal figures were Koenig, Maupertuis, Euler, Frederick II, and Voltaire; and, as is well known, it left an unseemly stain on Euler’s otherwise untarnished escutcheon. The quarrel occupied Koenig’s last years almost completely; moreover, he had been ill for several years before it started. Koenig emerged the moral victor from this affair, in which all the great scientists of Europe—except Maupertuis and Euler—were on his side. The later finding of Kabitz2 testifies to Koenig’s irreproachable character."(DSB).

Order-nr.: 46906