STARK, J. (JOHANNES). - DISCOVERING THE "STARK-EFFECT"

Beobachtungen über den Effekt des elektrischen Feldes auf Spektrallinien. I-VI. (I. Quereffekt. II. Längseffekt (together with G. Wendt). III. Abhängigkeit von der Feldstärke (together with H. Kirschbaum). IV.Linienarten, Verbreitung (together with H. Kirschbaum). V. Feinzerlegung der Wasserstoffserie. VI. Polarisierung und Verstärkung einer Serie.). 5 Papers.

Leipzig, Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1914 u. 1915. No wrappers. In: "Annalen der Physik. Vierte Folge. Hrsg. von W. Wien und M. Planck.", Bd. 43., No 7,1914. Pp. 965-1116 a. 4 plates (entire issue offered) and. Bd. 48, No. 18. Pp. 145-272 a. 2 plates (entire issue offered).The blocks are punched in inner margins after cords. Stark's papers I-IV: pp. 965-1047 (Bd. 43) and V-VI: pp. 193-235 (Bd. 48). Both issues clean and fine.

First appearance of these 5 important papers in which Stark describes his researches on the effects of the electrical field on the spectral lines of hydrogen, thus discovering the splitting of the spectral lines, THE STARK-EFFECT. This effect was incorporated into quantum mexhanics by Paul Epstein in 1916, and it was shown to be consistent with wave mechanics by Schrödinger in 1926. In 1919 Stark was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics for his discovery of the Doppler effect in canal rays and of the splitting of spectral lines inan electric field (the papers offered).

"At the beginning of July 1913, several months before Stark’s discovery, Niels Bohr published his concept of a quantum-mechanical model of the atom. This provided, in principle, the possibility of understanding the reason for the Stark effect, which the classical theory was powerless to explain. Stark therefore had an opportunity to be doubly gratified, having also been one of the first, after Max Planck and Einstein, to stress the “fundamental significance” of Planck’s elementary law (since 1907). which he had championed in many polemical discussions. Yet, almost incomprehensibly, Stark denied himself the satisfaction of seeing his own experiments confirm a theory for which he had helped prepare the way conceptually, even if he had not directly participated in its creation. Apparently he always had to oppose the accepted point of view. Thus, as Bohr’s theory continued to gain adherents in 1914-1916." (DSB)

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