KUNDT, AUGUST. - ANOMALOUS DISPERSION OF LIGHT EXPLAINED.

Ueber die anomale Dispersion der Körper mit Oberflächenfarben.

(Leipzig, Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1871). Without wrappers as issued in "Annalen der Physik und Chemie. Hrsg. von J.C. Poggendorff", 142. Bd., 1. issue ("Heft" No 1, 1871). Titlepage to vol. 142. Titlepage with small stamps on verso Pp. 1-176 a. 4 folded engraved plates (entire issue offered). Kundt's paper: pp. 163-171.

First printing of this importent paper on the theory of dispersion. "The theory of the dispersion of light was given its modern form when F.P. Leroux found that a prism filled with iodine vapour refracts the red rays to a greater extent than it refracts the blue (1862), and when Kundt (1871) - (in the paper offered) - showed the connection between this phenomenon and absorption: in the neighbourhood of an absorption band the refractive index undergoes considerable variations.....the mechanical theory - which had already been suspected by Maxwell in 1869 - was perfected by Helmholtz in 1875; three years later, H.A. Lorentz translated the results into electromagnetic language, and so, independently did Helmholtz in 1892." (Taton in "History of Science in the 19th Century", p. 221) - In 1888 Kundt succeeded Helmholtz at Berlin.
Magie "A Source Book in Physics", pp. 382 ff.

Order-nr.: 43538