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FIRST AMERICAN PRINTING OF A "REMARKABLE" PAPER THAT WON RAMAN THE 1930 NOBLE PRIZE FOR â??THE RAMAN EFFECT' (Jayasooriya, An Introduction to Laser Spectroscopy, 77). In announcing the prize, the Nobel Prize Committee, noted that the prize was awarded "for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him" (Nobel Prize Committee). It is worthy of note that "in the first seven years after its discovery, the Raman Effect was the subject of more than 700 papers in the scientific literature" (American Chemical Society Portal). Note that this paper appeared in the Indian Journal of Physics one year prior to its publication here. Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was born at Tiruchirappalli in Southern India and his co-author, K. S. Krishna was, like Raman, one of the most distinguished scientists of the 20th century â?? Indian or otherwise. "Raman spectroscopy is the study of inelastic scattering of light. The inelasticity stems from a transfer of energy between the incident radiation field and the material under investigation. The technique provides, amongst other things, important information about the vibrational state of matter" (Jayasooriya, 77). As the Raman effect clarifies, "when light is scattered from any particle whose size is much smaller than the wavelength of light (such as an individual atom or molecule), most photons are â??elastically' scattered. In an elastic scattering process, the energy (and therefore the frequency) of the incident photon is conserved and only its direction is changed. However, a small fraction of the scattered light (approximately 1 in 10 million photons) is scattered through â??inelastic' scattering, in which the energy of the scattered photon is not conserved. These collisions cause a change in the spin or vibration of a molecule, and the resulting energy change is imparted to the photon. This energy change in the photon can either be a decrease or an increase" (History of Physics: The Wenner Collection). "The significance of the Raman Effect was recognized quickly by other scientists. Professor R. W. Wood of Johns Hopkins cabled Nature to report that he had verified Raman's â??brilliant and surprising discovery . in every particular. It appears to me that this very beautiful discovery which resulted from Raman's long and patient study of the phenomenon of light scattering is one of the most convincing proofs of the quantum theory'" (ACS Portal). Raman also "recognized that his discovery was important to the debate in physics over the new quantum theory, because an explanation of the new radiation required the use of photons and their change in energy as they interacted with the atoms in a particular molecule. Raman also knew that there was a more important result, remarking in his 1930 Nobel Prize address that ". the character of the scattered radiations enables us to obtain an insight into the ultimate structure of the scattering substance" (ibid). CONDITION & DETAILS: London: Harrison & Sons. Complete. 4to. (10 x 7 inches; 250 x 175mm). [2], iii, [718], xxii, [2]. 12 Plates, two of which accompany the Raman paper. In text illustrations throughout. Ex-libris, 3 stamps on the title page, one on the pastedown. Handwritten number on a piece of tape across the foot of the spine. Handsomely bound in black cloth over marbled paper boards. Gilt-lettered at the spine; very slight rubbing at the edges of the board. Bright and very clean throughout. Very good condition.
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