FRIEDRICH, W., P. KNIPPING, MAX v. LAUE. - THE NATURE OF X RAYS AND THE ATOMIC STRUCTURE OF CRYSTALS.

Inteferenzerscheinungen bei Röntgenstrahlen. (+ M. Laue:) Eine quantitative Prüfung der Theorie für die Inteferenzerscheinungen bei Röntgenstrahlen. (+ M. Laue und F. Tank:) Die gestalt der Interferenzpunkte bei den Röntgenstrahlinterferenzen. (3 papers).

(Leipzig, Ambrosius Barth, 1913). Without wrappers in "Annalen der Physik", Vierte Folge, Bd. 41, No.10. The entire issues offered. Pp. 873-1064 a. 6 plates. Laue's papers: pp. 971-988, pp. 989-1002 a. pp. 1003-1011. With the 5 famous plates in collotype (reproductions of the photographic plates), showing the X-Ray diffraction spectrum of different salt and substances (The "Laue diagram").

These papers represents the first full exposition of Laue's and his co-worker's discovery of the nature of X-Rays. The first two papers were printed the year before in "Münchener Sitzungsberichte", but finds their final form here and with the experimental confirmation by Laue and Tank. He showed that the regular spacing of the atoms in a crystal can serve as a grating of the desired precision, and he measures the wave-lenght of the X-rays.
That crystals might be the appropriate grating for the X-rays proved to be well founded when Knipping, Friedrich and Tank found experimental confirmation of the theory.

"It was in 1895 that Röntgen discovered a new form of radiation, to which, as its nature was so uncertain, he gave the name of the X-ray.....It was not until 1912, when von Laue showed it could be diffracted like ordinary light, that it was recognized with certainty as an ether wave of extremely short wave-lenght.Laue used a crystal for his diffraction grating...The X-ray is therefore identical with with light in respect to its nature, but differs greatly in quality: a state of things which is very favourable to an extension of our general knowledge of such radiations."(William Bragg in "The Universe of Light", pp. 228 ff.).

"It was the work of Laue and the experiments done by Friedrich and Knipping on his suggestion that cleared up the nature of X rays once and for all and that, moreover, beautifully demonstrated that crystals are composed of atoms arranged in a regular lattice......As in the case of Röntgen's original discovery, the photographs were extremely convincing. Other researchers immediately were attracted by the new field of X-ray spectroscopy and the discoveries by the Braggs and Mosely soon followed."(Siegmund Brandt "The harvest of a Century", Episode 20, p. 80 ff.).

"The awarding of the Nobel Prize in physics for 1914 to Laue indicated the significance of the discovery that Albert Einstein called "ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL IN PHYSICS". Subsequently it was possible to investigate X radiation itself by means of wavelenght determinations as well as to study the structure of the irradiated material. In the truest sense of the word scientists began to cast light on the structure of matter."(DSB VIII, p. 51).
PMM: 406 (the first 2 papers in Münchener Sitzungsberichte).

The offered issue of "Annalen" contains also an importent paper by P. DEBYE & A. SOMMERFELD: "Theorie des lichtelektrischen Effektes vom Standpunkt des Wirkungsquantums", pp. 873-930

Order-nr.: 43821