BRAUN, FERDINAND. - THE DISCOVERY OF SEMICONDUCTOR RECTIFIER EFFECT.

Ueber die Stromleitung durch Schwefelmetalle.

Leipzig, Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1874. 8vo. Contemp. hcalf. 5 raised bands, gilt spine and gilt lettering to spine. A few scratches to spine. Small stamp on verso of first -and general- titlepage. In: "Annalen der Physik und Chemie. Hrsg. von J.C. Poggendorff", Sechste Reihe Bd. 3, (= Poggendorff Bd. 153). X,636 pp., 4 plates. (Entire volume offered). Braun's paper: pp. 556-563.

First printing of Brown's importent paper in which he described his discovery of a semiconductor diode, noting that electrical currents flows freely in only one direction at the contact between a metal point and a galena crystal.

"In 1874 Braun published the results of his research on mineral metal sulfides. He found that these crystals conducted electric currents in only one direction. This information was important in electrical research and in measuring another property of substances, the electrical conductivity, but Braun’s discovery did not have immediate practical application. In the early twentieth century the principle that Braun had discovered was employed in crystal radio receivers."(DSB).

The Nobel Prize in Physics 1909 was awarded jointly to Guglielmo Marconi and Karl Ferdinand Braun "in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy".

Order-nr.: 49327