HERTZ, H. (HEINRICH RUDOLF). - CONFIRMING THE ANALOGY BETWEEN ELECTRIC - AND LIGHTWAVES.

Ueber die Einwirkung einer geradlinigen Schwingung auf eine benachbarte Strombahn. (+) Ueber Inductionserschneinungen, hervorgerufen durch die electrischen Vorgänge in Isolatoren. (Aus den Sitzungsber. der Berl. Acad. vom 10. Nov. 1887, mit einem Zusatzen, mitgetheilt von Hrn. Verf.). (+) ueber die Ausbreitungsgeschwindigkeit der elektrodynamischen Wirkungen. (Aus den Sitzungsber. der Berl. Acad. vom 2. Febr. 1888, mit einigen Zusätzen). (+) ueber electrodynamische Wellen im Luftraume und deren reflexion. (4 papers).

Leipzig, Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1888. Conemp. 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 and small stamps to verso of plates. "Annalen der Physik und Chemie. Hrsg. von G. Wiedemann.", Neue Folge Bd. 34,. VIII,1048 pp. a. 8 folded engraved plates. (Entire volume offered). Hertz' papers: pp. 155-170, pp. 273-285, pp. 551-569, pp. 609-623.

First appearance of 4 famous and importent papers (2 of them in their final form) in which Hertz established by experiments the similarities between electric waves and light waves.

"Hertz followed up his determination of the finite velocity of electric waves by performing a series of more qualitative experiments in 1888 on the analogy between electric and light waves. Passing electric waves through huge prisms of hard pitch, he showed that they refract exactly as light waves do. He polarized electric waves by directing them through a grating of parallel wires, and he diffracted them by interrupting them with a screen with a hole in it. He reflected them from the walls of the room, obtaining interference between the original and the reflected waves. He focused them with huge concave mirrors, casting electric shadows with conducting obstacles. The experiments with mirrors especially attracted attention, as they were the most direct disproof of action at a distance in electrodynamics. They and the experiments on the finite velocity of propagation brought about a rapid conversion of European physicists from the viewpoint of instantaneous action at a distance in electrodynamics to Maxwell’s view that electromagnetic processes take place in dielectrics and that an electromagnetic ether subsumes the functions of the older luminiferous ether." (DSB)-

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Order-nr.: 44843