EINSTEIN, ALBERT. - THE NOBEL-PRIZE PAPER.

Zur Theorie der Lichterzeugung und Lichtsabsorption; (Eingegangen 13. März 1906). (On the Theory of Light Production and Light Absorption).

(Leipzig, Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1906). No wrappers. Extracted from "Annalen der Physik" Vierte Folge. Bd. 20. Pp. 199-206. Clean and fine.

First printing of one of the papers for which Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1921. It was for the papers "Ueber einen die Erzeugung und Verwandlung des Lichtes betreffenden heuristischen Gesichtspunkt" of 1905 and "Zur Theorie der Lichterzeugung...( Theory of light emission and absorption), the offered item, that Einstein received the prize: "for his services to theoretical physics and especially for his discoveryof the law of the photoelectrical effect" - his reward was not based on relativity.

"The quantum theory has affected virtually every branch of physics. Its earliest and one of its most significant developments was Einstein's application of the theory to what is known as the 'photo-electrical effect'....Einstein explained this effext by suggesting that the classical view that light is emitted in the form of continous waves must be abandoned. The photo-electrical effect could be explained only as an example of quantum action where the waves of light or X-rays are emitted in minute particles or bullets. It is he size of the bullet (the wave-lenght of the radiation) which determines the number of electrons ejected. It was for this, and not for the theory of relativity, that Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1921. Einstein's two fundamental papers on this subject are "Ueber einem Erzeugung...." 1905 and Zur Theorie der Lichterzeugung (the paper offered here)" (PMM the note to 391).

Weil: 12 (with an asterix, denoting a major paper) - Boni:12.

Order-nr.: 46956