traité lumière expliquées causes luy von huygens christiaan (4 Ergebnisse)

Imitation Leather - Hardcover. Zustand: Good Condition. Zustand des Schutzumschlags: No Dustjacket. Reprinted Edition. 6 Blätter, 180 pages with figures; good and clean condition;

Bruxelles, 1967, 8vo (cm. 23,5 x 17,5) in piena pelle editoriale, tasselli con fregi e titoli dorati al dorso, pp. VI, 180 con numerose figure nel testo. Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione di Leide, Pierre Vander, del 1690. In ottimo stato (firma di possesso).

4to, pp. (viii), 124; 1 leaf (divisional title), pp. 125?128, (2) contents, 129?180. General title printed in red and black, printer?s woodcut device on both titles, many diagrams in the text. Contemporary vellum. Old library stamp on title, old typographical Florentine bookplate on front pastedown; bookplate of David L. Dilaura. Paper very slightly browned except for signature R, but a fine copy. FIRST EDITION. One of the great classics in the literature of optics. In this book Huygens first established the wave or pulse theory of light, in opposition to the corpuscular theory advanced by Newton. He propounded what is now known as ?Huygens? principle? which enabled him to explain the reflection and refraction of light on the basis of his undulatory theory. Chapter V contains Huygens? analysis of the double refraction which Erasmus Bartholin had observed in crystals of Iceland spar in 1670. He described the polarisation of light, but was unable to explain it. Huygens completed the Traité in 1678, but chose not to publish it until prompted to do so by the publication of Newton?s Principia in 1687 and by a meeting with Newton in June of 1689. Huygens? work remained unaccepted and in opposition to Newton for over a century until Thomas Young used it to explain optical interference. Modern physicists fuse both theories. The second part of this book, Discours de la Cause de la Pesanteur, contains Huygens? mechanical explanation of gravity. Horblit 54. Dibner 146. Evans, Epochal Achievements, 32. Parkinson, Breakthroughs, 1690. Sparrow, Milestones of Science, 111. DiLaura, Bibliotheca Opticoria, 198. Wolf, History of Science, I, pp. 260?264 (with several reproductions). Norman catalogue 1139. There are two issues of the title-page: one has the author?s initials only (as in the present copy), and the other has his name in full. No priority has been established, but the issue with his initials only is more likely to be the first.

First edition. LARGE PAPER PRESENTATION COPY. First edition, first issue, of Huygens' path-breaking exposition of his wave theory of light; this is an extremely rare large paper presentation copy inscribed by Huygens to Pierre Daniel Huet. Huygens had developed his theory of light in 1676 and 1677, and "completed the Traitéin 1678, but left it unpublished for twelve years, until stimulated by the appearance of Isaac Newton's Principia(1687) and by a visit with Newton in 1689. Huygens conceived of light as an irregular series of shock waves or pulses proceeding with very great but finite velocity through the ether, a medium consisting of uniformly minute, elastic particles pressed closely together. Using the ether as the medium of light wave propagation, he showed that all points of a wave front originate partial waves, and thereby generate further wave motion; light, therefore, consists not of a transference of matter, but rather of a 'tendency to move'" (). Huygens was able to explain reflection and refraction using this theory, of which he became completely convinced in August, 1677, when he found that it explained the double refraction in Iceland spar. But he could not explain the phenomenon of polarization, which he discovered. In the second part of the work, the Discours de la cause de la pesanteur, written in 1669, Huygens expounded his vortex theory of gravity, a purely mechanistic theory that contrasted markedly with Newton's notion of a universal attracting force intrinsic to matter. Indeed, Huygens added to the original treatise of 1669 a review of Newton's theory, rejecting it out of hand because of the impossibility of explaining it by any mechanical principle or law of motion. Huygens' work fell into oblivion during the following century, but his theory of light was confirmed at the beginning of the 19th century by Thomas Young, who used it to explain optical interference, and by Jean-Augustin Fresnel a few years later. Modern quantum physics has reconciled Newton's and Huygens' theories in discerning both corpuscular and wave characteristics in the properties of light. There are two issues of the Traité, one with the author's initials 'C. H. S. Z.' on the title, identified by Norman as the probable first issue, and another with Huygens' name in full on the title. Most of the large paper presentation copies, including ours as well as those of Horblit and Norman and those given by Huygens to Newton and Locke, are in the first state. ABPC/RBH lists three large paper presentation copies of the first issue: Christie's New York, 9 June 1999, $74,000 (Honeyman); Christie's New York, 10 December 1999, $101,500; Sotheby's New York, 11 January 2001, $115,750 (Norman/Freilich). The Horblit copy of the first issue, presented to Locke, was not inscribed by Huygens himself. The Macclesfield large paper copy was of the second issue and was not inscribed. Provenance: Presented by Christiaan Huygens to Pierre Daniel Huet (1630-1721), French churchman and scholar (presentation inscription on title in Huygens' hand, 'Pour Monsieur L'Evisque de Soissons', bookplate of Huet on front pastedown and matching gilt medallions of Huet showing bishop's mitre on both boards). Huygens' handwriting conforms to other examples of his presentation inscriptions and has been confirmed by the curator of the Huygens archive; purchased in 1764 by King Louis XV of France; Charles Fournerat (1780-1867), French politician (inscription on title 'Ex libris Caroli Fournerat' and full page of notes on the book written and signed by Fournerat on recto of front free endpaper); purchased in 1904 by Prosper-René Blondlot (1849-1930), French physicist (invoice of antiquarian book dealer Mayer & Müller, Berlin). "Light, according to Huygens, is an irregular series of shock waves which proceeds with very great, but finite, velocity through the ether. This ether consists of uniformly minute, elastic particles compressed very close together. Light, therefore, is not an actual transference of matter but rather of a 'tendency to move,' a serial displacement similar to a collision which proceeds through a row of balls. Because the particles of the ether lie not in rows but irregularly, a colliding particle will transfer its tendency to move to all those particles which it touches in the direction of its motion. Huygens therefore concluded that new wave-fronts originate around each particle that is touched by light and extend outward from the particle in the form of hemispheres. Single wave-fronts originating at single points are infinitely feeble; but where infinitely many of these fronts overlap, there is light that is, on the envelope of the fronts of the individual particles. This is 'Huygens' principle'. "About 1676 Huygens found the explanation of reflection and refraction by means of this principle; his theory connected the index of refraction with the velocities of light in different media. He became completely convinced of the value of his principle on 6 August 1677, when he found the explanation of the double refraction in Iceland spar by means of his wave theory "Although the completeness of Huygen's analysis is impressive, he was unable to comprehend the effect that we now recognize as polarization, which occurs if the refracted ray is directed through a second crystal of which the orientation is varied. Huygens described this effect in his first studies on the crystal, but he could never explain it. These results are included in the Traité de la lumiére, which was completed in 1678; Huygens read parts of it to the Academy in 1679" (DSB). Huygens' "entire theory is actually devoted to the description of the motion of a pulse through elastic media. Since such a kinematic approach would hardly be conceivable without a finite speed of propagation, Huygens opens the Traité by presenting Roemer's observations establishing a finite speed of light and rejecting Descartes' 'incomprehensible' view that it is infinite. He proceeds to constr.