quantitative confirmation of Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetism
LEBEDEV, Pyotr Nikolayevich.
Untersuchungen über die Druckkräfte des Lichtes [The Experimental
Study of the Pressure of Light]
FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS, of the account of Lebedev’s dramatic
experiment proving that light exerts a mechanical pressure on material
bodies; a cornerstone discovery in modern physics that offered the first
quantitative confirmation of Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory.
In the A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, James Clerk
Maxwell “made an important new prediction from his electromagnetic
theory—that electromagnetic waves exert a radiation pressure. Bright
sunlight, he calculated, presses on the earth’s surface with a force of
around 4 pounds per square mile… This was too tiny a value to be
observable in everyday life and its detection posed a challenge to
experimenters. Eventually, in 1900, the Russian physicist Pyotr Lebedev
succeeded, and confirmed James’ prediction. Although small on an earthly
scale, radiation pressure is one of the factors that shape the universe.
Without it there would be no stars like our sun… [The] discovery also
helped to explain a phenomenon that had puzzled astronomers for
centuries—why comets’ tails point away from the sun” (Mahan, The Man
who Changed Everything: The Life of James Clerk Maxwell, 183).
Today, “the study of light pressure on atomic particles is… one of the
most rapidly developing areas of Physics, and it forms the basis for
some of the most important applications of lasers in experimental work”
(Lembessis, “P. N. Lebedev and light radiation pressure”).
First edition, journal issue. Particle Physics, One Hundred Years
of Discoveries: “First experimental evidence for pressure of the
light on the solid bodies.” In: Annalen der Physik, Vol. 6, No. 11, pp.
433-458. Leipzig: Barth, 1901. Octavo, original wrappers. The entire
issue offered. Chipping to rare and fragile original wrappers, small
tape repairs to spine. Rare, particularly in original wrappers. $2500.