Scarce. Second edition and a lovely copy from the library of banker and politician Lionel de Rothschild (1882-1942). Both the first and second edition are scarce in commerce.

Discoverer of the electron J.J. Thomson (1856-1940) was 'a theoretical physicist of outstanding ability' whose leadership of the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge 'set the tone for a vigorous and exciting research school with an "atmosphere of a stimulating quality which [colleague T. Lyman had] never seen equalled in any other place"' (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). Thomson's studies of the discharge of electricity through gases was an important precursor to the development of nuclear and quantum physics (his student Ernest Rutherford would go on to split the atom) and it was for this body of work that he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1906. The present volume is an overview of the field 'using only simple mathematics' (foreword).

Second edition; 8vo; diagrams and equations within the text, bookplate of Leon de Rothschild, contents unopened, spotting to contents and edges of text block; original green cloth, titles to spine gilt, very lightly rubbed at the extremities, tiny white mark to the spine, a very good copy; 508pp.