LANGLEY, S.P. - INVENTION OF THE BOLOMETER.

Le Bolomètre. Mémoire lu devant la Societe Mét´rorologique américaine, décembre 1880.

Paris, Imprimerie Gauthier-Villars, 1881. 8vo. Contemporary half calf, raised bands, gilt spine. Light wear along edges. Two small stamps on verso of title-page, and one on verso of the plates. In "Annales de Chimie et de Physique", Cinquiéme Series - Tome XXIV. 576 pp. + 2 folded plates. Langley's paper: pp. 275-284, textillustrations.

First French edition of the paper in which Langley describes the function of his invention of the bolometer for measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation.
A bolometer is a device for measuring the power of incident electromagnetic radiation via the heating of a material with a temperature-dependent electrical resistance.

"Correctly recognizing the need for measurements of the energy of radiation as a function of wavelenght, Langley developed a new instrument "the bolometer" between 1879 and 1881 to do this......The superior measurements by means of the bolometer, the newly discovered extent of the solar spectrum, and the new results for selective absorption of the earth’s atmosphere were significant contributions to the study of the sun and its effects on the earth."(DSB).

Langley was awarded the Nobe l in physics in 1908.

The volume conatins also Gabriel Lippmann (Nobel Prize 1908) "Princiope de la Coservation de L'électricité", pp. 145-178 and Crooke's famous paper (in French) "Sur la viscosité des Gaz trés raréfies", pp. 476-547 with 1 plate.

Order-nr.: 46019