The New Physics and Its Evolution

Lucien Poincare, physicist cousin to the more famous mathematician Henri Poincare, sets out to describe recent advances in physics. An entire chapter on the Luminiferous Ether, and not one mention of Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity, which had been published two years before. Fascinating insight into the last stages of belief in this “ether.” A 1907 review of Poincare's book in The Athenaeum states "M. Poincare has designedly abandoned the mathematical analysis. equations, . which are supposed to make the matters he treats of more intelligible to beginners, and throughout uses the plainest and simplest language possible. The result is that the general reader has brought within his grasp all the discoveries in physics of the last fifty years." This juxtaposition of modern physics as it was percieved at the time and what we accept now should fascinate any student of the history of science. First English edition, octavo: xv, 344pp. Good copy in original publisher's cloth. Bottom half of cloth on spine torn, but pages clean and signatures still well-attached.…