LAPLACE, PIERRE-SIMONE. - THE SHORT-RANGE FORCES.

Theorie der Kraft. 1.-4 Haupttheil. (1. Welche in den Haarröhren und bei ähnlichen Erscheinungen wirkt. - 2. Die Wirkung der Haaröhren-Kraft auf eine neue Art Betrachtet. - 3. Theorie des Anziehens und Abstossens schwimmender Körper, der Adhäsion einer Scheibe an einer Flüssigen Oberfläche, und der Figur eines grossen Quecksilber-Tropfens mit prüfenden Versuchen von Gay-Lussac. - 4. Allgemeine Betrachtungen über die Haarröhen-Kraft und über die Kräfte der chemischen Verwandschaft.). Übersetzt von Brande und Gilbert. (Mit Anmerkungen). (+) Zwei Berichte...Als Einleitung zu dem folgenden Aufsätze...(Theil 3 und Theil 4). Frei übersetzt von Gilbert.

Leipzig, Joh. Ambrosius Barth, 1809. Contemp. hcalf. Gilt spine, raised bands. Very slightly rubbed. In "Annalen der Physik. Herausgegeben von Ludwig Wilhelm Gilbert", Bd. 33. (Entire volume offered). (12),452 pp. and 4 folded engraved plates. Internally clean and fine. Small stamps on verso of titlepage. Laplace's papers: pp. 1-114, pp. 141-182, pp. 273-293, pp. 293-338 a. pp. 373-394.

First German edition of Laplace's groundbreeking papers on the "Short-range Forces" i.e. capillary action, cohesion of solids, chemical reactions etc., where Laplace makes a major contribution to the mathematization of the subject. The papers are his first contributions to mathematical physics, and appeared as supplements to Book X of the fourth volume of his "Traité de mécanique céleste".

"The importence, for Laplace's theory, of the shortrange character of the molecular forces cannot be overstressed. Small terms involving the square of the distance were repeatedly ignored, and it is no coincidence that in his concluding remarks to the second supplement Laplace reiterated his belief in the idntity of the forces at work in optical refraction, capillary action, and chemical reactions. In accordance with his belief that capillarity is a consequence of intermolecular action at a distance (albeit a very small distance), he tried to determine the relativemagnitude of the attractive force between the particles composing the liquid (F1) and the force between the particles of liquid and those of the tube (F2).... experiments, performed at Laplace's request, by Gay-Lussac, Haüy, and Jean-Lois Trémary...gave the theory added plausibility, as Laplace himself was always ready to observe; and they certainly helped it to survive the criticism of Laplace's only contemporary rival in the treatment of capillarity, Thomas Young."(DSB XV, Suppl. I, pp. 358 ff.).

Order-nr.: 44066