The Wave Mechanics of Free Electrons.

First edition, first printing of this collection of ten lectures on the wave nature of the electron by the scientist who demonstrated it experimentally. The talks were originally presented at Cornell University between October and December of 1929, and this copy contains the printed compliments card of Cornell chemistry professor L.M. Dennis, which is also inscribed 'and G.P. Thomson', though not in Thomson's hand. A very attractive copy.

George Paget Thomson (1892-1975) was the son of physicist J.J. Thomson, who in the 1890s had experimentally proved the existence of electrons as charged particles. The younger Thomson became professor of natural philosophy at Aberdeen in 1923, at the same time that wave theories of matter were being explored by de Broglie and others.

Looking to explore the idea, 'Thomson found that he had apparatus in his department that could be easily modified; he used a solid target, first celluloid, later thin films of gold, silver, and platinum, as scatterer, and as beam, the high energy electrons that could be produced in the tube used for experiments on positive rays. The emerging beams were captured on photographic plates as bright centres surrounded by haloes, clearly demonstrating the wave nature of the electrons, and in December 1927 Thomson was able to report his findings to the journal Nature' (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography).

First edition, with tipped-in inscribed card; 8vo; portrait frontispiece and four plates from photos, old tape repair to first leaf of index in the gutter, contents faintly toned in the margins, a little offsetting from the frontispiece; original blue cloth, titles to spine gilt and to upper board in blind, cloth lightly rubbed at the tips, spine slightly rolled, a very good copy; 172pp.