Investigations on X-Rays and Beta-Rays by the Cloud Method. Part I. - X-Rays. Part II. - Beta-Rays. (2 Papers).

London, Harrison and Sons, 1923. Royal8vo. Contemp. full cloth, gilt lettering to spine. A small stamp to verso of titlepage and on foot of a few leaves. In: "Proceedings of the Royal Society", Series A, Vol. 104. VI,(6),676,XXXII pp., textillustr. and plates. (Entire volume offered). Wilson's papers: pp. (1-) 24 and 12 plates + pp. 192-212 and 9 plates. First printing of the paper in which Wilson had brought his Cloud Chamber to perfection and showed the photographic tracks of the particles. The Cloud Chamber was the first detector of radioacticity and nuclear transmutations and it played an importent role in experimental particle physics e.g. the discovery of the positron. Wilson received the Nobel prize - together with Arthur Compton - in physics in 1927 for his work on the Cloud Chamber."The 21 cloud chamber pictures of X-rays and beta-rays on coated stock printed recto only were the culmination of many years research by Wilson and at last showed the full potential of this method as a tool for particle physicists. Early in 1911 (Wilson) was the first person to see and photograph the tracks of individual alpha-particles and electrons. The event aroused great interest as the paths of the alpha-particle were just as W.H. Bragg had drawn them in publication some years earlier. But it was not until 1923 (the paperoffered) that the clous chamber was brought to perfection and led to his two, beautifully illustrated classic papers on the track of electron." (The Nobel Foundation).…