DISCOVERY OF NUCLEAR FISSION

HAHN. O. & STRASSMANN, F.

Über den Nachweis und das Verhalten der bei der Bestrahlung des Urans mittels Neutronen entstehenden Erdalkalimetalle (+) Nachweis der Entstehung aktiver Bariumisotope aus Uran und Thorium durch Neutronenbestrahlung (+) Nachweis weiterer aktiver Bruchstücke bei der Uranspaltung (+) Über die Bruchstücke beim Zerplatzen des Urans (+) Zur Frage nach der Existenz der "Trans-Urane" (+) Weitere Spaltprodukte aus der Bestrahlung des Urans mit Neutronen.

Berlin, Springer, 1939. Royal8vo. Bound in later gray half cloth with marbled boards and gilt lettering to spine. In "Naturwissenschaften", Vol. 27, 1939. A very fine and clean copy.

First printing of these seminal papers which constitutes the first announcement of nuclear fission. The formulations in these papers are rather cautious and obviously the authors were not in possession of an explanation for the phenomena which they had observed.

At this point Lise Meitner was no longer at the University of Berlin. Due to here jewish background she was forced to give up here position and she fled to Denmark. However; Hahn continued to communicate with here and reported his and Strassmann's results. Together with here nephew Otto Frisch she was able to give a physical explanation for the phenomena using the 'liquid drop model' of the atomic nuclear which had recently been developed by Niels Bohr. Meitner and Frisch submitted their paper to 'Nature' on the 16th January [3rd paper offered, the issue was published the 11th February 1939].

Hahn and Strassmann most probably came into possession of Meitner and Frisch's theory before its publication since they submitted another paper the 28th January [the 2nd paper offered, the issue was published the 10th February 1939] in which they restated there results in more detail and stated the phenomena of fission with clear certainty.

Order-nr.: 47058