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FIRST PRINTING of Hertz's first three papers on electromagnetic waves; the foundation for wireless communication. "Experimental proof by Hertz of the Faraday-Maxwell hypothesis that electrical waves can be projected through space was begun in 1887, eight years after Maxwell's death. The two main requirements were (a) a method of producing the waves, supposing that they existed, and (b) a method of detecting them once they were produced. Hertz found the first problem easy to solve. He used the oscillatory discharge of a condenser. Detection was much more difficult, because there then existed no means of detecting currents alternating at the high speed of these waves. Hertz in fact used an effect as old as the discovery of electricity itself- the electric spark. By inducing the waves to produce an electrical spark at a distance, with no apparent connection between the oscillator and the spark gap, and by moving the sparking apparatus so that the length of the spark varied, Hertz proved beyond question the passage of electric waves through space. The experiments were reported periodically from 1887 onward in Annalen der Physik und Chemie" (Printing and the Mind of Man, 377). PMM 377 (for the collected edition). In the important first paper of his study, Hertz describes the ingenious apparatus he had devised to produce, detect, and measure the electromagnetic waves, the key to all his later discoveries. The three papers together represent the groundwork and birth of wireless communication. "This discovery and its demonstration led directly to radio communication, television and radar" (Dibner, Heralds of Science, 71). Also includes articles by many other notable scientists including Planck, Clausius, Bunsen, Boltzmann, Rontgen, and Helmholtz. "Ueber sehr schnelle electrische Schwingungen." with: "Nachtrag zu der Abhandlung über sehr schnelle electrische Schwingungen." with: "Ueber einen Einfluss des ultravioletten Lichtes auf die electrische Entladung." In: Annalen der Physik, Neue Folge, Band XXXI. The whole volume offered. Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1887. Thick octavo, recent period-style three-quarter black morocco over marbled boards. With seven fold-out plates including two illustrating Hertz's work. Closed tear along fold of one plate, otherwise a fine copy, handsomely bound. Seller Inventory # 333
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