A UNIFIED STANDARD METHOD OF DEALING WITH STATISTICAL THERMODYNAMICS

SCHROEDINGER, ERWIN. [SCHRÖDINGER].

Statistical Thermodynamics. Course of Seminar Lectures. Delivered in January - March 1944, at the School of Theoretical Physics.

Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1944. 4to. Original pre-publication typescript, hectographt print, printed on rectos only. In original red printed wrappers with black cloth spine. Paley Johanson's copy, with his owner's name and inscription to top of front wrapper: Paley Johnson/ Dept. of Colloid Science/ Free School Lane/ Cambridge". A few smaller nicks and creases to front wrapper, otherwise a fine clean copy. (2), 135 ff.

Scarce pre-publication typescript, with an excellent provenance, of Schrödinger's important attempt at developing a simple, unified standard method of dealing with all cases of statistical thermodynamics, developed in his seminar lectures of the Dublin institute for advanced studies in January - March 1944. A very small edition of the lectures was published in hectograph form by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies [offered item]. In 1952 the first public printing, differing a bit from the hectograph printing, of the lectures appeared - in a book of the same title. That highly popular book was printed in large numbers.

"The idea of this seminar is to develop briefly one simple, unified standard method, capable of dealing, without changing the fundamental attitude, with ALL cases (classical, quantum, Bose-Einstein, Fermi-Dirac, etc.) and with every new problem that may turn up. The interest is focused on the general procedure, and examples are dealt with as illustrations thereof. Not a first introduction for new-comers to the subject is intended, rather a 'repetitorium'. The wording is extremely shortened about well-known stories to be found in every one of a hundred text-books, but more extended on some vital points, usually passed over in all but large monographs (as Fowler's and Tolman's)
There is, essentially, only one problem in statistical thermodynamics: the distribution of a given amount of energy E over N identical systems..." (From the General Introduction by Schrödinger, f. 1).

It is in the course of the present lectures that Schrödinger explains why he thought the Boltzmann counting method not be appropriate. Furthermore, Schrödinger here distinguishes himself from his 1925-6 publications on the same subject by presenting (1) the complete relinquishment of the concept of wave packets, and (2) the exclusive stress put on the field quantization formalism which, for all statistical purposes, is equivalent to Schrödinger's initial quantized matter wave model.

"A very small edition of these lectures was published in hectograph by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. It is hoped that the present edition, for which the text has been slightly revised, may reach a wider circle of readers. (Initiating Note in the second edition of the book).

PALEY JOHNSON (1917-2011) was a famous colloid scientist, in the field of which he became a world authority, focusing on the physical properties of biological macromolecules in solution. Having won a place at Trinity College Cambridge and gone on to make a PhD there, he went on to the Royal Institution in London, where, along with Albert Alexander, he produced a comprehensive two-volume Oxford University Press monograph on Colloid Science, which, for nearly half a century, remained the authoritative text in the field, and is still a valuable reference source, even today. Primarily in recognition of this, along with other achievements, the University subsequently awarded Paley the distinction of an ScD degree. In 1950, he returned to Free School Lane to take up an academic post at the Colloid Science Laboratory.

"Paley was first and foremost an experimentalist, one of the best, and his attention turned to physical techniques for solving biological problems - to two techniques in particular, of which he became the master and a world authority. One was the analytical Utracentrifuge. [...] Paley found a completely new application for this technique in the characterization of gels, gelatin and other jelly-like materials.

One of the present world leaders in colloid science, Professor Helmut Colfen at the University of Konstanz in Germany, comments on this work on gel analysis in the analytical ultracentrifuge: "Paley did the first systematic analyses of gel systems in the centrifuge which was highly pioneering work since up to then, only solutions or dispersions of particles had been investigated. He found that the behaviour of a gel in the centrifuge was fundamentally different from a solution or dispersion and established the theory describing this. He was thus the first one to accurately describe the behaviour of gels in the centrifugal field and laid the foundations for the analysis and understanding of the important class of materials known as hydrogels, crucial for their application in food and biopharmaceuticals."

The other technique which became Paley's trademark was light scattering of macromolecular dispersions - a technique requiring meticulous attention to detail. Without that attention, as Paley would say, "experiments were not useful". In his own research and publications, he did a lot to establish good practice, giving detailed procedures for achieving this, and was very critical of other studies where this attention to detail was not followed or shortcuts had been taken. [...] Colloid science at Cambridge and Paley Johnson were almost synonymous." (Steve Harding, Obituary in The Biochemical society, december 2011).

Colloid Science, with its study of large molecules, is a bridge building subject lying at the boundary of a number of disciplines, physical chemistry, biology and mathematics. It's results are important and beneficiel in a large number of fields.

During the War Paley worked in the colloid laboratory collaborating with others on various projects: the development of incendiary mixtures and the use of cellulose nitrate in making cordite for rockets; the use of detergents in lubrication; the use of synthetic polymers in warfare. He also had a wartime research Fellowship sponsored by ICI looking at an interest, which remained a serious study, the use of the protein in peanut butter.

Order-nr.: 48092