SCHRÖDINGER'S FIRST PUBLICATION

SCHRÖDINGER, E.

Über die Leitung der Elektrizität auf der Oberfläche von Isolatoren an feuchter Luft (mit 3 Textfiguren) (Vorgelegt an der Sitzung am 30. Juni 1910). [In. Sitzungsberichte der keiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Klass. CXIX. Band. VII Heft. Jahrgang 1910. - Juli. Abteilung IIa.].

Wien, 1910. Entire volume present: 8vo. Uncut and unopened in the orig. printed wrappers. A bit of brwonspotting and soiling, but in all a very good and well preserved copy. Pp. 1215-1222. Entire volume: (2) pp., pp. 1057-1379, (3, -blank), 4 (table of contents, on different, very thin paper) pp.

First edition of Schrödinger's dissertation, his first printed work, "On the Conduction of Electricity on the Surface of Insulators in Moist Air."

In 1907, Schrödinger began attending lectures in theoretical physics at the University of Vienna. This was Schrödinger's third semester, but theoretical physics had been closed down at the university for two years after of Boltzmann's death. Haselörhl became the new professor and Schrödinger appreciated his lectures on theoretical physics so much that he attended them five days a week for eight semesters in a row. In 1910 Schrödinger received the doctorate under Haselöhrl for the present work.

At the time when Schrödinger worked on the present treatise, electrical insulation in instruments for the measurement of radioactivity and ionization played an important role in experimental physics. Almost all of the work was done in the department of Franz Exner and the experiments were carried out in the small laboratory that he shared with Jakob Salpeter. The work is centered around a set of electrical measurements that are designed to show the effects of moist air on the conductivity of solid insulators such as amber, glass, sulfur, ebonite etc. The work is considered as showing Schrödinger's excellent experimental abilities, but he is criticized with lacking theoretical content. He also neglected to carry out a control experiment to prove his assumption that the effects of the moist air on the conductivity of the insulators was restricted to the surface, and he didn't mention the temperature at which his measurements were made. However, his practical work with these insulating solids did prove to be of great importance; they were the basis of his important survey of dielectricity that he completed in 1814.

The work was presented at a meeting of the Vienna Academy of Sciences on June 30th, 1910, and this was the first time that Schrödinger delivered a report on his own research work to fellow scientists. The dissertation was published a few weeks later in the proceedings of the Academy, and this was Schrödinger's first publication.
The Austrian physicist Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger (1887 -1961) is widely renowned for his contributions to quantum mechanics, especially the Schrödinger equation, for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1933.

Order-nr.: 38111