THE DISCOVERY OF COLLISIONS OF THE SECOND KIND

KLEIN, O (+) S. ROSSELAND (+) LISE MEITNER (+) DIRK COSTER (+) ERWIN SCHRÖDINGER (+) R. LADENBURG.

Über Zusammenstösse zwischen Atomen und freien Elektronen (Klein & Rosseland) (+) Über die verschiedenen Arten des radioaktiven Zerfalls und die Möglichkeit ihrer Deutung aus der Kernstruktur (Meitner) (+) Präzisionsmessungen in der L-Serie der schwereren Elemente (Coster) (+) Versuch zur modellmäsigen Deutung des Terms der scharfen Nebenserien (Schrödinger) (+) Die quantentheoretische Deutung der Zahl der Dispersionselektronen (Ladenburg).

Berlin, Julius Springer, 1921. 8vo. Entire volume 4 of "Zeitschrift für Physik" bound in contemporary black half cloth with gilt lettering to spine. Library stamp to title-page and traces of paper label pasted on to lower part of spine. Minor wear to extremities. A nice and clean copy. [Klein & Rosseland:] Pp. 46-51; [Meitner:] Pp. 146-56; [Coster:] Pp. 178-88; [Schrödinger:] Pp. 347-354. [Ladenburg:] Pp. 451-468. [Entire volume: IV, 476 pp.].

First printing of this collection of influential papers within 20th century physics.
Klein and Rosseland's paper (ÜBER ZUSAMMENSTÖSE ZWISCHEN ATOMEN UND FREIEN ELEKTRONEN) created an entire new field of physics: Collisions of the second kind. Klein and Rosseland discovered that and electron in an excited state could jump to a lower state without radiation with the released energy being transferred to a free electron as kinetic energy.
"Franck and Hertz had shown how collisions between atoms and free electrons could cause excitation of the atoms, involving the transition of an electron from one stationary state to another of higher energy, the difference being equal to the loss of energy of the free electron. Klein and Rosseland considered the equation as how this would influence the thermal equilibrium between the atomic systems and free electron when Einstein's considerations of 1917 on the statistical equilibrium between blackbody radiation and atoms were used." (Thorsen. The Penetration of Charged Particles Through Matter. P. 27.)
Niels Bohr took a great interest in the paper and his correspondences reveal that he had great expectations regarding the utility of the concept of collisions of the second kind.

Ladenburg's paper (DIE QUANTENTHEORETISCHE DEUTUNG DER ZAHL DER DISPERSIONSELEKTRONEN) is the first printing of the first step towards the formulation of a quantum-theoretic interpretation of dispersion (the Ladenburg-Equation). Ladenburg's results were later (1924) generalized by Kramers in his "The Law of dispersion and Bohr's Theory of Spectra.".

Order-nr.: 44350